Daily Lesson for Friday 15th of May 2026
Further Thought:

“If we thought and talked more of Jesus, and less of self, we should have far more of His presence.”—Ellen White, Steps to Christ, p. 102

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“If we take counsel with our doubts and fears, or try to solve everything that we cannot see clearly, before we have faith, perplexities will only increase and deepen. But if we come to God, feeling helpless and dependent, as we really are, and in humble, trusting faith make known our wants to Him whose knowledge is infinite, who sees everything in creation, and who governs everything by His will and word, He can and will attend to our cry, and will let light shine into our hearts.”—Steps to Christ, Pages 96, 97.

“The soul may ascend nearer heaven on the wings of praise. God is worshiped with song and music in the courts above, and as we express our gratitude we are approximating to the worship of the heavenly hosts. . . . Let us with reverent joy come before our Creator, with ‘thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.’ Isaiah 51:3.”—Steps to Christ. p. 104.

Discussion Questions

Summary: The Bible shares accounts of individuals who had vibrant, abiding prayer lives and others who didn’t. As we search its pages, we’ll always find someone we can relate to, regardless of the state of our relationship with God. We’ll also find many, many promises that will encourage and guide us in our devotional lives. Spiritual growth should be our goal—our eyes fixed on Jesus, the ultimate Example in all things and the Author and Finisher of our faith.

<–Thursday

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/26b-07-further-thought-practical-prayer/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=26b-07-further-thought-practical-prayer

Introduction: Are you ready to learn more about communicating with God? Last week we studied several Bible passages about prayer, including Jesus’ warning in Matthew 6 about praying in public for the purpose of impressing others. He also warned about using “empty phrases” and many words in prayer on the mistaken assumption that “more is more” when it comes to prayer. Jesus also told us that God knows what we need before we ask. Our Lord moves next in Matthew 6 to discussing the Lord’s Prayer. Come with me on a deep dive into Jesus’ model for prayer!

I. The Lord’s Prayer Introduction

A. Read Matthew 6:9. Before we get into the specific subjects in Jesus’ prayer, we should discuss how we would use His model prayer. Jesus says, “Pray like this,” followed by His model prayer. What do you think He means by “like this?” (Jesus has just said in Matthew 6:8 do not pray like “them,” meaning hypocrites in the synagogues and the “many-words” Gentiles. Neither of those approaches are correct. Jesus now gives the correct approach to prayer.)

1. What else do you think Jesus means by using the word “like,” which in the Greek means “in this fashion?” Do you think we should memorize Jesus’ prayer and repeat it?
2. If we repeat Jesus’ model prayer, what keeps it from becoming the kind of empty repetition Jesus warned against?

a. Would that kind of prayer be very conversational? (No. But it would keep us from getting off the proper topics.)

B. Luke chapter 11 contains a shorter version of the Lord’s Prayer. Read Luke 11:2. Here, Jesus uses a different word than “like.” The ESV and KJV translate it, “say.” The underlying Greek, according to Strong’s, can refer to a “systematic or set discourse.” Does that add more clarity and suggest that we should repeat the prayer word for word?

C. Consider again that Matthew 6:9 says pray “like” to at least mean “unlike” the hypocrites and pagans. In law school we teach students to have a “roadmap” when they are in a competition appellate argument. Is Jesus giving us a roadmap? (The incorrect examples involved praying to impress others. Or praying with the view that God has no idea of your situation. So, “yes,” I think this is at least a roadmap.)

II. The Lord’s Prayer Detail

A. Read again Matthew 6:9. What is the first element of Jesus’ model prayer? (To give glory to God.)

1. Let’s continue our discussion of how to use Jesus’ model. If Jesus was giving us a roadmap, would it be more likely that He would say, “Start out by praising God?”
2. Are the words Jesus uses a rational way to approach the God of the Universe? (Absolutely. When we discussed recitation versus roadmap, I did not mean to suggest that reciting Jesus’ words is wrong. I suspect that at some level Jesus intended us to recite His prayer. I just don’t think mere recitation is the fullest or most mature understanding of what Jesus is teaching us. I like the roadmap approach the best. For example, I think a few more words praising God is a great idea.)

