Prayer

Sermons – Flood Church Malawi

Over the past few months the kids have been learning about prayer. Prayer is talking to the Father, through Jesus Christ the son and by the power of the Holy Spirit. God has taught us how not to pray; We shouldn’t pray where others can see us, we should go to our rooms, close the door and pray to our father who is unseen. God also said we shouldn’t babble. We shouldn’t try to talk to God with lots and lots of words. God knows what you need even before you ask him.

Jesus taught us the Lord’s prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples when they asked Him to teach them how to pray. Jesus does not tell us to pray this prayer word for word every time we pray. He says, ‘pray like this’. This prayer is an example of how we should pray and some of the things we should pray for. The first part of the prayer is “Our Father in heaven”; It means that when we start praying, we address who we are talking to, like “Dear God,” or “Father”. The next part of the prayer says “Hallowed be Your Name”; it means that God’s name is to be kept holy in our own lives.

The other part says “Your Kingdom Come”; it means Jesus will come back again someday, and that time, he will set up his kingdom of heaven. One way we show God how much we love him is by showing others we love them. This is how we do the part in the prayer that is Your will be done on earth as it in heaven.

So far, all the parts of the prayer have been directed to God and about God; What about us? Are we never supposed to pray for ourselves? God cares for us too. It says – Give us today our daily bread. When we ask, God will give us the physical things we need to live. This part of the prayer shows us that it is okay to ask God for the things we need. We need food to live healthy lives. When we ask God to give us the food we need, we are acknowledging and telling God that we know that he is the only one from whom we can get anything we need.

Next the Lord’s Prayer says “and forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors”. We are asking God to forgive our sins. We must confess our sins to God. Then we forgive those people that have sinned against us. This part matters so much to God. If we expect God to forgive us for the wrong things we do that hurt him, it is only right for us to forgive the wrong things that other people do that hurt us.

Now we are almost done with the Lord’s prayer. It says Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Temptation is thinking about doing the wrong thing. Temptation is not a sin. Everyone is tempted sometimes. But when we are tempted, we sometimes decide to do the wrong thing. This is the sin. So that is why we ask God for us to not yield to temptation, because that means we are letting sin into our lives. Lastly, it is important to remember to thank God for everything because he created everything.