A Sunday School Lesson On Prayer

Here is a Sunday school lesson or Bible study lesson on prayer that I hope will help you know how to pray better.

Prayer is…

Prayer is essentially talking to God but in a deep, holy, and reverential way. It’s coming to God Who as the Father of His children and asking for His blessing, intervention, and sustenance. God, as a benevolent God, gives good things to His children but also “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt 5:45). To know more about prayer, we don’t have to look much further than Jesus Christ Who devoted much time to prayer and often at night in secluded areas. One long day, after Jesus was teaching the crowds, “he dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone” (Matt 14:23). On another occasion, Jesus “went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12) so Jesus saw the necessity of prayer and in many ways, set an example for us.

Teach us to Prayer

Luke 11:1 “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

The disciples must have noticed the frequency and intensity of Jesus’ prayers and so it shouldn’t surprise us that they wanted to ask Jesus how to pray, right after He “was in a certain place praying” and so when the disciples came to Jesus, I noticed they didn’t ask “Lord, teach us how to preach” or “Lord, teach us how to heal” but they came to Him and asked, “Lord, teach us to pray” or how to pray so Jesus said “When you pray, say” (Luke 11:2a), not “When you pray, repeat this.” Matthew’s account of the so-called “Lord’s Prayer” says, “Pray then like this” (Matt 6:9a) so Jesus is giving them a pattern to pray, not a specific prayer to pray. The disciples wanted to know “how” to pray, not “what” to pray.

Why did Jesus pray alone?

Since He was God and was with God in the beginning (John 1), why did Jesus need to pray?

Is it okay to repeat this prayer in church?

Does the so-called “Lord’s Prayer” count as our own private, individual prayer?

Do you have a “mountain place” like a prayer closet to pray in private?

Priorities in Prayer

Matthew 6:9b-13 “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Jesus didn’t just say “our Father” as a poetic expression of God because once a person is born again, they are a child of God and so Jesus is specific and uses the words “our Father” showing that the disciples are part of the family of God so when the disciples are to pray, God is to be referred to as “our Father” followed by hallowing or holding His name as holy and with high regard. Next, Jesus says to pray for God’s will here on earth as it’s already being done in heaven. They are also told to pray for their daily bread which could mean their sustenance but no less than their daily intake of the Word of God. Finally, they are told to ask for forgiveness as they do the same for others and then for God’s help in avoiding temptations (but really, “trials” or “tests” in the Greek) and to deliver them from evil or the Evil One, meaning Satan and His demons. This is not speaking about deliverance from being lost but from his many spiritual attacks.

Why is God called “our Father?”

What do you think the “daily bread” is?

Is asking for forgiveness conditioned or dependent upon our forgiving others?

Ways not to Pray

Matthew 6:6-8 “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Jesus is differentiating the prayers of the Gentiles with those of His disciples. The Gentiles pray to be heard by their “many empty phrases” or words, thinking “that they will be heard for their many words” but that’s not important to God. Rather, Jesus would have us find a room to go into and shut it and pray to God the Father in private and not heard by others. That is best done in secret but God promises He will reward them.

Why is praying in private good?

What is your “room” or “prayer closet?”

Are fewer words better?

Why are the Gentiles prayers “empty phrases?”

Ask, Seek, Knock

Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

James tells us that “you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:2b-3) so our motivation must be right and what we are praying for must be according to God’s will (Matt 6:1) but we must also learn to ask (for the right thing), seek (with some participation), and knock (looking for open doors). It’s like a little child at home looking for their mother. First they ask, “Mom, where are you?”, then they seek her in the house and next, they go to each door and knock. Finally, after the child asked for their mother, after they have sought after her, and only when they started knocking on doors do they finally find her.

Does “seeking” mean doing something?

Does knocking show that we must put forth some effort?

Is asking God for something wrong?

Where would it be wrong when asking for something?

Conclusion

Our church is creating Bible studies similar to these Sunday school lessons and we use them in Sunday school and in Bible studies because the best source of teaching is from the Scriptures themselves and with the aid of the Holy Spirit illuminating the meaning of the verses, we can learn what the Word is saying to us. You can create your own Bible studies using certain subjects or topics or for books of the Bible or chapters of certain books. The possibilities are endless.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.