Lesson 3
How to Pray
An Attitude of Trust
Unit Game
Play the Books of the Bible Game you have chosen for today’s lesson as students arrive and settle in. This should only take up about five minutes of your time. The point is to repeat a handful of games throughout the year so that the kids memorize the books of the Bible, so this really shouldn’t take a long time. If the students are new to it, feel free to help them find the answer so the game keeps moving.
Prayer
We are always going to begin our lessons with prayer, because we want the Holy Spirit to be the One who is leading our lessons.
Pray, thanking and praising God for everything He does for us, and that He loves us and wants to teach us more about Him. Thank God for His Word. Invite the Holy Spirit to lead the lesson and open up hearts and minds to be able to understand the truth of His Word.
Lesson
Review
What have we been learning about? Prayer.
The Lord is able to look at the attitudes and motives of our hearts because He is omniscient. What does omniscient mean? He knows everything!
Does anyone remember what an attitude is? Allow answers.
An attitude is how we feel when we are doing something. We learned that we can even have a bad attitude while we are doing something that is good.
Does anyone remember what a motive is? Allow answers.
A motive is the reason why we do something. God cares about our motives! He cares about our attitudes and our motives just as much as He cares about what we do. What should our attitudes and motives be when we pray? We should be praying humbly and honestly, not showing off in front of others.
Meaningless Repetition
We have been learning a little bit about the Lord’s Prayer. Did you know that sometimes people memorize the Lord’s Prayer and say it over and over, thinking that since Jesus said this prayer it must be extra special or magical, and God will definitely answer them if they say it enough? But that’s not why Jesus gave it to His followers. Do you remember why Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer? Allow answers.
Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer so we would have an example to follow—like a map or an outline of how He expects us to pray. But He also gave us instructions on how and how not to pray. We read a little bit of those instructions last time. Let’s keep reading the rest of them today.
Matthew 6:7-8. Read, or assign readers..
In verse 7, what does Jesus say we shouldn’t do when we pray? Repeat things over and over.
Jesus called that meaningless! But yet, that’s what many Christians have ended up doing with the Lord’s Prayer. I think maybe Jesus knew that someday people would try to do that, so He warned us not to do that. That’s not why He gave us this prayer.
Who uses meaningless repetition, according to Jesus? The Gentiles.
Gentile is a word for anyone who is not a Jew. Most of us are Gentiles. In the time of Jesus, before the gospel (the good news about Jesus), most Gentiles were unbelievers and people who worshiped false gods. That’s who Jesus is talking about: unbelievers.
A lot of false religions actually require people to chant things over and over. But we aren’t supposed to be like unbelievers when we pray!
Why did Jesus say the Gentiles (unbelievers) would repeat their words over and over when they prayed? It’s at the end of verse 7. They thought they would be heard by God because of their many words.
We also shouldn’t pray meaningless words over and over thinking that our hard work will get us noticed by God. The Bible assures us that when we come to God sincerely (in truth) and humbly (not thinking we know everything), then God wants to hear our prayer and He is pleased by it and He will answer our prayer—even if the answer is “No,” or, “Wait,” or, “Yes!” We don’t need to say it over and over! We can trust Him!
When we think that saying it over and over will get our prayers answered, are we really trusting that God is all-powerful and that He wants to answer us? Or are we trusting in our own efforts? What do you think? Allow answers.
The heart behind it isn’t really trust when we pray like that. In verse 8, Jesus says to not be like the Gentiles, “for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” We aren’t supposed to be afraid that God won’t answer us, like the Gentiles (who are unbelievers, or worshipers of false gods), but instead we should be trusting that God knows us (He is omniscient) and He knows what we need before we even ask.God wants us to relax and remember He is a good Father who will provide for us and protect us. He wants us to have a heart attitude of trust when we pray.
Persistence
Jesus gave us an example of how to pray with an attitude of trust in Matthew 7:7-11. Let’s read it together. Read, or assign a reader.
What three things does Jesus say we need to do? Ask, seek and knock.
He said that if we ask, seek, and knock we will be given what we need, find what we are seeking, and the door will be opened to us. In the original language it says something more like “keep asking,” “keep seeking,” and “keep knocking.” That sounds like we need to be persistent! Persistence is when you don’t give up right away and keep trying.
If you have younger students you can skip to the next section.
[Older Students: Persistence is different than the “meaningless reputation” that Jesus warned us not to do. Meaningless repetition is about earning an answer from God. It’s like working at it. Persistence is just not giving up, and trusting that God will answer. It’s actually a big part of trusting God when we pray. We ask, seek, and knock, but when we don’t see an answer right away we don’t give up. Sometimes when we don’t get an answer to our prayer right away it’s easy to say, “I guess God doesn’t want to answer my prayer,” or, “He must not really care about me or my problem.” But is that the right attitude to have? Is it an attitude of trust? Allow answers.
When we give up right away it’s actually like telling God we don’t think He cares about our prayers. It’s not an attitude of trust. If you ask your parents for something that you really need, but they don’t answer you right away, you probably ask again because you know they love you. If we know that someone loves us, then we will ask them again. If we don’t think they care, then we probably will give up. So of all people that we ask something from, when we ask God for things we should not give up, because we know He loves and cares about us more than anyone else on earth!
Jesus reassured us in the next few verses that God will give us what we ask Him for and He does care about our needs. He said, in verse 8, “For everyone who asks (or keeps on asking) receives, and he who seeks (or keeps on seeking) finds, and to him who knocks (and keeps on knocking) the door will be opened.”]
Younger students continue from here:
Who does Jesus compare our Heavenly Father to in verses 9-11? Allow answers. A father giving good gifts to his children.
