‘Prayer Results’ Childrens Lesson on Matthew 6:25-34

BIG IDEA: I CAN PRAY MY WORRIES AWAY

AIM: The ‘Prayer Results’ Childrens Lesson on Matthew 6 is a simple session to help children see that they can give their worries to God in prayer and trust that He is able to help them.

SONG IDEAS:

1. ‘Won’t Worry About a Thing’ by Group VBS

GAME IDEAS:

1. Peg Head. (regular/widescreen) See how many clothes pegs the children can peg to their hair. You will want to choose some children that have lots of hair!
2. Flower Islands. (regular/widescreen) Place lots of large flower prints on the floor. Encourage the children to dance around them and then when the music stops to jump on the paper. Leaders can call out a number and that number of children must jump onto the paper. Any children remaining are eliminated from the game.
3. Watering Can Relay. (regular/widescreen) Players use a watering can to fill a large bucket with water. If indoors, use confetti instead of water to save floors and carpets from spills.

BIG VERSE: Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12.

(regular/widescreen)

Download Bible Cards and Bible Card Posters.

Sergeant: Soldiers! If we want to see results today we need to work. We can’t expect to work together as a team if we never try working together. If we want a good result we need to put good work in. The result that we want to see today is for our worries to go away. Soldiers, if we want to see our worries go away we need to learn to pray. We need to learn to give them to God. Something that also helps our worries go away is to exercise. So we are going to do a quick workout. [Lead the children in a quick workout.] One of the even better things to do with our worries is to rest our minds and to drink water and eat. Let’s take a rest! Soldiers, at ease!

 

SET the Scene:

Read Matthew 6:25-34. To teach the passage you can use this fun action story.

VIDEO LINKS:

1. ‘Don’t Worry’ by SaddleBack Kids
2. ‘Do Not Worry’ by QuizWorks

REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. Why should we not worry?
2. Who is clothed better than Solomon?
3. How does God look after the birds of the air?
4. What can worry add to your life?

 

SPOT the Simple Meaning:

1) I CAN PRAY MY WORRIES AWAY

You will need a dandelion to hold up. You may want to show images of flowers and sounds of birds chirping.

Say: Worry doesn’t add a single hour to our lives. Jesus reminds us that God gives us everything we need. If God provides all of our needs, we don’t need to worry. We can pray our worries away. We can remember that we have a great big God that can look after us. All we need to do is rest in Him.

Matthew 6:25-27 says;

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

God looks after the birds and the flowers. [At this point you could show some images of birds and flowers.] How much more will God look after you? You are His child, His precious possession and He loves you. He is able to care for the whole world. God will look after you.

[show the dandelion video or hold up a dandelion] Dandelions are amazing! They bloom in lovely yellow colors and then they begin to pray. Maybe you have heard of people making wishes and blowing the dandelion seeds. I think there is something better we can do. We can use the dandelion to pray and as we pray we can imagine our worries being prayed away. As we pray we can think about how our worries are given to God. We can pray our worries away when we fully trust God and know that He is good and will do the best for us.

[This section links well to the ‘Seek God’ section that encourages children to pray with dandelions.]

 

2) WHEN WORRIES GET TOO MUCH

Balloon Pop! Game. You will need a balloon for each player. Children compete to blow up a balloon until it pops. Make sure you choose older children that will have fun with this game, or use leaders if you can’t find a child to play.

Say: It’s important to take time out in our day to spend time with God and tell Him our cares and worries. Why? Let’s play this game and see.

[Play the Balloon Pop! game]

When we don’t give our worries to God they can sometimes get too much for us. Maybe we get mad at someone or stressed out and we shout or cry. Too much worry makes us ill; it might make us feel sick or our brain may struggle to keep up. It might feel like we’ve popped! We can’t handle it anymore. It’s okay to sometimes get angry or sad, it’s good to have feelings. Yet it helps us feel better when we give our worries to God. He knows what we need. We can know that He will answer our prayers. All we have to do is tell Him how we feel and what we are worried about. We can trust that He will work things out.

Matthew 6:28-34 says;

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

When we feel worry rising up we can tell God about them. We don’t need to work it out on our own. We can tell our friends, our family and even a doctor, if we feel like things are getting too much. God is good and He will bring us through our worries when they get too much.

 

SEARCH the Scriptures:

‘Why Worry?’ Game. (regular/widescreen) Have children throw balls at a few plastic bottles with the letters for the word WORRY written on them. Each time they knock a bottle down they win a bible verse from this template for their team. The team with the most Bible verses at the end of the game is the winning team.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What was the last thing you worried about?
2. Are you worrying about anything today?
3. How might we help each other with our worry?
4. How can we give our worries to God?

SENSE How You Feel:

Encourage the children to think about the question below whilst they do one of the activities below.

How does it feel to know you don’t need to worry?

1. Make a bird feeder using a pipe cleaner (chenille stick) and some fruit, cereal, popcorn and twine. Simply thread the fruit and cereal through the pipe cleaner until it is full. Then wrap the pipe cleaner around itself to hold it together. Wrap some twine or string around the loop of fruit/cereal and hang it outside. The bird feeder can act as a reminder that God feeds the birds and He will look after you.
2. Mould a flower or bird to remind you that God looks after us.
3. Build a flower garden or a bird sanctuary.
4. Fill in/Color the activity booklets for 5-7s or 8-11s.

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How has God helped you with your worry?
2. How often do you give your worries to God?
3. Are there any worries you want to give Him today?

 

SEEK God:

Balloon Release. Write or draw your worries down and attach them to a helium balloon. Go outside and release the balloon into the air.

Dandelion Prayers. (regular/widescreen) As the children pray over a worry that they have they should blow the dandelion seeds into the wind and watch them float away. Alternatively you could print the Dandelion Prayers PDF and have the children draw or write their prayers on the back.

Prayer Postbox. If you don’t have any of the above resources, make a box that you can ask the children to use as a mailbox to God.