Kids and Prayer

This is my month to give the devotions for our Awana Council Time. It’s a twenty minute lesson time for a group of about 40 children, ages 6-12. My last theme was “treasure hunting”…this time around, I’m focusing on prayer.

I started last night out with the basics…who we pray to, what we can pray about, why we pray, that we can pray anywhere, anytime, etc. At the end, I let the kids share praises, and then we took a few prayer requests and had the children volunteer to pray right then and there for their friend’s requests. It was awesome. Kids praying for kids. Our future Christian leaders, right?

Jesus said, “Let the little children come unto me.” We come to Jesus through prayer, so in that line of thought, next week, I’m going to focus on:

• Coming to God with a clean slate. (“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9)
• Coming to Him with confidence. (“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us…” 1 John 5:14)

It’s important that we don’t have sin between us and the Father. So confessing sin keeps the fellowship lines open. Here are some verses to back me up. Key words are in bold.

Isaiah 1:15-16, “And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you, yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil.”

2 Ch. 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Once we confess, and come to God the Father with a clean heart, and right attitude…we can be confident that He’ll hear us and answer. So the next step, with children especially, is helping them understand that you don’t just demand things from God. He’s not your fairy-godmother granting your every wish. We need to bring our requests to him and truly want His will to be done. So my next thought to share would be:

• Coming to Him wanting His will to be done.

Again verses:

James 4:3, “When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your own pleasures.” (wrong motives=my will, not God’s)

Matt. 6:10, “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

1 John 5:14, “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us…”

So being unhindered by sin, praying according to God’s will, and wanting His glory no matter what the results…

I doubt that I’ll go that in depth with the kids or I’ll lose them, as I’ve probably lost you, my reader! But I’ll definitely tell the following, a great illustration of the power of prayer…

Who doesn’t get chills at the Bible story of Elijah taking on the 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel? I can’t wait to set the scene for the Awana kids. Wow.

Chanting up quite a performance to their false fire gods, at the end of many hours the prophets ultimately failed to have their sacrifice lit from on high. Yet Elijah’s water-soaked offering was immediately consumed by fire. Jehovah provided.

I love what Elijah prayed right before God lit his offering, he prayed a prayer for God’s glory to be shown:

1 Kings 18:36-37, “Let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.”

God, let it be known!