{"id":6489,"date":"2012-07-06T23:10:58","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T15:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.creativeyouthideas.com\/resources\/?p=6489"},"modified":"2012-11-19T10:35:24","modified_gmt":"2012-11-19T02:35:24","slug":"heavens-mail-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.creativeyouthideas.com\/resources\/childrens-sermon\/heavens-mail-room\/","title":{"rendered":"Heaven’s Mail Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An Illustration of Prayer<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The angel Gabriel was giving a newly arrived Christian a tour of heaven. \u00a0The two of\u00a0them were walking side by side inside a large mailroom filled with other\u00a0angels.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gabriel stopped in front of the first section and said, “This is the\u00a0Receiving Section. \u00a0Here, all the petitions sent to God in prayer are\u00a0received.”<\/span><\/div>\n
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The Christian saw that the section was a very busy one with so many angels\u00a0sorting out petitions written on voluminous sheets of paper from all\u00a0the people of the world.<\/span><\/div>\n
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They resumed walking until they reached the second section. \u00a0Gabriel\u00a0told the Christian, “This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. \u00a0Here, the\u00a0blessings of God in answer to prayers are packed and delivered to the those who are praying\u00a0on earth.”<\/span><\/div>\n
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The Christian saw how busy it was. \u00a0There were a great many angels working\u00a0in that room because countless blessings were being packed and\u00a0delivered to earth.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Finally, at the farthest corner of the room, they stopped at the last\u00a0section. \u00a0To the surprise of the Christian, only one angel was there and he\u00a0was idle.<\/span><\/div>\n
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“This is the Acknowledging Section,” Gabriel told the Christian.<\/span><\/div>\n
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“How is it that no work is being done here?”<\/span><\/div>\n
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“That’s the sad thing,”\u00a0Gabriel answered.<\/span><\/div>\n
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“After people on earth received the blessings they asked for, very few\u00a0of them bother to send their acknowledgments.”<\/span><\/div>\n
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“How does one acknowledge God’s blessing?”\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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“Simple,” Gabriel answered. \u00a0“Just say, ‘Thank you, Lord.'”<\/span><\/div>\n
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Variation – An object Lesson or Children’s Sermon on Prayer<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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This could easily be converted into a sermon for kids, or an object lesson for youth on “answered prayer.” \u00a0 Collect a bunch of postcards and write prayers to God on them. “Dear God… \u00a0A Prayer… then sign it with a name. \u00a0Then in another box have deliveries that match the different requests. \u00a0(Note some of the deliveries might be different than the actual request because God provides what we truly need and not what we think we need.) \u00a0Finally, have an empty box for the messages of Thanks. \u00a0To create a more balanced perspective on prayer, have messages of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication (A.C.T.S.) Adoration is simply praise to God for who he is. \u00a0Confession is an acknowledgement of sin. Thanksgiving is of course a response to answered prayer and for the blessing of God in life. \u00a0Supplications are requests. \u00a0Many times we only see prayer as requests. The simplest definition of prayer is “Talking to God” so have lots of messages that are simply conversations with God. \u00a0Have only one or two of thanks. \u00a0Close by giving the children or youth postcards and asking them to write notes of thanks to God and fill up the last box.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Scriptures for For Famous prayers in the Bible<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n