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“Surely your God is the God of gods and Lord of kings!” Daniel 2:47.
King Nebuchadnezzar learns God answers prayer.
When King Nebuchadnezzar condemned the wise men of Babylon to death, Daniel asked the king for time, time for Daniel and his three friends to pray. Making time for prayer—that is, making prayer a top priority—is an essential part of our walk with the God of gods and the Lord of kings.
Prayer is a very popular topic in Sunday School and midweek Bible studies. Rightfully so! For this object lesson we combine Daniel's life and death request for time to pray with a children's game often called Cootie Catcher. We call ours Prayer Timer. It leads kids to understand we should pray throughout the day.
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This time around, we look at the Old Testament prophet Daniel and his request for a time of prayer, in order to avoid the execution of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon's many advisors.
The instant downloadable lesson plan always begins with instructions for preparing and performing the object lesson, followed by a Bible story that works well with the lesson's topic. Of course, there are many stories of prayer in the Bible from which to choose. Pick your favorite.
Our Bible Story: King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that terrified him. Strangely, He commanded his advisors to not only tell him what the dream meant, but to tell him what he dreamed in the first place! When they could not, he ordered them to be killed. Daniel was told of this, so he rushed to the king with a wise request: to be granted time to pray, that he might be able to explain the dream (see Daniel 2:16).
Daniel's request is the focus of our lesson.
The Student Activity Pages
After telling the story, you have four Student Activity pages to add extra fun to the mix, plus five pages that show you the way to cut, fold and handle the Prayer Timer copies...
Let's start with the Prayer Timer Student Activity page. Commonly called Cootie Catchers or Fortune Tellers, this time it’s a game that suggests good times for kids to pray. You’ll be using the Prayer Timer activity as the object lesson.
You must print and prepare one Prayer Timer for each person. You may wish to fold all copies yourself or let the players do it in class.
I CAN'T SLEEP! King Nebuchadnezzar has had a terrifying dream. But when God reveals the meaning of the dream to Daniel, King Nebby starts sawing logs!
It's a simple fold-in page that only takes a moment to do.
Let’s Pray for Me! This page of nine cards features good things to pray for someone. Shuffle these and hold them in your hand.
Quickly print the first name of each student on blank index cards or similar, one name per card. Don’t use a marker that would show through the cards. Shuffle the cards and place them face down on a table so the kids can gather around. The cards should be spread out so each can be picked up separately.
When ready to begin, have a kid randomly choose one of the prayer cards in your hand. Read it to the class. Now pick a volunteer to turn over one of the name cards. Everyone bows in prayer as you or a volunteer kid prays the prayer for the named person. Do this as long as the kids like, returning the prayer cards to your hand each time but leaving the name cards upturned.
Daniel Loves to Pray. For the youngest ones, a coloring page.
Choose one or more of the activities to add a bit of fun and learning to your object lesson. We want you to!
The Object Lesson • The Prayer Timer
The first page of the instant download lesson plan explains it all; here is what it tells you:
Read the Bible story first.
After that the kids make their Prayer Timers, following along as you show them how.
The kids then play in pairs, each player having a chance to pick a prayer time according to their Timer.
Have the kids share what times they ended up with.
Lead a discussion about the importance of prayer in our relationship with the Lord.
Then use any or all of the other learning activities. We especially like the Prayer Cards activity.
Discussion Suggestions
Our object lesson focused primarily on WHEN to pray. But there are other aspects of prayer that are just as important or more so. WHY to pray is an excellent topic to raise. Prayer is much more than asking for stuff. There's praise, confession of sins and so forth. HOW to pray might be a good thing to teach kids. You get the idea.
And there you have it! Many blessings as you serve God by working with kids!
