There’s lots of debate on “prayer” out there. Does it work? Does it actually change anything? What’s the point? This object lesson on prayer looks at prayers of thanksgiving, adoration, requests, and repentance, and how each is similar but unique. A great way to start a discussion with your group on the power of prayer, and what God intends as the purpose of prayer.
Scriptures:
Ephesians 6:18 – Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
Psalm 145:18 – The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.
Matthew 6:9-13 – 9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today the food we need, 12 and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. 13 And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.
Philippians 4:6 – Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
Colossians 4:2 – Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 – Never stop praying.
1 John 1:19 – But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
Object Lesson on Prayer
What you need:
- 2 glasses
- 1 glass juice bottle (wider mouth)
- 1 glass juice bottle (narrower mouth)
- small saucer/plate
- Some coloured water (water + food colouring) in a small dish
- 1 candle (votive or tealight)
- 2 hardboiled eggs
- 1 inflated balloon
- Matches
How to do the object lesson:
Check out this little video where I demonstrate the object lesson on prayer for you:
1. First, set up the object lesson before your group arrives.
Set up the four glass containers in a row in front of you.
Inflate the balloon.
Peel both hard-boiled eggs and sit them beside the two glass juice bottles.
Beside the last glass, place the saucer with the candle in the middle of it.
Beside the saucer, place the dish with the bit of coloured water in it.
2. Second, prompt the group in a discussion on prayer.
Ask your group: “What is prayer?”
- It is our way of talking to God
- It can include thanksgiving, adoration, requests/petitions, repentance, intercession
- God might answer our requests with a yes, no, or maybe/wait
- God can be persuaded to take a different action through prayer.
- Prayer is a way of growing closer to God, of having a mind like His, of aligning our own will with the will of God.
- It is not magic.
- Prayer can heal sickness.
3. Third, show how prayers of thanksgiving and adoration can draw us closer in relationship to God.
The first object lesson on prayer I want to do for you is taking one glass, the balloon, and a match, and illustrating how a prayer of thanksgiving and adoration draws us closer to God.
The glass is upright. This glass represents our life, or our life situation. This match (light the match) represents our prayer. And this balloon represents our Heavenly Father.
Drop the match in the glass and place the balloon over the mouth of the glass. The match will burn for a short time, then it will go out. The bottom of the balloon will get “sucked into” the glass a little bit, as a vacuum is created inside the glass.
You see, our prayer of thanksgiving and adoration, it removes our own self-centeredness from our lives. It burns up that stuff from our minds, and allows our eyes instead to turn towards the will, the sovereignty, the beauty, and the love of God. And as we pray thanks and as we adore him, He comes closer to us, just as you saw the balloon draw inwards into the glass.
Now, lift up the balloon. The glass lifts with it.
This prayer of thanksgiving and adoration – it allows us to be so close to God, and so in tune with Him, that as He moves, we move with Him.
4. Fourth, show how requests/petitions can be presented to God, and how He can answer differently.
Another important way to pray is to present our requests or petitions to God. This second little object lesson on prayer will use two glass bottles, two eggs, and a couple of matches.
As before, let the glass bottles represent our lives, or our life situations. Let the matches represent our prayer requests. And let these eggs here, let them represent what we’re praying for in our lives. Maybe we’re asking for healing. Maybe we’re asking for safety. Whatever it is, let these eggs represent.
Light two matches and drop them in the bottles. Place an egg over the mouth of both bottles.
The egg over the wider mouth will get sucked into the glass bottle. The egg over the narrow mouth will stay sitting on top.
This is just like real life. God answers prayer in different ways. Sometimes, He answers with a yes. Sometimes, that request? It never comes into our lives, like this second egg still sitting on top. Prayer isn’t magic. And just because we received “no” or “wait” as an answer to our request, it doesn’t mean God isn’t listening, and it doesn’t mean we didn’t receive an answer. But sometimes, we don’t receive the answer we want.
5. Last, show how prayers of repentance allow sin to be replaced with the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
Let’s also just talk about how prayers of repentance are also extremely important.
We all have sin in our lives. Maybe it’s sin that’s been lingering and lingering in our lives. Maybe it’s something very small, and we’re just asking for forgiveness really quickly after having realized our sin. But the Bible says that we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God, and we all have sin in our lives.
Once again, in this third short object lesson on prayer, this glass will represent our life or life situation, and this match/candle/flame will represent our prayer of repentance.
This time, we’ll use this water here to represent the Holy Spirit, all around us (pour the water in the saucer around the candle).
Now, we’ll light the candle and place the glass over top of the candle, so that the rim of the glass rests in the coloured water in the saucer.
The flame will burn for a little bit, and then will go out as it uses up all the oxygen. The vacuum created in the glass will “suck up” all the coloured water from the saucer, and actually draw it into the glass surrounding the candle.
As our prayer of repentance burns up the sin in our lives, it creates more space for the Fruit of the Holy Spirit to instead fill us up. Repentance takes a lot of humility, as we admit our own weakness, failure, and wrongdoing. That’s never easy. But as we humble ourselves before God, it means His work in our lives can flourish! And He has the space and opportunity to use His Holy Spirit to fill us up, replacing the pride and sin.
You might also be interested in checking out an object lesson on pride, or this one on forgiveness, that also deal with the idea of repentance.
The Science behind the Object Lesson
All of these demonstrations are based on the principle of a flame inside of a glass creating a vacuum. When that happens, either the balloon, the egg, or the water gets “sucked” into the glass to fill the void. (read more of the science here)