Enemies of Prayer

Destinee showing off her artistic talents.

Central Truth: There are many obstacles to prayer, and Satan is constantly at work trying to interfere with prayer life.

Memory Verse: "God within us will always conquer the world outside us." (I John 5:4)

This week wraps up a seven-part bible study on prayer with a discussion of how Satan throws many obstacles in our way to keep us from praying. It is important for us to pray daily and to not let life intrude on our time with God.

After our lesson, we played a game called a Bubble Puzzle, which is a game that encourages the children to learn how to look up bible scriptures. One of the next areas of concentration for the children's church is to have the children begin learning the books of the bible and how to look up scriptures.

"Power of Prayer" Bubble Puzzle

Finding God's Way

Central Truth: God's way can be found through prayer and reading the Word.

Memory Verse: "Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths." Psalms 25:4

In this week's lesson, the children learned how to find God's way, which is by reading God's word. I explained to them that the Bible works like a road map. When we are lost, we use a map to find our way, but we can not find our way if we do not use the map. The Bible is our map to God's will, but if we never read it, then we will never know what his will is.

We also did a fun demonstration using Alpha-Bits cereal. I poured some out in the middle of the table on a paper towel and spelled the word "box." I told the children that the cereal is fun because, not only can you make words, but you can eat them as well. The children spelled out words of their own and had a fun time, sharing and laughing at their choices. I told the children that the cereal and the Bible have something in common: the cereal is food for our physical bodies, and the Bible is food for our spiritual selves. We must feed our spiritual side by reading the Word of God. If we do not, then our spiritual selves will starve.

Pray with Faith

Memory Verse: "All things are possible to those who believe." Mark 9:23

Scriptures: Luke 17:7-19

The children continued their study on prayer with today's lesson about praying with faith. When we pray, we must have faith that Jesus loves us and will answer our prayers. A look at the story of the ten lepers found in the Gospel of Luke demonstrates the power of faith-based prayer. The lepers called to Jesus for mercy, and Jesus healed them but only one returned to thank him. Jesus told him that it was his faith that healed him. 

After our lesson this morning, we made Father's Day cards using construction paper, scissors, color pencils, and stencil. 

Persistence in Prayer

Memory verse: "Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you." Luke 11:9

Scriptures: Luke 11:1-13

In today's lesson, the kids learned to continually pray to God for our needs and for the people around us. We read in Luke 11 how Jesus taught his disciples to pray and the story of the neighbor who needed bread at midnight and kept knocking on the door until his neighbor got up and helped him. When we pray to God, we must not give up and keep praying. At the end of the lesson, we read about the comparison Jesus made to parents giving good things to their children much like God gives good blessing to his people.

For our activity, the children learned the importance of keeping a prayer journal. It is important to not leave anyone out when we pray and keeping a journal is a good way to keep up with who you are praying for as well as the answered prayers.

I made 10 prayer journals ahead of time because I knew it would take the children a long time to do it during class. I used construction paper for the outside and stapled four blank sheets on the inside. I gave the children construction paper, stencil, colored pencils, markers, and glue to decorate and personalize their prayer journal. Below is an example of one: