Prayer

Raise your hand if you would like God to help you make wise choices with one or all of the following. Do you want His wisdom for:

• your health and wellbeing?
• your relationship with God?
• your relationship with others?
• your education and future career?

Yes, we all want to make wise decisions in our life; why? Children discuss.

We want to honor God with everything that we say and do. When we ask Jesus to be our Savior, He comes inside us and lives in our hearts. We are to treat ourselves as His Temple. We are made in God’s image, and we are His creation.

Read Psalm 139:14:

Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

Just as you are wonderfully made, so is your neighbor! Just as we love ourselves and want the best for ourselves, God tells us to love our neighbors the same way! As we learned in Lesson 1, God created us equal—He has no favorites!

Read Ephesians 5:29:

No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.

Jesus loves and cares for everyone, and we must too!

Let’s close our eyes. First, the most important thing we can do is to love God completely. Quietly ask God to help you love Him with your total person—every part of you. If there are any areas of your life that you have kept from Him, surrender those areas to God right now and invite Him in. Be honest with yourself, have you tried to walk closer with Him, or have you been tempted to walk a little farther away from Him? Have you loved God with all of your strength? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you today. Pause a few moments to allow children to pray.

Now, we cannot say we love God and hate others. We must love our neighbors as ourselves. Ask God to fill your heart with His love today. Pause a few moments to allow children to pray.

Close in prayer: Dear God, help us love You with our total persons—all of our hearts, souls, strength, and minds—and to love others as ourselves. Help us to always remember that Jesus died for all people, and all people are our neighbors. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.