The Lord's Prayer

TEXT: Matthew 6:9-13

OBJECTIVE

The students will be able to recite the Lord's Prayer and explain its different sections. They will know that this was Jesus' example of prayer for us.

BIBLE LESSON OUTLINE

Introduction: Distribute purchased bookmarks, which have the Lord's Prayer written on them, to each of your students. Explain that these words are well-known and loved by many people around the world. Thinking about the meaning of each phrase helps us see that this example of prayer beautifully covers all our spiritual and physical needs.

1. The Lord's Prayer begins with a reverent introduction, demonstrating the necessity of approaching God with respect.
2. The next phrase indicates submission by calling for the Lord's will to be done in earth as it is in Heaven.
3. Next is a request for the supply of our daily needs.
4. The next phrase asks for forgiveness and deliverance from evil.

Climax: The prayer ends with praise and an extolling of God's glory and power.

Conclusion: Jesus told us to use this prayer as a pattern for our own personal prayer.

Response: The students should know the meaning of the Lord's Prayer, and that it is a model for us to follow.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Man was created in the image of God and with a nature that wanted to commune with God. The devil brought about the fall of man, and the communication that God had with mankind was disrupted. Yet God left the way open for man to make contact with Him, and that is through prayer.

There are many examples in the Old Testament of men who communicated with God and had true fellowship with Him. Enoch, who lived in the period before the Flood, is one outstanding example. He walked so pleasing to God that the Lord took him from this world alive—translated him! (Hebrews 11:5). Abraham was called "the friend of God"; David, a man after God's own heart; Elijah was a mighty man of prayer and was also translated, and numerous others could be mentioned that were well-known men of prayer.

God created man to want to worship a higher being, no doubt to make it easy for man to reach Him. Unfortunately, the devil has tried to cause man to worship anything but God and has been remarkably successful. Satan has persuaded man to worship nearly anything imaginable—idols, sun, moon, stars, animals, etc., and even promotes worship of himself. But one of Satan's most insidious tricks is to lead people to think they are worshipping God when they are not right with God. Jesus said that many will come to Him and say "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" and Jesus will say unto them "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

Jesus gave mankind a model prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, but this is just so many words if God is not our Father. In John 4:23 we read that those who worship God must do so in spirit and in truth as that is what the Lord is looking for.

IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES

• Purchase bookmarks on which the Lord's Prayer is written. Give one to each child in your class and talk about what it means. Tell them to take the bookmarks home and keep them. Challenge them to memorize the Prayer.
• Use the hand with parts of the Lord's Prayer written on each section (see Patterns). Give one to each of your students. Show them how easy it can be to learn this prayer.
• Talk to your students about the six sections of the Lord's Prayer: 1. God's Holy name 2. God's will 3. Our needs 4. Forgiveness 5. Deliverance 6. God's supreme authority. Give each student a prayer card (see Patterns). Ask them to fill them in with their own words to show how they might pray to God. Take time for them to share what they write or just let them take their cards home and use them as a reminder of how to pray.

Special Instructions for Unit 30: Give your students the Prayer Power Project for this week: Prayer Walkathon

QUESTIONS

1. What is special about God's name?
2. What are some of His names? Why should they be "hallowed"?
3. Why should we thank God for our food?
4. What does it mean to forgive? Why is this so important?
5. What are sins? Why do we need to ask Jesus to forgive us?
6. Why should we forgive other people when they have done us wrong?
7. What are temptations? Name some.
8. What does amen mean? Why do we always say it when we close our prayers?

PRE-SCHOOL SUGGESTIONS

• Make a picture book with part of the Lord's Prayer on each page. Give the Scripture and discuss each page.
• Use a toy telephone and compare talking with Jesus to praying.
• Show pictures of a boy, girl, mom, and dad. Also have a picture of Jesus praying. Tell how talking to God is as easy as talking to your mom or dad. Bring out how Jesus talked to His Father.

REVIEW IDEAS‍

Write the Lord's Prayer on posterboard, leaving out key words such as: Father, art, hallowed, kingdom, bread, forgive, debtors, temptation. Have the children read the verse out loud, filling in the blank space. When a word is filled in, discuss what Jesus meant by that part of the prayer.

Use six food cans of different sizes (soup, tuna, vegetable, etc.). Cut different colors of construction paper to correct sizes to fit around the cans so the original labels are completely covered. Re-label them to read: God's Holy Name; God's Will; Our Needs; Forgiveness; Deliverance; and God's Supreme Authority. Put the cans into a small grocery sack. To begin your review tell the children that the sack has some food that you need to keep your prayer life healthy. As you remove each can from the sack (they don't need to be in order) read the label. Then talk about which part of the Lord's Prayer it represents and what we should know about each one. Example: God's Holy Name—First verse: The term Father represents authority, love, and caring. We wouldn't want anyone to say bad things about our earthly father. Our father also has a name (Jim, Don, Bob, etc.) and we wouldn't want anyone to use that name in a bad way. We must be even more careful how we use and say any of the names we use for God. End your review by having everyone recite together the Lord's Prayer.