Lesson Review

Last week, we learnt that Hannah prayed for a baby for many years and God answered her prayers. Hannah had been teased by Peninah and was so sad but she never gave up praying; telling God how she felt and asking God for a baby. We learnt that we should also tell God about our pain and believe that He cares for us even when the answer we want takes a long time.

Introduction

Give one child a Bible to hold as everyone sings “Read your Bible, pray every day” over and over. Tell the children that any time you shout “stop”, the child holding the Bible should stand up, clap their hands three times as they shout, “PRAY EVERY DAY”. Resume with singing the song and passing the Bible when they’re done and repeat this a couple of times. On the last go, have every child shout the phrase as they clap their hands.

Bible Story

• Prayer is talking to God. When you love someone – your mum, dad, friend, cousin, grandparents, you want to talk to them. You love talking to them. Prayer is important because we love God and He loves us and wants to talk to Him. The Bible teaches us how to talk to God and today, we are going to learn from 8 simple verses in the Bible.

• Today we’re learning about how God would like us to pray. Jesus’ closest friends, the disciples wanted to know how to pray and Jesus taught them. Jesus told them that we should keep our prayers simple. God listens to us, and to Him, it doesn’t matter if our prayers are long or short and if you just don’t have the right words God knows what we mean (and we don’t need to use big, hard words)!

• Jesus also mentioned that we shouldn’t ‘show off’ when we pray. He said this to the people that used to stand on the street corners praying loudly so that everyone would see what ‘good Christians’ they were. God doesn’t want us to pray so people can see us or hear how well we can pray. He wants us to pray in a quiet place with our own words about our needs, thanking and praising Him, and telling Him what we’re sorry for.

• After saying these few things, this is how Jesus told us we should pray [Read the prayer to the children]:

  Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.
  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

  Give us this day our daily bread.

  And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

  Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is thy kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

• Anyone can read the Lord’s prayer, but it may be a little tough to understand when you first hear it. It’s important to think about what you’re saying when you pray this prayer.

• From this amazing prayer that we Jesus taught, we learn that God is in heaven and He is our Heavenly Father. As our Father, God loves us and wants to know everything about us and how we’re doing so we should talk to Him. We also learn that God is holy and we should live good lives that make Him happy by obeying His word. We learn that we should pray everyday and ask Him for our daily bread – the things we need, ask Him to forgive us for our sins – our mistakes, and also ask Him to help us to do the right thing. This prayer shows us that we can depend on God because He is a great, big God.
• Sing: Read your Bible, pray everyday