B. Read Matthew 6:10. Compare Luke 11:2. What is common to both these verses? (Jesus tells us to pray for His return.)

1. What is different? (Luke 11:2 does not contain a request that God’s will be done on earth.)

a. Do you have any idea why not? (If you are looking for the return and rule of Jesus, it would make sense for you to want His will to rule your current surroundings. You would want His rule to be the rule of your life.)

C. Read Matthew 6:11-12. Why do you think Jesus encourages us to pray for our own needs before we confess our sins? (Jesus signals that our daily needs matter to Him. The order is striking: He invites us to ask for needs before forgiveness. That does not mean sin is unimportant, but God cares about the whole of our lives. It took me a long time to understand this. For decades, the first subject of my prayer was to ask for forgiveness of my sins. I wanted to start with a clean slate!)

1. Can you explain why God puts a priority on our needs rather than on our transgression of His law?
2. What condition is placed on the forgiveness of our sins? (That we forgive those who sin against us. This is such an important topic that we will return to this.)

D. Read Matthew 6:13 and Luke 11:4. Understanding this request is a challenge. Read James 1:13. James tells us that God does not tempt us. How then should we understand Jesus’ request that we not be led by God into temptation? (The best explanation I can find is that Jesus is praying about times of testing for us. Satan and his helpers are constantly trying to encourage us to fall. This prayer asks God to keep us out of difficult situations. That understanding fits with the rest of the verse in Matthew 6:13 which asks for deliverance from evil.)

E. Read Matthew 6:14-15. Have we left the Lord’s Prayer? (I think so. Jesus is now commenting on one aspect of His prayer, which is our request for forgiveness. Next, let’s get into a more detailed discussion of our obligation to forgive others.)

III. Forgiving Others

A. Read Luke 11:4. How does Jesus approach the forgiveness issue here? (This assumes that we forgive others. We have a forgiving attitude.)

B. Luke 11 does not reinforce the necessity of forgiving others as a prerequisite for our forgiveness that we find in Matthew 6:14-15. Why do you think Jesus emphasizes the need for us to forgive?

1. Matthew 6:12 speaks of forgiveness of “debts,” while Luke 11:4 refers to our “sins” being forgiven. Luke 11:4 continues that we forgive “everyone indebted to us.” Should we be looking at sins and debts as two different things? (Only God can forgive sins. Because we cannot forgive sins, this is teaching us that we need to have a generally forgiving attitude, no matter the nature of what is owed to us.)
2. One of the “laws” of Bible-based emotional intelligence that I teach to my law school students is that we should prize, not detest, criticism because it can teach us important lessons. Is learning to receive criticism without resentment one practical step toward the forgiving spirit Jesus is describing? (Yes. Some of this is difficult, right?)

IV. God’s Answers to Prayer

A. Look once more at Matthew 6:10. It includes the request that God’s will be done. Must our prayers be in accord with God’s will? (Read 1 John 5:14. It tells us that God favorably answers prayers that accord with His will.)

1. If a prayer is not answered, is it because it was not in accord with God’s will? (Not necessarily. A prayer may be delayed, answered differently than we expected, or denied because God has something better in mind.)
2. Would you want an answer to prayer that was not in accord with God’s will?

B. Read Ephesians 3:20-21. When we think about praying consistent with God’s will, we probably think this is a limitation on prayer. What does this text tell us about God’s will? (That His will is to do more than we think to ask of Him. We need to consider the power that God brings to our prayers.)

C. Read Luke 11:9-13. What should we expect from God in answer to our prayers? (He gives us good things. He does not give us bad things when we pray.)

