Week: Mark's Gospel
Each day we will simply pray (P.R.A.Y.) together.
P: PAUSING to be still.
R: REJOICING with a Memory Verse and REFLECTING on some verses from the Bible.
A: ASKING God to help us and others.
Y: saying YES to God’s ways.
We start by pausing and taking a deep breath:
In and out.
In and out.
We remember that God is here, and so together we prepare ourselves to be with God.
Pause
Jesus, we hear Your invitation, and so we choose to follow You, with all our hearts, with all our minds, with all our souls and with all our strength.
We REJOICE and celebrate God’s goodness with this week’s memory verse:
Read by Max
Psalm 103:8
The Lord shows mercy and is kind. He does not become angry quickly, and he has great love.
Psalm 103:8 (NCV)
God, help us to remember Your Word.
The Pharisees didn’t like Jesus and they often complained about His disciples and the way they were living. Today, we’re REFLECTING on how Jesus responded.
Read by Max
Mark 7:6-7 (NCV)
Mark 7:6-7
Jesus answered, ‘Isaiah was right when he spoke about you hypocrites. He wrote, “These people show honor to me with words, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is worthless. The things they teach are nothing but human rules.”’
The Pharisees were religious leaders. They said all the right words and they were proud that they followed all the religious rules. In fact, they thought that they were better than everyone else and because of this, they weren’t always kind to other people.
This is why Jesus called them hypocrites – although the Pharisees claimed to love God, the way that they behaved towards other people showed that there wasn’t a lot of love in their hearts at all. And that’s what really matters to Jesus – what’s going on in our hearts.
The Pharisees followed all the religious rules. Let’s press pause and talk about today’s questions, which are: What rules can we think of in our home or in our school? How do we feel when someone doesn’t follow them the way we do?
Jesus cares about what’s going on in our hearts. Let’s think about the people that we’ll see over the next 24 hours.
Jesus, we ASK You to help us to be kind to everyone.
Let’s be honest. Sometimes we are a bit like the Pharisees. We’re proud, we compare ourselves with others and sometimes we judge those people too.
Jesus, we ASK for Your forgiveness. Help us to see others – and love others – the way that You see and love them.
As we read the Bible again, let’s listen for a word or a phrase that the Holy Spirit might want to say to us from today’s verses.
Mark 7:6-7
Mark 7:6-7 (NCV)
Jesus answered, ‘Isaiah was right when he spoke about you hypocrites. He wrote, “These people show honor to me with words, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is worthless. The things they teach are nothing but human rules.”’
What word or phrase stood out from today’s Bible verses?
And now, let’s say YES to God together.
Father God, thank You for Your incredible love. You love us even when we get things wrong. We say YES to learning to be kind, just like You are.
After enjoying this time with God and each other, let’s say our memory verse together:
Psalm 103:8
The Lord shows mercy and is kind. He does not become angry quickly, and he has great love.
Psalm 103:8 (NCV)
Let’s put a hand on our heart.
Father God, fill us with Your love. Help us to love You, and everything that You’ve made.
Let’s point to our eyes.
Lord Jesus, help us to see You, and to see others the way that You see them too.
Let’s point to our ears.
Holy Spirit, help us to hear You, and give us courage to do what You say.
Joy lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and her dog. She works for Bridgetown Church where she leads kids as they grow, learn, and have lots of fun. Joy loves gardening, summer camp, eating ice cream, and reading her favourite books, The Chronicles of Narnia.
Max is 9 years old and lives in Melbourne, Australia with his older brother and mum and dad. He often rides his bike to school and enjoys being creative by drawing or building with Lego. Max is also learning how to play the electric guitar and loves turning it up loud!
