A Great Deal of FAITH
This Sunday I taught the Overcomers at my church.
Our topic was EXTREME FAITH.
Before the lesson began Colleen and I had thought up some examples of people in the Bible who we thought the kids would recognize as people of great faith. People like David, Daniel, Joseph, Mary, Moses or Abraham…
We started by asking what the kids thought FAITH was…
They said that FAITH was believing in the unseen.
We then asked them if they could give an example of someone in the Bible who had GREAT FAITH. One little boy raised his hand to answer and gave an example we were not expecting.
He said: Job was a man of very great faith.
————NOW STOP RIGHT THERE————-
I don’t know if I would have given Job as an example to kids. In some ways I find the story of Job daunting to understand as an adult but the kid said it. Even cooler I was working my way into trying to say what God had told me during the week when I’d been praying into it and that example was EXACTLY what I needed.
I explained that he was right Job was an AMAZING example of faith.
Job faced some very hard things. He lost his wealth, his family and his health. He even lost his reputation (remember his friends thought he must have sinned.)but Job would not curse God, he would not say that God wasn’t good and just. Instead Job had faith and believed that God is exactly who he says he is. That God really, truly IS good.
During the week that was the definition of faith that God had been speaking to me.
Faith is continuing to press in and fight believing that no matter what God is always good and he is always working on our behalf. It’s trusting God to be who he says he is despite our circumstances.
DREAMS + FAITH = REALITY
We started to talk about what we can accomplish IF we have faith.
We asked the kids to give some examples of things that they wanted to do or accomplish and how having faith could help them get there.
They gave a few examples like build a sky scraper, fly, help animals, buy a gift for their mom, travel the world as a missionary or paint pictures. Then we asked the kids what they wanted to do when they grew up and talked about how God has placed those unique ideas and dreams in our hearts. We told the kids that God would help them make those dreams reality, they just have to have faith.
What Can We DO With FAITH?
WELL…. How about pray for healing and SEE IT HAPPEN!!!
I don’t know how it happened exactly but I found myself sharing/acting out the story of a man my team saw healed in India. My missionary kids had stories of their own about healing and jumped right in to tell the class about them.
I then offered the kids an example of a family in our church who has great faith even though they are going through a difficult struggle with health and we prayed together as a class for healing and strength.
Immediately after our class ended one of the coolest and most encouraging things that I’ve seen since I got home happened. This little blond haired girl walked right up to me with this big smile, very excited and eager to talk to me.
“You know what?” She said.
“Nope, what?”
“My Dad had a really sore neck. I prayed for it and the pain went away immediately!” She literally beamed at me.
FAITH like a CHILD. Pure BEAUTY.
Suddenly that whole thing was a lesson for me and I wanted to take every kid in that room load them into a car and go pray for sick people because the power and strength of the faith in that room… Man it was THICK.
Smashing the Box — AGAIN.
I’m a World Race alumni. I have been around the world. I have seen the Kingdom come in SO many ways but I was foolish enough to think that God isn’t as BIG, as PRESENT, or as CAPABLE in Canada as he was on the race. I still put God in a box and believe that he is limited in his power, provision and willingness to pursue his people.
God forgive me for recreating that little box I smashed at training camp and stuffing you back into it. You are so much bigger and better than I give you credit for.
The truth is faith really is as simple as believing that God is good and then trusting, no matter what happens, that his goodness never fades.
