Scripture: 2 Kings 18-20, 2 Chronicles 29-32
Learning Objectives:
- Students will learn God wants us to pray to him when we have problems.
- Students will learn God can cause miraculous things to happen.
- Students will learn pride can cause problems for us and for others.
Guided Question: How can we remember to pray to God, trust He will answer, and thank Him for His answers to our prayers?
Materials: small containers, slips of paper, pens or markers
Procedure: If it’s a sunny day, take students outside and find a staircase or other large object with a shadow on it. Using chalk, make a mark where the shadow is when class starts. Tell students the story of Hezekiah, focusing especially on when he was ill and asked for a sign from God. Have students notice if the shadow has moved.
Explain to them, shadows always move in the same pattern on the same objects because of the way the earth rotates on its axis (older children may know enough science to understand seasonal variations, but even those will be the same basic pattern.) Ask them if the shadow you were observing started moving in the opposite direction (and probably quickly), would they be surprised.
Explain to them, God does not always send us signs (like He did Hezekiah) to prove He will say “yes”, “no” or “wait” to our prayers. Rather, the sign we receive is the answer itself.
Explain to students the importance of regular prayer. Tell them sometimes we forget we have prayed to God about something, because the answer to our prayer may not be immediate. When we get our answer, we may even forget to thank God for answering our prayer. (If time allows, it is good to review that when God answers “no” or “wait” we have to trust Him – even if we don’t particularly like the answer.)
Give each student a container and small slips of paper. Explain that this will be their prayer “bucket”. When they pray, they can write special things on a slip of paper and place them in the bucket. Every few days, they should look at the slips and thank God for answered prayers. They may even want to write on the slip how and when God answered the prayer. They can save the slips and look at them again when they need a reminder of how important it is to pray to God about everything. Encourage them to write a few slips and pray about them as a class.
NOTE: Younger children can draw pictures instead of writing words.