1. What is the best gift that God can give us in answer to our prayers? (The Holy Spirit.)

V. God’s Context

A. Read Matthew 18:23-26. How big a debt is this? (John MacArthur reports that a talent “was the largest denomination of currency,” and “ten thousand” would be understood to be incalculably large. This was a huge sum!)

B. Read Matthew 18:27. How has this debtor’s life changed? Has the life of his family changed?

C. Read Matthew 18:28-30. A hundred denarii is about three months’ pay. What is your reaction to this story?

1. Is our reaction to the unforgiving servant a small picture of how God views us when we refuse to forgive others, even though Jesus gave His life to forgive us?

D. Friend, Jesus has given us a pattern for talking to Him. While I think simple recitation of the model prayer is fine, I don’t think it is our goal. Instead, each point made by Jesus is a subject that we should cover in our conversations with Him. Since God already knows what we need, mere recitation without thought is a missed opportunity to commune with the Great God of Heaven! Why not take advantage of this opportunity, starting right now?

VI. Next week: Having Faith.

Copr. 2026, Bruce N. Cameron, J.D. Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Suggested answers are found within parentheses. If you normally receive this lesson by e-mail, but it is lost one week, you can find it by clicking on this link: http://www.GoBible.org. Pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as you study.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/7-practical-prayer-matthew-6-18-luke-11-ephesians-3-sabbath-school-lesson-teaching-outline/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=7-practical-prayer-matthew-6-18-luke-11-ephesians-3-sabbath-school-lesson-teaching-outline

Daily Lesson for Thursday 14th of May 2026

Why pray when God already knows? Why should we pray when God is all-knowing? Ellen G. White explains it like this: “Not that it is necessary in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him.”—Steps to Christ, p. 93. Indeed, God knows our desires and our needs, and He reads every intent of our hearts. Yet, praying is good for us. It invites us to stop amid the rush in our lives, to pause and acknowledge that God is sovereign over all, and to place ourselves at His feet. Avenues might also be opened for God to act when we invite Him to do so. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know how to pray as we should (Romans 8:26-27).

Why pray when all is well? Self-sufficiency and pride (see Lesson 3) can be one of the greatest barriers to a strong prayer life. If we’d only realize how much we need God, we’d come to Him much more! If perfect angels adore and worship Him, why should we, as sinful humans, think we’re in less need? What do Matthew 5:6 and Isaiah 44:3 say about this truth?

Image © Providence Collection at Goodsalt.com

What is the role of faith in prayer? Read Hebrews 11:6 and ponder these words: “Prayer and faith are closely allied, and they need to be studied together. In the prayer of faith there is a divine science; it is a science that everyone who would make his lifework a success must understand. Christ says, ‘What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.’ Mark 11:24. He makes it plain that our asking must be according to God’s will; we must ask for the things that He has promised, and whatever we receive must be used in doing His will. The conditions met, the promise is unequivocal. . . . We need look for no outward evidence of the blessing.”—Ellen G. White, Education, Pages 257, 258.

With whom should I pray? We should pray most of all privately (just God and you), as prayer and Bible study are the lifeblood of your relationship with God. Set aside time to search your heart as you talk and listen to God (Matthew 6:6). We should also pray with our families or in small groups (Acts 12:12), for where two or three are gathered, God is there (Matthew 18:20). Finally, we should pray with our church communities (James 5:13-16). All three types of prayer are important.

How should I listen? Prayer is more than just talking to God; we also need to allow Him to “prune” us and speak into our lives. The clearest and safest way to do this is to read the Bible and combine prayer and Bible study in your devotional time. Beware of emptying your mind or listening to your own thoughts rather than searching the Bible.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/26b-07-other-questions-about-prayer/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=26b-07-other-questions-about-prayer

What does victory in prayer look like? Join the Hit the Mark panel as they discuss Sabbath School Lesson 7 – Practical Prayer. It’s the fastest hour of the week!

