TEXT: Matthew 5:1-16; 6:9-13, 25-34
LITTLE boys and girls are skipping along the road. Mothers and fathers are walking with them. Where are they going? They all look so happy. They are going to hear Jesus talk to them out on the hill. There they can sit on the nice, green grass and listen to Him.
On and on the people walk. They meet other boys and girls and big people. Now there are lots and lots of people sitting down waiting for Jesus to talk to them.
“Here is Jesus now!” Everyone is very, very quiet. No one should ever talk in church, even if church meetings are outside.
Jesus started talking. How those people did listen. They listened hard; they were so glad to hear Jesus. We should listen just like that in Sunday school when our teacher tells us what Jesus said to those people that day. It is in the Bible so the teacher knows what He said.
Jesus said, “God will love and help anyone who will try hard to do what God wants him to do.” He would bless them and make them happy.
God will love the people in a special way who are kind and loving to each other and try to help each other. God will bless them. To bless means God sends into the heart a warm, happy feeling that only God can give.
God will bless every little boy and girl and every big man and woman who has a clean heart. God will send a love blessing to the ones who do not cause trouble by saying naughty, mean things to people or about them. God wants His children to be kind and good to one another.
Once when Jesus was praying, His helpers asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, too. Jesus helped His workers to know what praying meant.
Prayer is talking to God like you would to your mother or daddy. It is telling God what you really want, and it is saying Thank You, too. Sometimes when you pray, you ask Him to help you. God likes to have us ask Him for help. Every time you pray you should thank God for all the good things He has given you.
Jesus taught His helpers a prayer to say that day. He did not mean they were to pray just that one prayer. They could pray prayers of their own, but this was a prayer they could all pray together.
That prayer is in the Bible and you can learn to say it and to pray that way. It is the Lord’s Prayer. Are you glad you can know the same prayer Jesus taught those big helpers of His a long, long time ago?
The people who pray do not get so worried about things as other people do. To worry means that you do not know what to do about something and you feel unhappy. You are a little bit afraid and are not trusting God to help you. Jesus told the people not ever to worry. If they loved God, everything would always be all right. They did not need to be afraid.
Jesus looked at the pretty hillside. It had some bright flowers growing on it. “Look at these flowers,” Jesus said. “Who takes care of them way up here on this hill? See how pretty and strong they are?”
It is God who has dressed every little flower in such a pretty color. God loves every one of them. He loves you, too. If God will take care of little flowers growing all alone on a high hill, don’t you think God will take care of you, too? Of course He will.
Jesus also talked about the birds that fly through the air. He said that they do not plant their food, neither do they have barns full of grain to eat, but that He takes care of them, and feeds them. And yet, He loves His boys and girls and big people much more than He loves His flowers or birds. His people are His children and they can love God, too. A flower can look pretty but it cannot love God. It does not have any heart to love with.
Never forget that God loves you and all the people more than anything else in the whole world.
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