Lord’s Prayer Bible Lesson for Children

Purpose of Lesson

Use this lesson on prayer to help the children understand that God is our Father, like our Dads are our fathers. We can talk to God anywhere, at any time, and He likes it when we do. That is the easiest way to pray—just talk to God like you would talk to your parents.

Needed Materials

·         Bible (Matthew 6:9-13; Psalm 103:13; Proverbs 3:11-12; Philippians 3:20; Romans 10:13)

·         Dry erase board or chart paper

·         Dry erase markers or regular markers

·         Special envelope with the message ‘Our Father in Heaven’ inside

Game

Start by playing a game of Mother/Father May I. Select the first Father/Mother, and have the other children stand shoulder to shoulder, across the room from the Mother/Father.

The children then ask the ‘parent’ requests to take a number of silly steps (Mother, may I take 4 hopping steps? Father, may I take 7 tippy-toe steps?), and the ‘parent’ either grants the request, or denies it. Encourage the ‘parent’ to play fairly, giving each child a chance to take steps. Encourage the children to think of the silliest types of steps—funnier steps are more likely to elicit a ‘yes, you may’ response.

The first child to reach the Mother/Father wins that round, and is the new ‘parent.’

Play through a few rounds.

Sample Prayer – the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) the New Living Translation, if you have it.

(Read Matthew 6:9-13)

Lesson Script:

What Jesus said right before teaching the Lord’s Prayer, was ‘pray like this.’ He was giving his disciples an example to follow, not telling them that they could only pray that prayer. That’s important to remember-God wants to hear our own prayers, and He wants to know that we will pray for the important things, like help to be good, forgiveness, and food. 

Because the Lord’s Prayer has all of the things that God wants us to pray for, it’s important that we do sometimes pray this prayer, word for word, so we’re going to practise it, and work on memorizing it over the next few weeks.

(Open the special envelope, and show the children the message)

Each week, we’ll get a special letter from God. This week, our message says ‘Our Father in Heaven.’ When we start a prayer, it’s sort of like starting a letter, isn’t it? If we wrote a letter to our grandmother, we would start it ‘Dear Grandma,’ and if we wrote a letter to a business, we would say 

‘To whom it may concern.’

Sometimes when we pray, we start by saying ‘Dear God,’ or ‘Father.’ ‘Our Father in Heaven’ is exactly who God is, so that’s a great way to start a prayer, which is like a letter to God.

(Write ‘Our Father in Heaven’ on the chart paper or white board, underline ‘Our Father’)

(Read Psalm 103:13 and Proverbs 3:11-12)

When we read that we must fear God, don’t worry—that doesn’t mean that we have to be afraid of Him; it means we respect Him.  And sometimes God disciplines us, just like our parents have to, so we can do better in the future.

Sometimes earthly fathers make mistakes, because people are sinners. Our Heavenly Father, God, is perfectly perfect, and we can always trust Him. Let’s think of some things that really good Dads do for us. Raise your hand if you have any ideas. (Lead the children toward God-like fatherly traits, such as loving, caring for, protecting, etc. Write their answers on the board with arrows connecting to the word Father)

What a great list! God has all of these traits of good fathers, and so many more than we can’t even imagine!

(Read Philippians 3:20; underline ‘in Heaven’)

So, heaven is our home, where we will all go to live with Jesus, someday. The bible tells us a few things about heaven, but not everything.

(Read Matthew 13)

I think that the Bible only tells us a bit about heaven, because there are so many things about heaven that we can’t even imagine, and that can’t be described with words!

Now, we know that God is our Father in heaven, and just like with our earthly parents, we can talk to Him about anything at all, whenever we want.

Remember how important it was in our game of Mother May I, to be polite, and ask nicely if we could move forward. God loves us so much, and we have to show Him our respect, always. It won’t be nice for God if we don’t ask nicely, or if we whine and complain to try and get what we want.    

(Close by repeating the Lord’s Prayer)

Find more Sunday School lesson ideas on our Free Children Sunday School Lesson Helps page.