The Parables of Jesus: The Lord’s Prayer

by Emily Hechler

The Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11 may sound familiar to the children in your Sunday school class since it is a common passage of Scripture. This doesn’t make it any less important. In fact, it is so common because of how important it is. In these few verses, Jesus tells us how to talk to God the Father! The final parable in our series follows Jesus’ model for prayer. Before the kids in your Sunday school can understand the parable, they should learn how to talk to the Father.

Jesus provides a model for prayer in Luke 11:1-4. Take some time to explain this prayer phrase by phrase to your class.

God will make a new heaven and a new earth, where He and everyone who has accepted Jesus as Savior will live forever.

Jesus begins His prayer in Luke 11:2 with, “Father, hallowed be your name.” We should start our prayers with acknowledging who God is – our Heavenly Father. The saved children in your class have a spiritual parent-child relationship with God. Remind your class, “God is the perfect Father. When you are a child of God, you can come to Him with your needs and imperfections, and He still loves you!” “Hallowed be your name” means that when we speak about God or to Him, we do it in a way that shows honor and respect to His name and His reputation.

“Your kingdom come” can seem confusing to kids. And it has a two-fold meaning because the Kingdom of God is with them and is still coming in the future. Here’s an easy way to explain it: Jesus said in Luke 17:21 that if He is there, the Kingdom of God is there, too. Jesus is from heaven and came to earth. Now, He lives in the hearts of all believers. The Kingdom of God is also coming. God will make a new heaven and a new earth, where He and everyone who has accepted Jesus as Savior will live forever.

The next part of the prayer says, “Give us each day our daily bread.” In the time that the Bible was written, bread was used to refer to the basic everyday needs that we all have, such as food, shelter, and clothing. This doesn’t mean that we should pray for our needs just once. Instead, we should go to God every day and ask Him for what we need.

The next couple of lines go together: “Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” If we confess our sins to God, He will forgive us! The phrase is also a reminder that since God forgave us from our sins, we should forgive other people that have sinned against us too. 

Sometimes it’s hard to make good decisions, even when we know the right thing to do.

The last part of the prayer says, “Lead us not into temptation.” Explain to children that temptation is a situation where they want to do something that they shouldn’t do. Sometimes it’s hard to make good decisions, even when we know the right thing to do. Asking God to not lead us into temptation is asking Him to help us stay out of situations where we would be tempted and to help us make good decisions that please Him.

The Lord’s Prayer is also found in another place in the Bible. Matthew 6:9-13 gives a little more detail about how Jesus instructed the disciples to pray. Children can learn the Lord’s Prayer by singing “The Lord’s Prayer” from Matthew 6 on U-Nite TV®.

Join us next time for Part 2 as we learn the meaning of the final parable in our series.