Curriculum

Jesus Prays

Jesus Prays Go to Curriculum multi-week pack

Bible Background

What Kids Will Learn

Jesus often spent time talking with God. He talked about lots of things, including praying for His disciples. Jesus wanted God’s best for His disciples.

Scripture Summary

Jesus spent significant and intentional time with God, the Father. Throughout His life and ministry, Jesus recognized His need for solitude with God. He prayed, He listened, and He used this time to align His heart with God’s. He also spent time praying for His disciples.

During His prayer, Jesus said, “Glory has come to me through them.” He was referring to the disciples; how they chose to live brought glory and revealed Jesus’ character. Jesus loved His disciples and wanted only what was best for them. He prayed for the disciples to experience true unity within their love of God.

In John 17:12, Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus, was referred to as “the one doomed to destruction.”

Jesus often preached about joy—the true joy only attainable through a relationship with Jesus. But the world often hates Christians. Their worldviews and values are quite different from those of the world. Because Christians don’t join in the world’s sin, they can often be seen as judgmental.

Following Christ means living a sanctified life—one that is set apart for sacred purposes. This purified life is not only a ticket into heaven but also a calling to live differently on a daily basis. Rather than Jesus praying for His disciples to be rescued from the world, He prayed for God to use them in the world for His purposes.

Why Is This Important

Like Jesus, we need to pray for others. Whether our friends, family, and neighbors are strong and joyful or struggling, they need us to pray for them.

Teacher Devotion

Scripture

“A man who has friends must be a friend, but there is a friend who stays nearer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24)

I’m embarrassed to admit the number of times I’ve forgotten to pray for my friends. With the best of intentions, I quickly offer to pray for a friend who has an upcoming doctor’s appointment, is facing a tough decision, or is struggling with a family relationship. And then, I forget. I recognize how terribly heartless that sounds. But it’s real.

There are a few things I’ve come to understand, appreciate, and implement in my attempts to pray for my friends.

  • Remember that God views time differently. In fact, God views a thousand years like a day, and vice versa (2 Peter 3:8). When a friend’s job interview was at 2 p.m. and I remember to pray at 3:30 p.m., I still pray right then. Since God has a unique take on time, I wonder if He can “backdate” prayers.
  • Pray immediately. When a friend is sharing about a fractured relationship with a family member, I’ve been prompted to pray with her right then. That way, she’s prayed for, and I don’t need to remember to do so in the future.
  • Set alarms and reminders. I have literally forgotten to eat a meal, so I don’t trust myself to remember to pray for specific needs. When a family member has an upcoming appointment, I jot it down in my planner on that day or set an alarm on my phone.
  • Listen to God’s voice. I’m guessing I’m not the only one who’s had a friend come to mind for apparently no reason. I believe God is bringing this person to my mind and I’m to pray for him or her right then.

Just like Jesus, we can enjoy the honor of lifting our friends and family members in prayer.

Prayer

Dear God, thank You for the joy and honor of lifting my friends in prayer. I want to pray for [choose a friend’s name] right now. Please help [share just a quick prayer of what he or she is facing]. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Get the full Sunday school lesson plan

  • Bible Memory Verse
  • Interactive Bible Experience
  • Animated video with companion questions

Bible Memory Verse

You’ll Need: Bibles, “World Puzzle” handout, Scissors, Paper clips

Get Ready: Before class, print and cut out the puzzle pieces of the “World Puzzle” handouts. Use a paper clip to keep each puzzle set together.

“I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name.” (John 17:11)

Follow these steps:

  • Divide the class into small groups.
  • Invite kids to turn in their Bibles to John 17:11.
  • Give each group a set of puzzle pieces from the “World Puzzle” handout.
  • Challenge groups to put their puzzles together as quickly as possible.
  • Once they have completed their puzzles, read the verse together as a class.
  • Begin to take away puzzle pieces and see if they can still say their Bible verse from memory.

SAY: Today we are going to hear a prayer that Jesus prayed for His disciples as He was leaving the world and returning to His Father. His disciples would still be in the world and would need help living like He taught them.

