An Illustration of Prayer
The angel Gabriel was giving a newly arrived Christian a tour of heaven. The two of them were walking side by side inside a large mailroom filled with other angels.
Gabriel stopped in front of the first section and said, “This is the Receiving Section. Here, all the petitions sent to God in prayer are received.”
The Christian saw that the section was a very busy one with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous sheets of paper from all the people of the world.
They resumed walking until they reached the second section. Gabriel told the Christian, “This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the blessings of God in answer to prayers are packed and delivered to the those who are praying on earth.”
The Christian saw how busy it was. There were a great many angels working in that room because countless blessings were being packed and delivered to earth.
Finally, at the farthest corner of the room, they stopped at the last section. To the surprise of the Christian, only one angel was there and he was idle.
“This is the Acknowledging Section,” Gabriel told the Christian.
“How is it that no work is being done here?”
“That’s the sad thing,” Gabriel answered.
“After people on earth received the blessings they asked for, very few of them bother to send their acknowledgments.”
“How does one acknowledge God’s blessing?”
“Simple,” Gabriel answered. “Just say, ‘Thank you, Lord.'”
Variation – An object Lesson or Children’s Sermon on Prayer
This could easily be converted into a sermon for kids, or an object lesson for youth on “answered prayer.” Collect a bunch of postcards and write prayers to God on them. “Dear God… A Prayer… then sign it with a name. Then in another box have deliveries that match the different requests. (Note some of the deliveries might be different than the actual request because God provides what we truly need and not what we think we need.) Finally, have an empty box for the messages of Thanks. To create a more balanced perspective on prayer, have messages of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication (A.C.T.S.) Adoration is simply praise to God for who he is. Confession is an acknowledgement of sin. Thanksgiving is of course a response to answered prayer and for the blessing of God in life. Supplications are requests. Many times we only see prayer as requests. The simplest definition of prayer is “Talking to God” so have lots of messages that are simply conversations with God. Have only one or two of thanks. Close by giving the children or youth postcards and asking them to write notes of thanks to God and fill up the last box.
Scriptures for For Famous prayers in the Bible
- Abraham, for Sodom – Genesis 18:16-33
- Daniel – Daniel 9:1-19
- David – 2 Samuel 7:18-29; 1 Chronicles 17:16-27
- David’s Confession – Psalms 51:1-17
- David’s Thanks – 2 Samuel 7:18-29
- Deborah – Judges 5:1-31
- Elijah’s at Mount Carmel – I Kings 18:36-39
- Ezra – Ezra 9:5-15
- Habakkuk – Habakkuk 3:2-19
- Hannah – 1 Samuel 1:9-20; 1 Samuel 2:1-10
- Hezekiah – 2 Kings 19:14-20:3
- Hezekiah when Sick – Isaiah 38:2-8
- Hosea – Hosea 6:1-3
- Jabez – 1 Chronicles 4:10
- Jacob – Genesis 32:22-32
- Jehoshophat – 2 Chronicles 20:1-30
- Jeremiah – Lamentations 3: 21-26
- Jesus – Matthew 6:5-15: Luke 11:1-13; John 17
- Job – Job 1:20-21; 3; 42:2-6
- Jonah – Jonah 2:1-9
- Jude’s Praise – Jude 1:24-25
- Moses – Exodus 15:1-18; 33: 12-23; Numbers 14:13-19
- Nehemiah – Nehemiah 1:4-10
- Paul – Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 1:15-23; 3:14-21; Philippians 1:9-11; Collosians 1:9-14; 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, 2:13-17
- Paul, Knowing God’s Will – Colossians 1:9-12
- Paul, Partners in Ministry – Philippians 1:3-11
- Paul, Spiritual Growth – Ephesians 3:14-21
- Paul, Spiritual Wisdom – Ephesians 1:15-23
- Solomon, dedication – 1 Kings 3:5-15; 8:14-61
- Stephen at His Stoning – Acts 7:59-60
- Tax Collector’s Prayer – Luke 18:13
MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.