Jesus Taught Us How to Pray Grade 1: Unit 4

Lesson 1: What Is Prayer?

God Thirsts for Us to Thirst for Him Prayer is talking with God and having a relationship with Him. Did you know that God thirsts? Yes, God thirsts! He thirsts for us. Not only does God thirst for us, but we also have a thirst that cannot be quenched by milk or orange juice. Our thirst can be quenched only by God! Think about that for a second: God thirsts for us. And we thirst for God. Neither thirst can be quenched by water or soda. Our thirsts can be quenched only by each other! Another way to think about prayer is that God thirsts for us to thirst for Him. God wants us to thirst for Him — because when we do, we will come to Him to have our thirst quenched!

The Samaritan Woman at the Well This painting illustrates the gift of prayer as an encounter with God’s thirst for our thirst for Him. This moment captured by the painting is from a story in the Gospel of John called the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus and the woman met at what was called Jacob’s Well.

The Samaritan Woman at the Well At that time, it was a woman’s job to get from the town’s well the water her family would need for the day. Therefore, men would sometimes come to the wells to find a woman to marry. Marriage is a kind of covenant. A man and woman come together in a permanent family relationship — just like the permanent family relationship God invites us to have with Him! Read John 4:6-15

Only Jesus Can Quench Our Thirst People and things will not make us ultimately happy. Sometimes we think people will make us ultimately happy. However, people will not make us truly happy because they will eventually disappoint us or let us down. We might drift apart from a friend, or a parent might scold us. Sometimes we think things will make us happy. However, things like our video games will eventually break, or we might run out of money, or we will eat our ice cream and it will be gone. Eventually, we will become thirsty again for someone or something to make us happy. We will try to quench our thirst with people and things over and over.

Only Jesus Can Quench Our Thirst Jesus revealed in this story that only He can quench and satisfy our thirst! Notice how Jesus first asked the woman for a drink. He thirsts for us to thirst for Him, because He knows that only He will make us perfectly happy. And He wants us to be perfectly happy! This story reveals to us a relationship of prayer. Jesus and the woman at the well have a conversation, they enter into a relationship with each other. And through this relationship, the woman comes to know Jesus and love Him and ask Him to give her what she needs to be perfectly happy.

Lesson 2: Jesus Prayed to His Father

Jesus Taught Us to Pray In the Gospels, Jesus is most frequently called “rabbi.” The word rabbi means “teacher.” That means that Jesus was a teacher. Jesus taught His followers (and us) to love God and to love our neighbor, to serve others, how to be holy, and so forth. One of the most important things Jesus taught us is how to pray.

Pray Without Ceasing Read 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. “Without ceasing” means without stopping, or always. In this passage, St. Paul is telling us that it is God’s will that we should always be praying — that we should make everything we do and say a prayer! We can certainly pray at specific times and for specific things, but God wants us to make everything we do a prayer and to offer everything to Him. And He wants us to ask Him for all things — all of our needs and all of our wants.

Lesson 3: The Lord’s Prayer

Lord’s Prayer Jesus not only showed us by His example how to pray but also directly taught us how to pray — what to pray for and in what order to pray for those things. In the Gospels, Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray. In response, Jesus taught them: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”

Lord’s Prayer This prayer, which we call the Our Father or the Lord’s Prayer (because it is the prayer taught us by our Lord, Jesus), is one of the most important prayers. It has been called the “perfect prayer.” In the Gospel of Matthew (7:7-8), Jesus taught us, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives and the one who seeks, nds and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” In other words, Jesus taught us to come to God and ask Him for our needs and our wants. Our Father in Heaven loves us so much that He hears our prayers and will answer them as a father on earth cares for his child.

Lord’s Prayer And so, Jesus taught us the Our Father to show us how to come to God and ask Him for our needs and wants. Amen means “I believe.” When we say “amen” at the end of any prayer, we are saying that we believe in what we’ve said and, most importantly, we believe in God and that He will hear and answer our prayer.

