Tag Archives: lords prayer

Good Friends – Prayer

Topic:

Prayer

Aim

To help pupils learn that, for Christians, prayer is an essential part of their relationship with God. It’s a result of God’s love for them and their love for God.

Things you’ll need

  • Copies of the friendship sketches (included at end of assembly)
  • A copy of the Lord’s Prayer on large pieces of card

Preparation

Before the assembly ask two pupils to help you with the sketches and rehearse them ready for the assembly.

Bible Base

Matthew 6:5-13

Content

1 Introduce the sketches by saying that you are about to watch the behaviour of two good friends.

Sketch 1

After the children have watched the sketch, ask if they think the two people are good friends. If not, why not? What should good friends be doing? When someone has answered, ‘Talking to each other’, ask your actors to perform the second sketch.

Sketch 2

Ask the children if the people are now acting like good friends. If not, why not? When you get the answer, ‘Listening’, ask your actors to perform the third sketch.

Sketch 3

Say that you think they now look like very good friends. Does everyone agree? Why not? Bring out the fact that they didn’t spend much time with each other. A good friendship needs three things: talking, listening and spending time together.

2 Ask the children what friendships would be like with one or more of these parts missing. Talk about their ideas.

3 Explain that an important Christian belief is that people can be friends with God. Being a friend of God needs the same things as being friends with a person. Christians need to talk to God, listen to God and spend time with God. This is called prayer. Christians pray so that they can become better friends with God.

4 Talk about how Jesus taught his disciples to pray. He taught them a prayer that is still used today by Christians all round the world. It is known as the Lord’s Prayer. Display the Lord’s Prayer. Read it through, explaining words where necessary.

5 Tell the children that when Jesus taught this prayer to his disciples he said that they shouldn’t just pray when people could see them and think they were good. They should pray at home where no-one could see them, so it would be just them talking to God, listening to God and spending time with God. These are the things that make for a good friendship.

Application

A Christian viewpoint

It’s important for Christians today to do as Jesus said and pray regularly. Sometimes Christians use prayers that are written down. Sometimes they pray using their own words, praising God (ie telling him how much they love him), saying sorry for things they’ve done wrong and asking God for help.

For everyone

Jesus knew that a good friendship needs these three things: talking, listening and spending time together. For Christians, that also includes being friends with God. Are we also good friends with other people? Do we do those three things? If our friendships are going to be really good friendships we need to learn to do each of those things too.

Response

If it is appropriate, finish with the Lord’s Prayer. Use the version from the Bible that you have displayed on the OHP. If the children are used to saying a different version, this might help them to think carefully about what they are saying. If they don’t usually pray, then read it out for them to listen to. Finish by asking God to help us be really good friends by talking, listening and spending time with each other.

 

 

Friendship sketches

Sketch 1

Two pupils stand side by side looking a bit bored.  Once or twice they glance at each other and smile.  Apart from that, they ignore each other.  Stop the sketch after about twenty seconds.

Sketch 2

The two pupils say the following things at the same time.  They don’t stop talking or take any notice of each other.  They should both be very enthusiastic.

Pupil A:  Hi there!  How are you?  Did you watch Blue Peter last night?  It was great, wasn’t it?  I liked the bit when they were climbing up the mountain and one of them fell down.  And did you see the kittens they had on the show?  They were so cute – all small, fluffy and orange.  I’d love to have a kitten like that, only my mum won’t let me.  Actually, I need to go because I said I’d help my teacher clean out her cupboard today and wash the paint pots.  Bye!

Pupil B:  Hello.  Do you want to come and play football wtih us?  There’s only seven on our team, so we need someone else.  You won’t have to be in goal.  Ranjit is our goalie.  Oh go on, it’ll be a laugh.  I’ll share my crisps with you if you’ll do it.  We’re being Aston Villa, the others are Man United, so we’re bound to win again.  Did you see the football on telly last night? My dad lets me stay up to watch it with him on Sky.  Well hurry up!  We’re playing over by the bins.  Come on!

Sketch 3

The two pupils rush up to each other and start talking.  They don’t interrupt each otehr and they listen to each other’s answers.

Pupil A: Hello, how are you?

Pupil B: Fine, thanks.

Pupil A: Bye then.

Pupil B: Bye.

They both turn away.

