January 16, 2022
Parents, follow the instructions and have a great time with your kids worshipping God and learning from His Word together.
Build-a-Prayer Workshop #3: Yield to God And His Ways
First watch this lesson video:
After the video…
Explore together
Here is an activity to help you talk about the lesson with your kids.
Take a rolled-up piece of paper and pretend it’s a microphone (or use a real or toy microphone if you have one). Say: “Let’s see how well you remember the story of Zacchaeus. As we pass the ‘microphone’ around, answer the questions as if you were Zacchaeus.”
- – What was your job, Zacchaeus? (a tax collector)
- – I’ve heard you’re not a very respected member of the community. Why don’t people like you? (I would charge extra taxes and keep it for myself.)
- – All the people of your town gathered recently in a big crowd because someone special was coming. Who was it? (Jesus)
- – Why couldn’t you see over the crowd? (I’m short.)
- – What did you do so you could see Jesus? (I climbed a tree.)
- – When Jesus saw you in the tree, what did he say to you? (He said, “Zacchaeus, I’d like to come to your house.”)
- – How did you feel when Jesus said he wanted to go to your house? (Surprised, happy, curious, etc.)
- – How did the other people feel when Jesus said he wanted to go to your house? (They were upset.)
- – Did Jesus know what you were like and what you had done? (Yes.)
- – How did Jesus treat you? (With love.)
- – What did you tell Jesus you were going to do? (I wanted to do what was right. I would give the money back to everyone – 4 times the amount I stole.)
- – Why did you want to stop stealing and cheating? (I met Jesus and wanted to be part of God’s Kingdom. Jesus rescued and changed me!)
Then ask:
- – What did we learn about yielding to God today? What does it mean? (It means to say yes to God and let Him be our king.)
- – How did Zacchaeus yield to God? (He was sorry for the wrong he had done and then he did what God wanted. He let God change him.)
Seek God together
Take a few moments for silent reflection and prayer. Explain what you’ll do by saying: Sometimes we want to be “kings and queens” over our own lives instead of following God. Let’s quietly talk with God in our hearts and tell Him we’re sorry. Let’s yield to God and say yes to Him as our King.
After a few moments, lead your family in this prayer:
“Thank You Lord Jesus for never giving up on us. Thank You for loving us and being with us. You are the King and our lives belong to You. We love you, God. And we say ‘yes’ to You. We yield to You. YOU are the king. We want to join You in what You are doing to fix this broken world. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit and help us follow and be like You. In Your Name, King Jesus, we pray. Amen.”
End by saying the Lord’s Prayer together:
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 sins as we forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory now and forever. Amen
Prayer idea for this week:
Use the Lord’s Prayer in your family prayer times this week. When you get to “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done,” pause and take turns adding prayers about what God wants in this world. For example…
- – Pray for friends or loved ones who aren’t part of God’s Kingdom yet.
- – Pray for those who are sick and pray for those who are trying to help like doctors, nurses and others.
- – Pray for those in need and for God’s people to find ways to help.
- – Pray for yourselves as a family to work together for God’s Kingdom.
- – Pray for our church family to be yielding to God too.
Celebrate together
Singing is like putting your prayer to music! Here is a song about yielding to God.