During the lesson, the information for you to know is written in regular type, and what we suggest speaking or reading aloud to children is in bold. All resources for this lesson, including the Teacher Guide and Student Page, can be downloaded in a ZIP file by clicking on the following link:
In some lessons you will find "resource articles." These are articles written by experts from around the world to help equip you for your work with children and adolescents. Share them with parents or guardians if you consider it appropriate.
Godly people cry out, and the Lord hears them. He saves them from all their troubles.
Psalm 34:17
When we talk to God, sometimes it is good to pray out loud, and sometimes it is best to pray silently. When life becomes difficult, it is comforting to know that Jesus hears us when we cry out to Him. Our heavenly Father does not always save us from our troubles in the way we think He should. However, we can be assured that He hears us and knows what we need. We can believe that our heavenly Father cares and is in control as we cry out and lift our voices to Him.
Think about how you talk to God. What do you tell Him? Do you ask Him to bless others? Do you come to Him with your sins? These are all things that you can come to your heavenly Father with. He wants to talk to you about what is bothering you. He loves you and will listen to whatever you need to tell Him. Before you welcome your children to class today, take a moment to talk to God the Father!
Encourage families to learn to listen to the things their children want to tell them. This will give them a better understanding of their children’s needs and fears.
Teacher Tip: If possible, email or text the Family Connection Card to the families of your students.
Welcome the children as they come in and have them form circles with 5–8 children. Make the teams as even as possible.
Let’s play a game! For this game, the first person will say a sentence while the rest of the team sits quietly and listens. Once the first person has said her sentence, the person to her right will say a sentence while the rest of the team listens. Everyone in the circle will have a turn to say a sentence while the rest of the team listens. When all the children in your circle have had a turn, stand up. I will be walking around the teaching space to listen to your teams. The team that takes turns without anyone speaking out of turn will win!
When it is your turn to speak, you will begin your sentence with “I am,” then tell us about you or how you feel. For example: “I am happy you are here today!” or “I am a teacher.” Ready? Begin!
Walk around and listen to the children sharing their sentences. If you notice a team not participating, help the children get started by giving them another example. Note the first team to stand up. Wait until all the teams are standing before announcing the winning team.
You all did a great job speaking and listening! Let’s see how closely you listened.
Allow 2–3 children to respond. Check with the child who originally said the sentence to see if it was remembered correctly.
Even when a person listens well, it is still possible to miss something that was said. Do you know a person who always listens carefully? God! He never misses what you say to Him!
Ask the children to sit in 1 large circle. Tell the children to sit with the children from their teams.
God is in heaven, which means we cannot see Him. We know He is there, but how can we be sure? Let me ask you a question.
Allow children to respond. They might talk about how the trees, leaves, or grasses move or how paper blows around.
You can see the trees sway and things blowing around, but that is not the wind. The wind makes the trees move, but you cannot see the wind.
In the same way, you do not see God with your eyes. You may, however, see what God does to answer your prayers. For example, you may pray for food. Perhaps the next day you walk by a fruit tree, or maybe God answers your prayer in another way. If you look closely, sometimes God answers prayers in ways that are hard to see. If you pray for food, perhaps your heavenly Father will send a person to help you. The Bible says that God will listen and help you when you talk to Him. Listen to this verse:
Read the verse directly from your Bible.
Then you will call out to me. You will come and pray to me. And I will listen to you.
Jeremiah 29:12
When you talk to God, He listens. He may not always answer the way you want Him to. He may not answer when you think He should. That does not mean God is not listening to you. Sometimes people and other things get in the way of God’s answer. Sometimes we need to listen harder. You should not stop talking to your heavenly Father. He always listens.
Our Bible verse also teaches us something about how to talk to God. Talking to God is called prayer. The Bible verse says that you should call out to Him. This means you can talk to God out loud. You can use your voice to talk to Him, just as you talk to people with your voice. You hear me talk to God out loud with my voice at the end of every class. Let’s call this a voice prayer.
To help you remember you can call out to God with your voice, say this voice prayer with me. “Help me, God! I call out to You!”
Lead the children to say, “Help me, God! I call out to You!” out loud together 3 times.
That was a great voice prayer! Sometimes you might not want anyone to hear what you want to say to God. You want your prayer to be just between you and God. You can think a prayer silently in your head. God made us and knows everything about us, even our thoughts! We all think about things without saying them out loud. You can talk to God without saying it out loud too! Let’s call this a thought prayer.