 

Power to teach – The Lord’s Prayer

Bible base:

Luke 11: 1-13

Teaching objectives:

To show children that the Bible says Jesus had power to talk to God and to teach others how to talk to him.

You will need:

  • 3 or 4 scarves (or lengths of rope)
  • A copy of the visual aid (8013 downloads ) , copied onto flipchart paper. The solution is given and you may want to practise beforehand!
  • Red, green and orange paints or marker pens.

Introductory activity:

Show the pupils one of the scarves, tied in a knot. Ask for 2 or 3 volunteers to come to the front and tie another scarf/rope in a knot like the one you have just shown them.

After the volunteers have tied the scarves in a knot, explain that you managed to tie yours without lifting your hands off either end of the scarf. Each of them had to lift one hand off the scarf to tie it. Ask them if they think they could do it without taking their hands off.

Allow them to try for a few minutes, tying themselves in knots while you assure them that it is possible! (By picking the scarf up by either end with arms unfolded it will always be impossible to tie it in a knot without releasing one end.)

When they have given up, untie your scarf and show them how you did it. You should fold your arms in the conventional way, placing one hand over and one hand under the other arm. From this position, pick up one end of the scarf in each hand and simply unfold your arms. A knot will be tied in the scarf.

Allow them to try using this new method.

Ask the children to take their seats again. Although I told you it was possible, you didn’t know how to do it until I showed you the right way. Once I taught you, then you were able to do it for yourself.

Have you ever watched someone doing something and wondered if you could do it too? Maybe you’ve watched a magician performing a trick, or watched your favourite footballer do a really clever move, and you’ve wanted to learn how to do it.

In today’s story, Jesus’ disciples watched him praying. When the Bible talks about praying, it means talking to God. The disciples wanted to know how to talk to God the way Jesus did!

So, when Jesus had finished praying, the disciples asked him if he would teach them how to talk to God. What he taught them is written on this sheet of paper.

Show the pupils the visual aid you have prepared.

It’s not very clear, is it? Perhaps this is how the disciples felt about prayer. They had watched Jesus talking to God but they weren’t sure how they could do it themselves.

Let’s see if we can discover three things that Jesus told them about prayer.

Start to paint or colour the first word on the sheet in red: LOVE

The first thing he told them was that they should love God. The Bible says that he told them to pray:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”

This means that God should be really special to them. He should be more important than anyone else. Jesus was telling them that they should tell God how great he is and how much they love him!

Paint or colour the second word on the sheet in orange: ASK

The second thing he told them was that they should ask God for whatever they needed. The Bible says he told them to say:

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

This doesn’t just mean that they should ask him for bread! Jesus wanted them to ask God for everything that they needed for life. They could go to him for anything and he would hear them.

Paint or colour the third word on the sheet in green: SORRY

The third thing they were to say to God was sorry. Jesus told them to say:

“Forgive us our sins.”

When the Bible uses the word ‘sin’, it means anything we do or say or think that is wrong. The Bible says that these things hurt God. So Jesus told his disciples to say sorry to God for all the wrong things they had done that God didn’t like.

So, these three words sum up the first bit of what Jesus told his disciples about prayer. They should love God first and praise him for how great he is. They should ask him for whatever they needed. And they should say sorry to him for the wrong things they had done that God didn’t like.

But then Jesus went on to explain something else about prayer. Perhaps the colours we have painted these words in will help us to discover what else he told them. Do these colours remind you of anything?

Red, amber and green are the colour of traffic lights. What does each colour mean?

Take the pupils’ suggestions.

Jesus told his disciples that everyone who asked for something from God would get an answer, but it wouldn’t always be an immediate green light for ‘go’ . Sometimes they might have to wait for a while, like waiting at an amber light. At other times they might have to stop and wait for longer, like waiting at a red light. And Jesus said that God would never give people things that were bad for them.

The disciples had watched Jesus pray. They realised that Jesus had the power to talk to God and they hoped he had the power to teach them too. Refer back to the three words. He told them that they should tell God they love him, ask him for their needs and say sorry for the things they had done to hurt him. He would always hear them, even if it seemed like they had to wait for a while.

The Bible says that we can pray to God in the same way that Jesus taught his disciples. It says that when we talk to God today, he still hears us and will still answer us.

Optional prayer time:

Give thanks to God that we can still talk to him today. Ask him to help us talk to him more, to tell him we love him, to ask for his help and to say sorry.