Lesson 4: The Types of Prayer: Adoration, Petition, Intercession, Thanksgiving, and Praise

Types of Prayer The Church teaches us that there are five main types of prayer. They are: Blessing and adoration, Praise Petition Intercession Thanksgiving.

Blessing and Adoration Prayers of blessing and adoration and prayers of praise are very similar to each other. Prayers of blessing, adoration, and praise are our human response to God’s gift. We worship God through prayers of blessing and adoration. We bless God because He has blessed us. We recognize that God is God and we are His children. He is the Creator, and we are His creatures. Therefore, it is good for us to give adoration to God. Adoration is a form of prayer in which we worship God and express our love for Him.

Praise At the same time, it is good for us to praise God. Praise is a form of prayer in which we celebrate God’s goodness. When we praise God, we tell Him exactly what is good about Him and what He has done. In our own lives, we often praise other people, or are praised ourselves. For example, during a baseball game, if someone hits a home run, we might say, “You are an incredible hitter!” Or, a teacher might praise our good ob on a spelling test by saying, “You are a talented speller!” We must worship, praise, and adore God through prayer and tell Him how much we love Him.

Jacob Wrestles an Angel God chose Jacob to be the leader of His people. He told them He would give them the Promised Land. Jacob went to the Promised Land to fulfill God’s promise. But Jacob was afraid. The night before he was to go into the Promised Land, Jacob was so upset that he could not sleep. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him. Jacob wrestled with the angel throughout the night. They battled for hours, until dawn.

Jacob Wrestles an Angel Amazingly, the angel was unable to defeat Jacob! So they ended their wrestling match. Jacob asked the angel for a blessing. The angel asked Jacob for his name. Then the angel said to him, “You shall no longer be named Jacob, but Israel,” which means “he who wrestles with God.” Then the angel departed. That morning, Jacob entered the Promised Land. He became the great leader of God’s people as God had promised. In fact, God’s people would soon be known as the people of Israel!

Jacob Wrestles an Angel Sometimes we’re all like Jacob. Sometimes we have something difficult to do, or we are afraid of something. Sometimes we’re even angry or upset with God when it feels as if He doesn’t hear or answer our prayers. This is exactly what Jacob was feeling in this story. Angels are representatives of God. Their purpose is to be messengers of God. Jacob wrestling with the angel represents Jacob struggling with God. Through this story, God is telling us that it is okay for us to be angry with Him, to be upset with Him, to tell Him that we are afraid. Jacob went to God with his anger and fear, and he “wrestled” with Him.

Jacob Wrestles an Angel Remember that we have a relationship with God. In every relationship, sometimes things aren’t always happy or good. Sometimes things don’t go well, and sometimes there are struggles. But because we have a relationship, we can get through these difficult times together. God wants us to come to Him with the good and the bad and to ask Him to be with us during both!

Petition We must always remember that the Holy Spirit is a part of our prayer. It is through Him that we are able to call out to God as our Father. Petition is a form of prayer in which we ask God for good things, including our needs and wants. First and foremost, we pray that God’s will be done, even before our own needs and wants. In the Our Father, the perfect prayer, Jesus taught us how to pray: first, for the kingdom, and then for our own needs. Along with asking for our needs and wants, we must ask forgiveness for the things we have done wrong.

Petition By praying to God and asking for our needs and wants, we strengthen our relationship with Him. We trust that He will hear our prayers and answer them. God will absolutely give us what we need, but He also wants us to tell Him what we need and what we want.

Intercession Prayer of intercession is a form of prayer in which we ask for God’s help for others. It is a special type of prayer of petition in which we ask for good things not for ourselves but for others. We can pray for our family, our friends, classmates, and even those who may have hurt us

Thanksgiving Prayer of thanksgiving is a form of prayer in which we give thanks to God for every gift He has given us. We can and should thank God for all that He is and all He has given to us. St. Paul teaches us to “give thanks in all circumstances,” so even when times are difficult, we can thank God for the beautiful plan He has created to bring about good things in our lives.