Teaching your Children to Pray like Jesus

May 08, 2018

Prayer is a crucial and foundational aspect of Christianity. It’s is how we talk to and fellowship with our Heavenly Father! In The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus gave us the perfect example of how to pray. This prayer might be overwhelming and difficult for kids to understand, so let’s break it down into bite-sized pieces.

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

We begin by praising our heavenly Father for everything that He is. He is our Creator and our Protector. He is all-powerful and deserves all our praise. By praising Him, we are showing Him that we believe He is in control of all things.

“your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

We tell God that we desire His will more than our own. When we hand over control to God we make way for Him to do wonderful things in our life- things that we would never be able to accomplish on our own.

“Give us today our daily bread.”

We then ask God to give us the things we need for today. That may be food for the day, shelter, or even strength and wisdom to get through a problem that we are facing. When we ask God for just what we need today, we are showing Him that we trust Him completely to provide what we need.

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

We ask God to forgive us for any wrong we have done. As humans we sin every day. Each time we come to God in prayer we should be telling Him what we did wrong and asking for His forgiveness.

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

After we ask for forgiveness and tell Him that we are sorry, we then should ask for His help to resist the temptation to commit the same sins again. We should ask for His help to stay focused on Him so we can shine His light for others to see. Temptation will always be present as long as we are on this Earth, and the enemy will always be trying to pull us away from God. God gives us His help and protection to turn away from evil when we come to Him and ask. (Matthew 26:41)

Finally, to end your prayer, pray for everything in the name of Jesus, as He instructed us to do.

Here are two different places in scripture where Jesus specifically told His followers to pray to the Father, asking for what we need, in the name of Jesus.

“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

John 14:13-14

“In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”

John 16:23-24

By asking for all that we have prayed for in the name of Jesus, we are showing God that we know Jesus is the reason we have a personal relationship with God, and that we are saved from our sins.