We have no power without prayer

Items needed: 2 battery operated toy car (without the batteries), batteries, masking tape, prize (candy or penny toy).

Ask the kids who would like to play a game, then pick two kids, by asking questions about the lesson so far. Have each child put his \ her car on the starting line (that you made with the tape). They will probably ask how to turn the car on, so be ready to explain the way the car works. After finding out the cars don’t work, tell them they don’t have batteries in them so they’ll have to race by pushing them. After they race, put the batteries in the cars and have them race the cars using the batteries. Give both of the kids a price for helping out.

Explain:

Tell, the kids the cars are a lot like us. Without prayer we have no power. A lot of times we try to go through life without the power of God. We "play " church or wonder why God doesn’t help us when we won’t even pray. Even the disciples in the Bible were guilty of this:

Read Mark 9:17-29. (You can paraphrase all except verse 29.) Reread verse 29 and explain how the disciples had delivered people and healed people (Mark 6:13) but they couldn’t help this one boy without prayer. Explain that because our power comes from Jesus, we are powerless without prayer.

Later:

Ask the kids who prayed in our lesson about the boy that Jesus delivered. Verse 29 says, "This kind can come out only by prayer." Who prayed? After they guess, tell them the boy’s dad prayed when he asked Jesus to heal his son. Let the kids know we don’t have to have long prayers with big words, we just have to talk to Jesus.