Colossians 4:2 - Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
Tonight we talked to the kids about prayer. Some people pray to God like He is an ATM machine and they can just ask for whatever they want.
But...
That's not how it works. Paul says we are to "devote" ourselves to prayer. To devote means to be steadfast, to endure, to courageously persist. That doesn't sound like a "quickie" prayer said to withdrawal a few answers to me.
We talked about how some people view prayer using a pizza as well.
• How is prayer like ordering pizza?
• How is prayer different from ordering a pizza?
• Do you think of God as a delivery person? Why or why not?
• Is prayer like the pizza guarantee, “Delivery in 30 minutes or your pizza is free”? Why or why not?
• What’s wrong with calling on God the way we call for pizza?
• How do you think God wants us to view prayer?
We talked about how we sometimes feel when we pray. I threw a ball to one of the kids who threw it back to me. Sometimes, we feel like, when we pray, God hears our prayers and answers us right away. Then I threw the ball to another one of the kids, but not hard enough. Sometimes, we feel like our prayers never reach God. Next, I threw the ball to one of the kids who threw it back, but not directly to me. Sometimes, we feel like God didn't answer our prayers the way we thought He should.
God wants us to pray sincerely, steadfastly, with thanksgiving....not just asking for "stuff" from Him. We watched a clip from Bruce Almighty. It's where Morgan Freeman, who plays God, is trying to teach Bruce how to pray with sincerity...and not just like a robot spouting off unemotional mechanical prayers.
Why is prayer so important?
To illustrate this, we showed the kids a video of a pigeon. Have you ever wondered why a pigeon walks so funny? According to an article in the Detroit Free Press, a pigeon walks the way it does so it can see where it's going. Because it can't adjust its focus as it moves, the pigeon actually has to bring its head to a complete stop between steps in order to refocus. This is the way it walks: head forward, stop; head back, stop. In our Christian walk, we face the same problem as the pigeon. We are so busy and easily distracted by the world and things around us that we have a hard time seeing while we're moving. We also need to stop between steps--to refocus on where we are in relation to the Word and the will of God....in other words, to take the time to pray. Our walk with the Lord needs to have a built in pattern of "stops" which enable us to see more clearly before we continue on.
So how should we pray then?
Next, we talked about the model of the A.C.T.S. prayer. The "A" stands for adoration. We should always start out our prayers praising God for His awesome attributes. He is powerful, sovereign, awesome, mighty, loving, just, etc... The "C" stands for confession. Next, we should confess any sin we have in our lives that could impede our communication with God. The "T" stands for thanksgiving. Now it's time to thank God for all He is, does for us, gives us, etc... The "S" stands for supplication. Lastly, we use this time to pray for others' needs, followed by our own. We went around the room for each of the letters and gave the kids each a chance to give an example so we were sure they understood the A.C.T.S. prayer fully.
We talked to the kids about how it takes three weeks to make or break a habit. I jumped rope for them... not very gracefully I might add. We talked about how, once you get into the groove of doing something, it just skips right along. But once you stop, it takes a while to get the momentum and rhythm going again.
We gave them each a notebook then and asked them to commit to three full weeks of praying through the A.C.T.S. prayers and recording some of their prayer time in the notebooks. They can simply record just one word or person's name for each of the letters in the acronym A.C.T.S. on each day's journal entry. It's their way of maintaining accountability. On the bottom of each page, we encouraged the kids to keep track of answers to their prayers that they saw as well. We also reminded them that God has three answers to our prayers....no, yes, and not right now.
Along with their notebooks, the kids made visuals with beads to help them remember the order of the A.C.T.S. prayer and help them not to forget any part of it while they are praying.
We'll be checking back with the kids in a few weeks to see how their three weeks of praying went. We offered them each a small incentive if they bring their notebooks back filled in.
