We Worship by Praying and Reading God's Word

TEXT: Matthew 6:9-13; Psalm 119:11

OBJECTIVE

The students will understand that we worship God by communicating with Him ... that is both talking and listening. They will be able to describe why it is important to read their Bible and pray every day.

BIBLE LESSON OUTLINE

Introduction: Show picture of two people talking. Ask what they are doing, and what they might be talking about.

Progression of Events:

1. Friends need to communicate to get to know each other, share feelings, strengthen ties, etc.
2. We need to communicate with God for the same reasons.
3. When we pray, we talk to Him.
4. We listen when we study His Word, listen to preachers, Sunday school teachers, and godly parents.

Climax: God wants us to communicate with Him as He did with Adam.

Conclusion: Worshipping God by praying and reading His Word will please Him.

Response: The students will be able to describe why it is important to read their Bible and pray every day.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Praying and listening to God constitute fellowship and there can be no true worship apart from this. This was an important part of man's relationship to God from the very beginning when Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden. The more one fellowships with God, the greater the desire for and feeling of worship.

True worship of God emphasizes praise and thanksgiving. Prayer is more than just petitions and the pouring out of troubles and woes. When praise and rejoicing are included it lifts the spirit and lightens the load.

When we pause in our prayers, wait upon the Lord and become quiet before Him, it is then while we listen that He talks to our heart. We are listening to God if we take to heart what He says to us when we read His Word.

IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES

• Let your class pretend they are going to have a chance to interview King David, the writer of our memory verse. Use a chalkboard to write down their questions. Some of these might be: What were your feelings when you wrote Psalm 119? Did the Psalm come to you all at once, or did you work on it for a long time? Why did you write it? Was the Psalm supposed to convey any certain feeling? Have a visitor come to your class and pretend to be David, and then let your students ask him the questions they have prepared.
• Compose a psalm of worship with your class, trying to involve all your students in the process. Write it on a chalkboard. When it is completed, give each of your students some parchment paper and pens to make and illustrate their own copy of the psalm.
• To encourage the children to read their Bible or memorize a verse, make a bookmark from construction paper cut into an interesting shape. Write the Scripture reference on it. If they bring it back the following Sunday and show you where the Scripture is found or have it memorized they are given a sticker on the bookmark. Or make a chart using a large music note to show a tune of sorts. Write a reference across the top and the child's name in the note part when he finishes the assignment.
• Using a chalkboard, make an informal outline of things a child can say when praying:
  a. Dear Jesus
  b. Thank You
  c. I love You
  d. Help me, my parents, friends, etc.
• Give each child an opportunity to read a favorite Bible verse aloud.
• Write on pieces of paper the following: hands, ears, eyes, mouth, mind. Pass them out to the students. Have them tell how the word they were given can be used in worshipping God in prayer or reading the Bible. For example: we fold our hands when we pray; sometimes we lift them up in praise to God. We use our ears to listen to God through the reading of the Bible by our teachers, etc. We use our eyes to read the Bible. Our mouths help us in praying to God. We use our minds in thinking about God and studying His Word.

QUESTIONS

1. What time of day does God hear our prayers?
2. What is the prayer that Jesus taught the disciples?
3. Why should we pray over our food?
4. How does God talk to us?
5. Has God ever answered a prayer for you?

PRE-SCHOOL SUGGESTIONS

• Look for someone who has a scratch or injury; or ask if there are any sick ones needing prayer, then join hands and bow heads and say a prayer together.
• The In-Class Activity using the words "hands," "ears," etc., could be used for pre-school age children by using pictures. Have the children say how each thing can be used in worshipping God.

REVIEW IDEAS

You will need two large flannelgraph snails or small insects, large flannel background with green section for grass on top, blue or gray section for sidewalk, chalkboard, and chalk. Do a flannelgraph dialogue with the snails as your two characters. One snail is on the sidewalk mumbling to himself. Second snail comes along on the grass. "Hi, Sam! What are you doing?"

"Hi, Ted! How do you spell 'love'?"

"L-O-V-E, but why?"

"I'm writing a letter to God and I can't remember how to spell everything."

Using chalkboard have children help you write a letter to Jesus.

"Sam, you don't have to write a letter to God to talk to Him. You can PRAY! That's what a prayer is—a letter to God!"

"You mean I wrote all day on this hot sidewalk and I could have talked to God like I'm talking to you?"

"Yeah!"

Stage a brief pantomime of a person's trying to reach another person by telephone, but receiving a busy signal, and finally no answer. When we talk to Jesus, we don't need a telephone. We don't see Him but we know He hears us. We love to talk to Jesus because He is our best friend. We can thank Him for the good things He has given us (have the children name some). Then we listen carefully to Jesus. He loves to talk to us, too, about the good things He has for us. He also talks to us through His Word, the Bible.

Use a letter in a sealed envelope to open your object lesson. Discuss how we like to receive mail, how we are curious as to whom our letter is from, how we are eager to read the message. Compare this to God's message to us: the Bible. It is written to us personally just as much as if it read "Dear Bobby" or "Dear Sue," and was signed, "With love, Your Heavenly Father." Bring out that God's letter is important. In it God tells us He loves us and that He sent His Son Jesus to earth because He loves us. He tells us how to be happy, how to obey Him, and how to get to Heaven. Point out that as long as the letter is sealed, we do not know what is in the letter. Just so, we must open God's letter, the Bible, and read it.

SUPPORT MATERIAL

• My Church — coloring book, 8 each of 6 pictures, Christian Board of Publication
• Showing Our Love — Record and songs, 6 songs with resource sheet for each song. Full-color flannelgraph sheets to add interest. Gospel Publishing House
• Prayer is . . . — Furn L. Kelling (book), Broadman Press
• I Can Pray to God — A Happy Day Book, Standard Publishing
• Praying God's Way — Flannelgraph lesson, Child Evangelism Fellowship, Inc.