This week’s Bible lesson is finished. The learning objectives are clear and measurable. I’ve found all the right teaching activities. The lesson plan is laser-focused to change lives. But am I ready to teach?
Once again I’ve forgotten a basic key to effective teaching – I’ve failed to pray!
Something very bad happens when I focus on my skills as a teacher instead of seeking God’s help. Teaching the Bible is different than teaching Math. There is a spiritual dimension to the learning environment in Sunday school. Everything depends on prayer.
Work hard and pray even harder
I don’t write this to encourage lazy preparation. We must never presume that God will bless our lack of effort. At the same time we should not assume that we can accomplish anything lasting without his help.
Augustine put it this way, “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”
But what should you pray about? Here are some ideas to get you started. Feel free to add to this list in the comments section below.
- Thanks God for the privilege of teaching his truth to his children.
- Pray for freedom and power to connect with the learners.
- Ask God to prepare the mind of every child to understand.
- Ask God to prepare the heart of every child to receive God’s Word.
- Ask God to prepare the hands of every child to obey God’s Word.
- Pray that the truths you teach will be passed on to through these children to the coming generations.
I’ve found that I have to be intentional about prayer. It rarely happens on accident. At the risk of becoming legalistic, I’ve even added prayer to my lesson planning checklist.
What about you?
How do you make prayer central to your Bible teaching?