Interactive Bible Experience

You’ll Need: Bibles, Construction paper, Scissors, Pens or pencils

Lead kids in this experience with these steps:

  • Give each child a piece of construction paper and ask kids to fold it in half.
  • Explain that they need to place the pinky side of their hand along the fold and trace their hand with fingers together like a praying hand.
  • Help kids cut out their praying hand leaving the folded side intact so the praying hands open as a book.
  • Invite kids to turn in their Bibles to John 17:6-19.
  • Explain to kids that they’ll be looking for what, specifically, Jesus prayed for His followers.
  • Together, read the following groupings of verses and determine what Jesus was praying for the disciples. Have kids list or draw each thing inside their praying hands before moving on to the next verses.
    • John 17:11—Protect them. (Draw a shield.)
    • John 17:13—Continue their joy. (Draw a smiley face.)
    • John 17:17—Teach them truth. (Draw a Bible.)
    • John 17:19—Make them holy. (Draw a halo.)
  • On the front of the praying hands, invite kids to write, “Jesus prays for his disciples.”

ASK:

  • Which of Jesus’ requests stands out to you most?
  • Why does that stand out to you?

Snack

Out and In This World Snacks

You’ll Need: Vanilla yogurt, Blue food coloring, Green food coloring, 2 large bowls, Small plastic cups, Spoons

Get Ready: Before class, use blue and green food coloring to dye the vanilla yogurt. Put the blue and green yogurt in separate containers with their own spoons.

Follow these steps to share the “Out and In This World Snack”:

  • Give each child a cup and a spoon.
  • Invite kids to slightly mix the blue and green yogurt in their cups to make it appear to resemble earth.
  • Enjoy.

ASK:

  • What are some hard things we have to deal with in the world?
  • How can we pray for our friends when they face those hard things?

SAY: The reason for Jesus’ prayer we are learning about today is because He was leaving the world. He was praying for His disciples, who were staying in the world.

Game

Maze Guide

You’ll Need: Blindfolds

Get Ready: Before class, use the furniture in the room and other items to make a maze.

Follow these steps to play the game:

  • Pair up kids.
  • Give one child in each pair a blindfold.
  • Explain to the non-blindfolded children that they are to guide their partner safely through the maze using only their voice.
  • After each pair has gone through the maze, change up the maze a bit, and allow partners to switch roles.

ASK:

  • Explain whether it was easy or hard to work through the maze blindfolded.
  • How did your guide help you?
  • How is this like God helping you make good choices?

SAY: Because your partners could see the maze in front of you, they were helpful to guide and instruct you through the maze. In our lesson today, we learned that Jesus prayed for His disciples. He prayed for them because He knew they were staying in the world and would face trouble. Jesus is fully man and fully God so He could pray for those who needed help in life’s journey. We also need help, and we can look to Jesus’ prayer as encouragement for our journey on earth.

Craft

Prayer Box

You’ll Need: Small boxes, Colorful paper, Scissors, Pens, Markers, Stickers, Whiteboard or large sheet of paper

Get Ready: On the white board or large sheet of paper, write out some sample one-sentence prayers kids can pray each day. (A prayer for mom and dad, for other family members, for a friend, for a teacher; a prayer of gratitude; a prayer for help; and so on). Cut at least 10 colorful paper slips for each child.

To make the “Prayer Box,” follow these steps:

  • Give each child a box.
  • Invite kids to decorate their boxes with stickers and markers. Have them write “Prayer Box” on the top.
  • Give each child 10 to 15 slips of colorful paper.
  • Invite kids to write a one-sentence prayer on each slip of paper.
  • When each slip of paper has a prayer, instruct kids to place the papers in their boxes.

SAY: Today you have made a prayer box with short prayers you can pray each day. Take this box home and take out a slip of paper each day and pray that prayer. This box can be a great tool to help you form a habit of talking to God like Jesus did.

Prayer

Airplane Prayers

You’ll Need: Paper, Pencils or pens

  • Give each child a piece of paper.
  • Invite kids to write a one-sentence prayer for their class on the paper.
  • Invite them to fold their paper into a paper airplane.
  • On “Go,” have them throw their paper airplanes.
  • Ask kids to pick up the airplane closest to them and read the prayer.
  • Have them add another one-sentence prayer for their class to the paper.
  • Again, they will fold up the paper into a paper airplane and throw their airplanes.
  • Play several rounds until everyone ends up with a paper airplane with many one-sentence prayers on it.

PRAY: Dear God, thank You for Jesus. Thank You for His example of prayer for those He loved dearly. Help us understand just how much Jesus loves us. Help us love others and pray for them like Jesus does. In Jesus’ name, amen.