Leader Guide

Object Lesson

Beach ball or balloon, not inflated
The Lord's Prayer Bookmark with mustard seeds from the Discipleship Challenge
Bible—hard copy

Deflate the beach ball.
Practice the presentation so you can do it smoothly.

Fill Me up! Demonstrate how prayer and God’s Word build faith.

In the Bible story, the disciples were not able to cast an evil spirit out of the boy. Jesus then commanded the spirit to leave, and immediately the boy was set free. Later, when the disciples were alone with Jesus, they asked Him why they were unable to do it. Jesus named two reasons; what were they? 1. Faith 2. Prayer (See Matthew 17:19; Mark 9:28–29.)

Hold up the bookmark with the mustard seeds attached. What did Jesus say about the tiny mustard seeds? If we have faith even the size of a tiny mustard seed, nothing is impossible. We can move mountains.

Sometimes we feel discouraged and weak with not much faith. We feel defeated and deflated like this ball. This is not God’s will for His children. So how do we grow strong again and build our faith? By prayer and God’s Word.

Hold up the Bible. Romans 10:17 (NKJV) tells us that faith comes by hearing the Word of God.

Hold up the deflated beach ball or balloon. Let’s play ball!

Toss it to a child, then retrieve it. This ball [balloon] isn’t very useful, is it!

Blow a small amount of air after each phrase until it is about half full.

Let’s pretend that this ball represents our faith. As we read God’s Word … (Blow)

We discover His love … (Blow)

His will … (Blow)

His power … (Blow)

His promises … (Blow)

And His faithfulness. (Blow)

When we fill our hearts and minds with God’s Word, there is no room for doubt, fear and unbelief! Close the cap on the valve so the ball stays partially inflated.

When halfway inflated, toss the ball up and down. Now this ball is starting to do what it was designed to do.

Prayer is another powerful way to build our faith. So how do we know what to pray?

Read Jude 1:20 (CEV):

Dear friends, keep building on the foundation of your most holy faith, as the Holy Spirit helps you to pray.

We build on our faith foundation through prayer. Who helps us to pray? The Holy Spirit.

Read Romans 8:26–27:

²⁶And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. ²⁷And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.

When we don’t know what or how to pray, God’s Spirit moves our hearts and directs our prayers to be pleasing to Him—as the verse says, in harmony or matching God’s will!

Without allowing any air to escape, begin to blow more air into the ball in between sentences:

Jesus spent time with God throughout each day. And, if we want to pray as Jesus did, we must make time for God, too!

Let’s say we pray in the morning … (Blow)

Again, during the day … (Blow)

At lunch … (Blow)

In the afternoon … (Blow)

At dinner … (Blow)

And again at bedtime. (Blow until the ball is fully inflated, then place cap on the valve.)

Each time we pray our faith grows! Hold up the ball.

Conclusion: To pray as Jesus did, we need to set aside time to be with our heavenly Father each day. We must also listen to His voice speaking in our hearts throughout the day.

Have we filled this ball with bad things, like jealousy and selfishness and pride? No.

We have filled it with good things: prayer, God’s Word, His power, and His Spirit. When we are full of these things, we can be who God designed us to be, and do what God designed us to do—with His power, not our own! Toss the ball to a child.