Everything You Need to Know (about God) You Can Learn in Sunday School Series
When we read the Bible, this is the simplest way for God to speak to us. When we pray to God, this is the simplest way for us to talk to Him. Any relationship needs both sides to participate to make it work. If we want to grow our relationship with any friend we have to communicate with them or the friendship becomes one-sided and falls apart.
Praying may seem simple enough for a lot of believers – but for some children and adults it is very intimidating. When we pray in my Sunday school class it may be in many different ways: we bless the food (when we remember), we take prayer requests and we pray for the class for the upcoming week when we dismiss. Some Sundays I may fail for us to pray as much as I would like because we are trying to get as much of our lesson in as we can in a short amount of time! Our Sunday school classes aren’t that long and we try to accomplish a lot- which makes it’s very similar to our busy lives outside of class. Some days I may get to pray a lot and others not enough. Prayer is probably one of the most important topics I teach the children over and over the most. It is important to build the foundation of a healthy prayer life no matter the age of the believer.
Prayer is the one thing we do every class no matter the topic. It’s one of the core principles along with the story of the Good News (the story of Christ as our savior – His death, burial and resurrection) that is woven into each class. Whatever the lesson one of the foundations of learning about having a relationship with God is learning how to pray.
I think that as adults we over complicate prayer. We hear people say elaborate and complex prayers that use lots of large theological words and we feel we can’t compare in our prayers – which then dampers our prayer life. This is not what God wants for us at all. We may think God wants us to say certain words or to have everything in our lives straight when we pray. In reality, I believe God wants the exact opposite. God wants us to come to Him and pray to Him not just over the big things but especially the small things in life. He wants to be our best friend so we turn to Him and confide in Him always.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Philippians 4:6 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/php.4.6.NIV
I can sometimes be a very nervous/worrisome person and stress about little trivial things. This verse has helped me greatly over the years to know that I should turn to God and pray about anything I am worried about throughout the day. I have noticed I have become less stressed and less chaotic since I started turning these little things I’ve to Him. It has also helped grow my faith in Him tremendously as well.
At the end of the Sunday school lesson today I asked the kids in class to pair up and pray together just as they did in the early church. I quickly realized that they were intimidated and didn’t know where to start. Even children in their purest season (especially school aged) become self conscious about prayer. Like anything else sometimes it needs to be taught in a super simple way with an example given and then they know how to follow. I outlined a simple way to pray for them on the board and then I gave them an example prayer for the class.
This is an easy way to start your prayer life and it uses the letters that spell PRAY as a way to remember. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with life but know I need to talk to God. I use this way myself especially when I don’t know where to start:
P – R – A – Y
- P – Praise- Give God praise for good things in your life. This is a good time to thank Him for any blessings big or small. It’s not a coincidence that this is first so that we can can give thanks before we ask for more. Everyone, including God, wants to be appreciated.
- R – Repent – We all sin and make mistakes. This is a great time to talk to God about things you feel guilty about or things you need help with to be a better person. It’s just as easy as saying “I’m sorry for….”
- A – Ask – This is where we can ask for concerns for others. This is very important at this point in the prayer so we can make our requests known for others before we ask for ourselves. We may run out of time or forget others if we start with ourselves. Love others as we love ourselves.
- Y – Yourself/ Yes – This can stand for two things- this is where you can ask something for yourself (after praying for others first). The Y can also stand for Yes as a reminder that God can do all things and we know He has the power to do anything!
Jesus also gave us an example in the Bible for how to pray. You can use His example or you can start with the P-R-A-Y version which can be found above. Either way, choose one and grow your relationship with God.
The following verses you may be very familiar with and it’s also know as the Lord’s Prayer:
““This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Matthew 6:9-15 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.6.9-15.NIV
I hope this adds a simple way to add to your prayer life. If you don’t have much of a prayer life right now I hope this helps you start. I also really enjoy writing my prayers down in a journal or placing them in a prayer jar. Placing a date on the prayer also is an extra blessing to reflect on all that God has done on my life at a later date!
Have a BLESSED day!
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** I am not theologically trained. This is just my explanation at a very basic level and hoping to make relatable for children and adults to understand to grow their relationship with God. The literature from my Sunday School class is from D6 – Elementary Teaching Guide through D6 Family Ministry – I have made all attempts to not reference their materials directly but they are great lessons and this is what I use in my class. I try to take as much from my own learnings from the Holy Bible in addition to the lessons for this blog. **
Tiffany Shepherd 