Jesus says that even earthly fathers who are sinful usually want to give their children what they ask for. You could even say that most of the time even criminals love their own children and give them good things, or at least try to, right? Jesus is saying “how much more” will our Father, who is holy and perfect and good and loving, give us what we need? The answer is a lot more!
Have you ever asked for something for your birthday or for Christmas and your parents, or maybe another relative or friend, gave you something even better than what you asked for? That has happened to me! I’ve asked for something I wanted, but I didn’t ask for the best version of that thing, and someone gave me an even better version of what I asked for! Well, God is like that! Since He knows us better than anyone else—even our family and parents—He is able to give us things we didn’t even know we wanted or needed.
Do you remember what word do we use to describe how God knows everything? Omniscient.
Jesus also told a few parables about prayer. Let’s look at a couple of them.
Luke 11:5-9. Read, or assign a reader.
Wow, this friend doesn’t sound like the greatest friend does he? He won’t even get out of bed to give him a few loaves of bread! What does Jesus say in verse 8 is the reason the friend will give him what he asked for? Let’s read it again. Have someone read the verse again. Allow answers.
Jesus said that even if the man won’t give him the bread because he is a friend, he will give him what he asks for if he is just persistent. There is that word again! What does it mean? Allow answers.
It means not giving up right away! Keep trying! If someone is banging on your door in the middle of the night and won’t stop, wouldn’t you be annoyed? What would you do? Allow answers.
I know that I would want the person to go away as soon as possible so I could go back to sleep! I think I’d give him whatever he wanted! That seems to be Jesus’ entire point when He says to ask, seek, and knock—and keep doing it until you get what you ask for. If it works with a bad friend, it will definitely work with God who is the best friend we could ever ask for!
Let’s look up one more parable about prayer. Luke 18:1-8. Read, or assign a reader.
What does the unrighteous judge say to himself in verses 4-5? Allow answers.
I think Jesus is making the same point again! This widow is being persistent! She won’t give up! She is bothering the judge so he is sick of seeing her and hearing her ask for justice.tJust to get rid of her, he gives her what she asks for.
Jesus is telling us how to pray. He is making a contrast between our loving, holy, Heavenly Father and a bad friend, a bad judge, and a sinful, earthly father. He is saying, “Even these people—who aren’t really that nice, or even good friends, or just judges, and who are sinful—still give people what they ask for if they are persistent!”
Jesus is reassuring us that we should pray and not give up, because God is a lot more faithful than the lazy friend who wouldn’t get out of bed to give the man the bread. And He is also a righteous judge—not an unrighteous one like the widow had to pester to get justice from! Jesus is saying we can trust that God wants to answer us, and He cares much more about us than anyone else on earth—even our earthly fathers. I think we should pray and not give up, since Jesus said so, don’t you?
Great job listening to the lesson today!
Review Game
Play the Review Game you have chosen for today’s lesson using the questions below.
Review Questions
- What did Jesus call it when people prayed something over and over, thinking that the more words they prayed the more they would be heard by God? Meaningless. Meaningless repetition.
- What prayer do some Christians pray over and over thinking it will magically help their prayer be answered? The Lord’s Prayer.
- Who did Jesus say used “meaningless repetition” when they prayed? The Gentiles. Unbelievers.
- Jesus said our Heavenly Father ______ what we need before we even ask. Knows.
- When we think that saying the same words over and over will get our prayers answered, are we really trusting God? No.
- When we do that are we trusting in God or trusting in our own effort (work)? Our own effort.
- Does God want to answer our prayers? Yes.
- What three things does Jesus tell us to do when we pray? Ask, seek, and knock.
- Are we supposed to just ask, seek, and knock one time? No.
- What are we supposed to do? Keep asking, seeking and knocking.
- When we keep asking, seeking, and knocking what will God do? He will give us what we ask for.
- What is persistence? Not giving up right away. Keep trying.
- What do most earthly fathers want to give their children when they ask for something? They want to give them the good things they asked for.
- If our earthly fathers who are sinful give us good gifts, what should we expect from our perfect Heavenly Father? Good gifts. He will give us what we ask for.
- God is able to give us things we didn’t even know we wanted or needed because He knows us better than anyone else—even better than we know ourselves. He is ____________. Omniscient.
- Why did the lazy friend finally get up and give the man what he asked for? Because he was persistent.
- Why did the unrighteous judge finally give the widow what she asked for? She wouldn’t stop bothering him. What word describes the widow? She was persistent.
- What does Jesus want us to be when we pray? Persistent.
- What should our heart attitude be when we pray? Trusting in God that He will give us what we need.
- Jesus wants us to pray and ______________. Not give up.
Older Students:
21. What is the difference between meaningless repetition and persistence? Meaningless repetition is not trusting God, but is working to earn an answer. Persistence is just not giving up, and trusting God will answer.
22. When we give up right away when we ask God for something, what are we really saying in our hearts? We don’t trust Him. We don’t feel He cares enough to answer us.
23. When you know that someone loves you, do you trust them to eventually give you what you ask for? Yes.
24. What if it takes a while, do you think you’d ask them again, since you know they really love you? Yes.
25. What point is Jesus making with all of His stories about prayer? We need to be persistent! Don’t give up!
26. Why do you think Jesus uses such ungodly, sinful examples of people who give people what they ask for? To show that even with ungodly, sinful people, persistence pays off. God is much more loving than anyone else so He will definitely answer us.
Memory Verses
Choose a memory verse that fits your class’ abilities. Or choose more than one and award prizes accordingly.
Non-Readers/Beginner Readers:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 NIV
“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.” Psalm 139:1-2 NIV
Older Readers:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8 NIV
“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to blot out their name from the earth.” Psalm 34:15-16 NIV
“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.” Psalm 139:1-4 NIV
Play the Memory Verse Game you have chosen for today’s lesson or play the memory verse song to review the memory verse.