David’s Prayers

Posted on Aug 1, 2020 in Children's Activities, General | 408

Theme: God knows your heart

Memory Verse: Psalms 17:6 I call to you, God, and you answer me. Listen to me now, and hear what I say.
 

What is prayer? How many of you like to talk? I know quite a few of you are big talkers. Prayer is talking to God. It’s telling Him what’s going on, asking for help, thanking and praising him and seeking forgiveness. Prayer is also about listening to God. Sometimes we talk too much about what we want and fail to listen to what God is telling us. Jeremiah 29:11-13 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Why do we pray? God already knows what is going to happen, He has already gone before us. But He wants us to talk to him because He wants a RELATIONSHIP with us. Think about your best friend. If you never talked with them, hung out with them or even looked at them, are they really your best friend? No. God wants to be our best friend. He wants us to talk with him and tell him our worries, our fears, and even funny things that happen to us. We can talk to God about everything!

Here’s what we know about prayer

  1. God wants us to know Him: He created us for a relationship with him. He wants to be our best friend
  2. 2. God really does answer prayer. God in his sovereignty chooses to use our prayers to accomplish his purposes, his will. So, God has ordained that certain things would happen in response to our prayer. Basically what we’re asking in prayer matters! This is so cool and should cause us to pray without ceasing or stopping!
  3. God loves us through prayer: We get to know God through prayer and He loves us through it. We feel closer to Him and that means we feel His love even greater.
  4. We love God through prayer: When we worship God through prayer, we tell Him we love him. We thank Him for everything He has done. Sometimes it can be hard to come up with the right words. We don’t always know what to say, but the Bible says the Holy Spirit speaks for us!

Philippians 4:6-7 says, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” God wants it all!

But, if you need help finding a way to pray, use your own hand:
Thumb: Praise God
Pointer: Confess your sins- tell him how you’ve messed up and ask forgiveness
Middle: Thank God
Ring: Pray for others
Pinky: Pray for yourself
Palm: Close
 
Our Bible story today is about a man named David. You remember David, don’t you? David was a shepherd boy that God made to become a king. He also slew the giant Goliath with a sling shot. David loved God with all his heart, but he didn’t always do what God wanted him to do. Sometimes, David had heart trouble. Oh, it wasn’t the kind of heart trouble you could hear with a stethoscope, but David knew he had heart trouble. He knew that he had sinned and done wicked and evil things in God’s sight. So, what did David do about his heart problem? He went to the One that he knew could fix it — he went to God. David prayed to God and said, “O God, I have sinned against you and I have done evil things in your sight. Create in me a clean heart, and give me a right spirit.”

Sometimes you and I have heart problems too. We might have some things in our heart that shouldn’t be there. Things like bitterness, anger, jealousy, selfishness, pride, and greed. When we come to church, everything may look great on the outside, but God may look inside and see that our heart isn’t right. When we know that we have a heart problem, we need to do what David did. We need to pray to God and say, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Do you have some things in your heart that shouldn’t be there? I do! Let’s ask God to fix it!

Dear Father, we know that you can see what is in our heart and we know that there are some things there that shouldn’t be there. Create a clean heart in us, O God. Amen.

Activities + Resources