Worship and prayer

In the first half of this year, we have had series of family bible time posts discussing our territorial dominion.

Drawing insights from Josh 1:9, I trust God that we are increasing in strength, courage and fearlessness, abiding with God always.

We will discuss a lot more about the last bit of that verse ‘the Lord your God will be with you’. God is omnipresent, but we have a role to play in securing his divine presence.

Are you a true worshipper? John 4:24

Do you pray effectively? James 5:16

Do your children understand worship?

 Do your children pray effectively?

Worship and prayer can be taught. Yes, your children can learn by observation but there is a place for active teaching too.

Activity 1: Together with your children, come up with a plan of when and how they can learn to worship effectively.

• For example, Ps 134:2- Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.

When you read a psalm during worship or sing a song, encourage your children to do the action-Lift up both hands with excitement or clap or dance or use musical instrument (you can create simple ones like shakers).

• Allow your children to take turns in leading praise and worship sessions at the family altar and encourage them to practice this in their personal devotion too.

• You can create a family play list using Spotify, for instance, and ensure that your children learn the lyrics of the songs. To do this, ask each family member to suggest songs that they wish to include on the list. You can suggest that they list songs that ignites their spirit to worship whenever they hear it.

Occasionally, it may be helpful to do a video recording for a few minutes during a worship or prayer session. In a relaxed family time, play the recording to allow everyone see how well they are engaging with worship or prayer.

Activity 2: Together with your children, come up with a plan of when and how they can learn to pray effectively.

• Firstly, you can ask from them why they are struggling with improving their prayers. It may be because they don’t know what else to pray or they think you are praying too many times. Answer their questions using scriptures e.g 1Thess 5:17; Mark 1:35-39; Daniel 6:10

• Secondly, pay attention to meditation and memorizing bible verses. For instance, you can pick a verse for the week and meditate on it every night. You may print and paste it or create small cards to help everyone to memorize the verse. Then, teach your children how to use these bible verses for effective prayer.

• Thirdly, you can encourage them to a keep a gratitude list so that they don’t run out of what to say during thanksgiving prayers. Also, ask each member of the family to raise prayer requests so that you all know what to pray about using scriptures.

• Fourthly, allow the  children to take turns in leading prayer sessions daily.

Finally, pray that God will baptize everyone of you with the Holy Spirit. With help from the Holy Spirit, we can continue to grow deeper in worship and prayers and abide in God’s presence always.

# True worship

# I will pray