Do I Love speaking with God? – Psalm 61

3-5s

Aim: That they would love talking to God always, about everything

Intro:

Have some emoticons – hold up should you pray when you feel…?

[Can then stick on a sheet with ‘Pray always’ in the centre]

Teaching:

Today we’re thinking about prayer. What is prayer? [take answers]

Prayer is talking to God.

It doesn’t have to have fancy words. You don’t need to be in a special building. You could be feeling happy or sad. But God loves it when you talk to Him.

We’re going to look at a song in the Bible written by King David as a prayer to God.

Read Psalm 61:1-4.

David is in trouble. He’s feeling really sad so he prays to God. Even though he’s a long way away he knows that God still hears him. You could be a long way away and God will still hear you.

What can you say to God? David is saying ‘Help’. He’s crying to out to God asking for help. You can do that too. When you need God’s help He loves to hear you asking Him. When might you need God’s help? Shall we ask Him together?

You can also say ‘Thank you’. Can you think of something to say ‘Thank you for’? Let’s say ‘Thank you God’ together.

[Sing – We give thanks to you, O God. Psalm 75:1]

You can also say sorry. Can you think of something to say sorry for? Let’s say sorry to God together.

And we can say ‘Please’. We can pray for other people. Let’s listen to David saying ‘Please’ to God. [Read Psalm 61:5-8]. He’s praying for the King, that God would look after Him. So we can pray that God would look after the important people in our lives.

[Could do sticking activity here about the important people they want to pray for.]

Finally David praises God. That means he tells God how brilliant he thinks he is. Shall we praise God? What’s brilliant about God? [write down and place in balloons. Then blow up and let go as praise balloons.]

Its an amazing thing that we get to talk to the God who made us, and made all the universe. He has so much power to help and loves to listen. We really want you to love talking to God, to tell Him everything, always, wherever you are.

Pray

Activities:

• I can pray for…[stick various people on]
• I can pray when…[stick times and meals and events on]

Songs:

• My God is so Big
• I can talk to Jesus from J is for Jesus
• Read your Bible, Pray every day

5-11s

Aim: That they love to talk to Jesus every where at all times

Intro:
Who would I love to talk to? – series of pictures on screen [Prime Minister, footballer, one direction, queen, Spiderman, Simon Cowell] They have to rank in order of who they’d love to talk to most.

Say: Do you realise that we have someone far bigger and more important than all these people, the God who made us and the whole universe. And we can talk to Him, and He always listens!

Teaching:

Remember we’re looking at Psalms, songs in the Bible. This week we are looking at one that David wrote. Now David loved talking to God, wherever he is he wants to talk to God.

Read v1-4.

So where is David? Far away.

We can talk to God wherever we are – in the playground, in bed at night, in our class. We don’t need to be in church.

And what does he cry to God? ‘Help!’

We can cry to God for help, too. When do you need God’s help? – write up on a big piece of paper using post-its. Let’s pray for those things now [Get them to pray]

What else can we say to God?

Thank you – let’s say thank you for lots of things now. [Could do a big collage of things we’re thankful for or draw it]

Sorry – what do we need to say sorry for? Why don’t we say sorry now?

Others – we can pray for other people too. Let’s listen to David: read Psalm 61:5-8. He’s praying for the King. We should pray for important people in our lives, that they would trust Jesus and love Him, too.

And did you notice that David says that God hears him. He really does, God loves to listen to you talk to Him, wherever you are, however you’re feeling. It can be long, short, whatever.

And then David finishes off by praising God, telling Him how wonderful He is. Let’s do that together. [put praise prayers in balloons].

Pray

Game – Prayer Musical Statues: when music stops they throw up an arrow-prayer

Table time

Practise prayer – they pray for each other: school, home, friends who don’t know Jesus, etc.

Print out prayers for the persecuted church