Prayer

What was your first word when you were a baby? Was it Dada? Or Mama? Or supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Okay, probably not that. BUT from an early age, even as babies, we are born with a desire to talk. We want people around us to know what we are thinking or feeling. This is why babies cry, right? Even before a baby can say a single word they want to let others know when they are happy or mad or sad.

Think of toddlers. Maybe you know a toddler and I bet you wouldn’t describe them as very quiet and having very few things to say. No, most children of any age really like to talk and be loud. And even if some of our friends listening struggle with putting sounds and words together, they probably have their own special way of showing those around them what they think and feel.

This is how we are wired as humans! It’s our instinct from day 1 of our life to communicate. So let’s talk about how that relates to prayer.

Praying is simple. It’s just talking to God. Just like you talk to your family members or your friends, it’s just like that when we pray to the Lord. In fact, prayer is sorta just a fancy word for having a conversation with Him. There are no magic words that are needed when we pray. And there is no right or wrong way to pray to Jesus. The only way we can mess up praying is by NOT doing it at all. Think of it this way: Who’s taking care of you today? No matter who is it, think of who is in charge of making sure you have food and clothes today? Okay. Now, what if you didn’t talk to them at all. All day. OR what if you ONLY talked to them for a minute or two before a meal or before bedtime. It wouldn’t make sense would it?! That would be silly and kinda just weird to be with someone all day but only talk to them for a brief moment at certain times.

So, why do we pray this way? Some people think we are only supposed to pray before a meal or maybe right before we go to bed. While those are great times to pray, so are the other 1,440 minutes that are in your day! Yep, there are 1,440 minutes in a day (assuming you stay up all night, which I would NOT recommend!) and so that means that there are plenty of opportunities to talk to God during your day.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to “pray continually.” That’s our verse! Just 2 words! Let’s hear it again, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “pray continually.” You might be wondering what continually means. It means… always happening, constant. In other words, pray without ever stopping.

Wait. Does that mean that we are supposed to sit around and pray all. Day. Long?! What about my toys I love? Or games with friends? Or crafting? or sports?  No, no, no. Go back to thinking of prayer as talking to God. Do you talk while you are playing with your favorite things? Sure you do! And so we can also pray while we are doing other things!

We can pray out loud while we are doing our favorite activity or we can just say it in our head, silently. We can say long prayers as we think of different things or we can say short quick prayers. We can thank Him for things AND we can ask Him for things. Remember, it’s a just conversation between you and God! And 1 Thessalonians 5:17 is telling us to never stop having that conversation.

Here are some questions to talk about. You can pause after each question and discuss or just generally review together when it’s over. Oh, and this is important! There’s no wrong answer to these! The point is to get conversation flowing. So don’t overthink it!

1.     What do you think prayer is?

2.     What does the Bible tell us about prayer? What did the verse say that we talked about?

3.     Why does God want us to pray to Him?

One last time before we sign off, let’s practice the shortest verse we’ve ever had. I bet you can remember this one! Repeat after me. 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “pray continually.”
*Music: Forest by Vlad Gluschenko