Lifting Weights (December 1, 2009)

A couple weeks ago we learned how prayer is like weight lifting and it will build our spiritual muscles.

Olympic weightlifting began a long time ago in the year 1896. The 1896 Olympics is known as the first modern day Olympic Games. Olympic weightlifters train for many years lifting weights everyday. They start out with lower weights and work their way up to really heavy weights. If a weightlifter were to try to lift the really heavy stuff at first, he would have a hard time and probably get injured in the process.

As lifting smaller weights builds physical strength, we learned that prayer builds spiritual strength. The bible says that we should be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. You can't be strong in the Lord without prayer. And Jesus, our Olympic Coach, gave us a good example on how to pray.

First, Jesus prayed alone. It is important to spend time alone in prayer to Jesus each day. It is so great to be able to spend time alone with Jesus, Himself. Wow!!!

Second, Jesus prayed with His friends. It is also good to get with others including your friends to pray. That is one reason we pray together in KidzBlast. We are a family of God with needs and requests. We can offer prayer for each other for the strength to obey God.

Third, Jesus taught us how to pray. That is so cool. We can learn how to pray from Jesus. He gave us the Lord's Prayer. It teaches us to be holy and respectful before the Lord. We call that reverence. He teaches us the importance of doing God's will and that we can participate in bringing God's Kingdom to earth. The Lord's Prayer encourages us to trust God for everything. And it teaches us not only to forgive others who hurt us, but also sometimes we need others to forgive us for hurting them. Finally, with the Lord's Prayer we can believe that God will protect us from all temptation to do wrong.

Finally, we learned that God desires that we pray all the time. Just like a weightlifter who trains everyday to build his physical strength, we must pray everyday to build our spiritual strength and get closer to Jesus. You can start by praying a short time and then build up to a longer time.

Remember, boys and girls, we made a commitment to pray when we wake up in the morning and right before you go to bed. We also learned that God sees your new day starting when you go to sleep at night. So you can trust that Jesus is hearing your prayers and is ready to answer them. Even while you sleep. Praise the Lord!!!

Prayer is how we get our strength to say, "NO" to sin. It is not always easy to live as we know God wants us to. To receive the strength we need, we must be faithful to pray each day.

The Lord is my strength and we can all become stronger in the Lord through prayer.

Guest Blogger,
Mr. George