Get your weekly keyword handout Here. Enjoy this week’s keyword song HERE.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/practical-prayer-hit-the-mark-sabbath-school/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=practical-prayer-hit-the-mark-sabbath-school

For years, I had known Anne Frank as a girl who died a death. I knew she wrote a diary and died in a World War II concentration camp at the age of 15. When her life should have begun blossoming, it came to an end. I suppose this is why I only knew her as a girl who died a death.

Then, about 10 years ago, I was a teacher’s aide in a 5th- and 6th-grade Adventist school classroom. One of my responsibilities was reading Anne Frank’s censored diary with the class. Ironically, one of the first observations my class made was that the dates and days of the week in her diary aligned with those of the current year while we were reading.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

While reading her diary with the class, I personally discovered Anne Frank was way more than a girl who died a death. She lived a life! She was fascinated by human nature, as I am. She studied people and had her ideas, dreams, and imagination. While in isolation, she and her friend Peter would stare out the attic window, trying to imagine and grasp what was going on outside. The writer in me ponders that for the last 80 years, the world has been staring back through that same window, trying to grasp and comprehend what was going on in her and Peter’s world. 

While Anne was a girl with vivid ideas and imagination, one of her quotes really hits home with me. Speaking of her writings, she wrote, 

“I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death!” -Anne Frank April 5, 1944. 

When I read this, I thought those are my thoughts about writing for Sabbath School Net! Now before anybody gets any crazy ideas, I don’t intend to actually be alive while I am dead, and I don’t think that is what Anne meant either. I want my writings to be a blessing to people around the world whom I have never met, and I want my writings to keep on living even when I am sleeping in Christ. While many of you comment on my posts, many of you do not. Still, I run into you at camp meetings and various places, and you tell me you enjoy reading what I write. What that tells me is, while I am writing on my little laptop in my room in Florida, I still have a connection with those who live beyond my “little attic window.” I don’t think Anne Frank wrote to become famous. I believe she loved people and wrote to connect with people, even people she would never meet. It is the same with me. 

About one third of Anne Frank’s diary was censored. At first, that made sense to me as it was a personal diary. However, after I found out that she was writing her diary with the purpose of it being published I changed my mind and did not think it should have been censored. Her father felt some of the things she wrote about other people should not be published, and I agree with that. However, some of her thoughts about sex were simply a part of living a life with a God-given curiosity. As a writer, I do not believe those thoughts and ideas should have been censored, knowing she was writing for publication. I am used to it now, but when I first began writing for Sabbath School Net, I was uncomfortable having my thoughts and ideas edited and revised. 

I love that Anne Frank’s words have lived on after her death. A  powerful would-be world dictator used a world war to kill Anne Frank and shut her up. Instead, Anne’s lively writings have been freely circulating the world for over 80 years. As a writer, I see that a 15-year old school girl won the war against Hitler. Her spirit would not be defeated, and her words live on to inspire others she has never even met. Long before the Internet, with just pen and paper in an isolated attic, God protected her writings and the spirit of those writings so that Anne Frank is a household name, and unlike Hitler, a household name that inspires enduring joy, love, and authenticity in us all. 

Today I took time out from my usual Sabbath School writing, to remember another writer, who over 80 years ago was exceptionally more than a 15-year-old school girl who died a death. Anne Frank was a girl who lived a life. Today her writings inspire other writers like me to be useful, joyful, and authentic to people we may never meet in this life. Thank you, dear reader, for taking the time to connect with me today. Thank you for connecting your world with mine. I hope that maybe not this article, but my other articles have not only been usefiul and brought you joy, but have also inspired you to be useful and to bring joy to others, even people you may never meet, just as Anne Frank has inspired me. 

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/anne-frank-did-not-just-die-a-death-she-lived-a-life/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=anne-frank-did-not-just-die-a-death-she-lived-a-life