Think about the voice prayer: “Help me, God! I call out to You!” In a moment, you will think that same prayer again. This time it will be quiet because it will be a thought prayer. Say it silently in your thoughts. To help you focus on your heavenly Father, fold your hands and close your eyes. Now say the prayer, “Help me, God! I call out to You!” silently 3 times. This will be a thought prayer.
Allow a few seconds for the children to say the thinking prayer.
Allow 2–3 children to respond.
The Bible says that you can tell God about all the things that happen to you and the emotions you feel.
Don’t worry about anything. No matter what happens, tell God about everything. Ask and pray, and give thanks to him.Then God’s peace will watch over your hearts and your minds.
Philippians 4:6–7a
You can tell God anything! In our game at the beginning of class, you talked about many different things. When you speak to God, you can talk to Him about everything! The Bible verses say that in your prayers you can:
1. Tell God everything.
2. Ask Him for what you need.
3. Give thanks to God.
These parts of prayer can be pieced together in many ways. We will follow the order found in our Bible verse. Let’s use our hands and fingers to help us remember.
1. Point your thumb toward yourself. This will remind you that you can tell God everything. Think about what is on your mind that you want to share with God. Talk to Him about these things.
2. With your thumb still pointed toward yourself, point your index finger up toward God. This will remind you to ask God to help you with your needs. This is also the part of prayer where you can ask God to forgive your sins. We will talk more about asking for forgiveness another day. Remember, God provides for your needs and the needs of others.
3. With your thumb still pointed toward yourself, point both your index and middle fingers together toward God. This will remind you to thank God for all of the good things in your life. If you do not know what you are thankful for, you can always thank God for listening to you. You can thank Him for being part of your life. Thank Him for the good people in your life. Thank Him for loving you!
Optional: If you are using Student Pages, help the children put the ink on their palms. Tell them to place their hands gently on their papers. Have them wash their hands before using pencils to write. If ink is not available, have the children trace their hands with pencils.
Let’s create a prayer together. Break into the circle groups you were in at the beginning of class. You will answer these questions in your groups.
Allow children 2 minutes to answer each question in their circle groups. Ask 2–3 children to share their answer with the whole class.
Create a prayer using at least 1 of the children’s responses to each question. Start the prayer the way you normally would. Then add at least 1 sentence summarizing what the children want to tell God, ask God, and thank God for.
Now it is your turn to think of a prayer! Start by thinking about what you want to tell God. Think about what has been happening in your life. I want you to answer the following questions in your mind. You do not need to say anything out loud.
Pause for 30 seconds after asking each question.
Now that you have thought about your prayer, I will give you 1 minute to pray. It is okay if you finish your prayer before the time is over. Keep your eyes closed, sit quietly, and be still.
Allow children 1 minute to pray. If you notice that some children are not praying, silently pray for them. Ask God to speak to them and work in their hearts. It is okay if they are not ready to talk to Him. Do not force them to pray, but ask them to sit quietly until others are finished praying.
This next week, remember you can talk to God at any time about anything. God created you. He is your Father. As your good Father, He wants to know what is happening in your life. He will share in your trouble as well as in your joy! He is part of everything. Our memory verse says:
There is one God and Father of all. He is over everything. He is through everything. He is in everything.
Ephesians 4:6
Say each sentence of this verse as a rhythm or sing it as a song. Feel free to change the motions to ones that you prefer. If you do this, please note the changes so you can refer to them for future lessons.
There is 1 God and Father of all—Indicate a number “1” using 1 finger or hand and point toward the sky.
He is over everything. He is through everything—Stretch your arms up above your head and release them out to your sides.
He is in everything—Hold your right hand with your palm down out in front of you. Hold your left hand near your chest with your palm facing the ground. Pass your left hand under your right hand.
End class by saying this blessing, based on Jeremiah 29:12 and Philippians 4:6–7a, over the children.
Blessing: Your heavenly Father listens when you call out to Him. May you remember to thank and praise God every day. May you remember to pray for others and for yourself.
Share the worship song for this quarter with your children if possible.
Life on Life ©2020 David C Cook. Reproducible for home or classroom use only. All other uses require written permission from David C Cook [email protected]. All rights reserved.
