Elijah is Fed by the Ravens - Saxe Gotha Presbyterian Church

Elijah is Fed
by the Ravens
July 1, 2012
1 Kings 16:29 - 17:9
Kids will understand:
ON OUR
PL ATE
TODAY
• The story of Elijah being fed by ravens.
• That God provided and Elijah was obedient.
• That we should be obedient to God and trust Him to provide
for us.
The next 13 lessons fall under the fun heading of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” Each one of the lessons
has food mentioned in it in some way. This would be a great time to start a food drive. We recommend the kids bringing in canned goods and trying to line them along the baseboards throughout
the room or down a high traffic hallway (where it will be visible to adults). Or, you could assign each
grade or age a specific item to collect: crackers, macaroni, soup, etc.
ACTIVITY - VIDEO
Beforehand, download the following video, “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: Super Duper Weenie”
submitted by KipnisStudios from the hit TV show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.
ING RED IENT S
— video download
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3xpuYZuLp8
The show highlights restaurants around the country, and this clip features a place called the Super
Duper Weenie in Connecticut. You can show the entire clip, but we suggest just up to 3:25. Would
you like to eat at that restaurant?
What is your favorite restaurant? Would you like to eat there every single day, for the next year?
What about for the next 20 years? If you could put any kind of toppings on a hot dog, what would
you put on it?
It’s cool to get in the kitchen and see how food is made; it gives you a different perspective on the
food. Today, we’re talking about a Bible story where food is delivered, and the main theme of the
story is God providing food through an unexpected source.
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KidzMatter Ministries Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
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GAME
Form two teams (boys against girls works well here, because it’s easy to see and remember who is on whose
team). This is a fun and easy game for a group of any size. Choose one team to go first, and that team will
have 1-3 “smugglers.” The smugglers will be given a small cracker. All the members of that team will walk
around the room, secretly handing off the crackers to each other, and the other team will have one minute to
try to guess who the smugglers are; but it will be difficult to guess, because the person with the cracker will
change as they hand it off to another person.
ING RED IENT S
— small crackers
Tell the team with the smugglers that they should ALL try to pretend like they are passing something off to each
other, to throw the other team off. They will hold their hands out to each other, pretending to give and accept
something small from someone else. The other team, the one who is guessing, will have only 60 seconds. (If
you have a countdown you can put on your screen that would be good.) Three persons from the guessing team
will tap someone to see if they have the cracker in their hand.
If someone gets tapped, that person must stop and open their hands and show the person who tapped them.
If there is a cracker in it, the guessing team gets a point. Each guesser will only get one guess, so they need
to choose wisely. Play again, with the other team being the smugglers. Play several rounds to see which team
gets the most correct guesses.
After the game, collect all the crackers. In this game, it was hard to see who was smuggling the food, and
sometimes, the people who had the food were very unexpected. In today’s Bible story, someone got food from
a very unexpected smuggler. Even if you tried to guess who delivered the food, it would be difficult, because it
is such an unexpected source! Let’s get ready to hear this great story of God providing through an unexpected
food smuggler!
BIBLE ACCOUNT
Choose 6 students (ravens) to hold pieces of white bread, torn into bite-sized pieces. Whenever the leader
says, “The ravens brought food to Elijah,” the “ravens” will walk throughout the crowd and drop pieces of
bread into the kids’ mouths. They can eat the pieces that don’t fall on the floor.
ING RED IENT S
— white bread
— bird whistle,
optional
The kids will enjoy this, but remind them ahead of time that they can’t fight over the food, and they still have
to listen. When the leader whistles (into a bird whistle, if you have one) to call the birds back up front, the kids
have to sit still and completely quiet.
To start off today’s Bible story, we will learn about the king of Israel during a time when Israel was experiencing
a lot of division. Everybody was unhappy with somebody! The king’s name was King Ahab, and quite frankly,
he was a pretty bad king … one of the worst that Israel had ever had! He married a woman named Jezebel,
who was known for pagan worship. Don’t know that word? Well … that means she worshipped fake gods in
weird and crazy ways, and this frustrated God big time! God didn’t want His people to worship those pagan
fake gods. He wanted them to worship HIM! King Ahab made the people disobey God so much that God got
angry! I mean really angry!
But there was one good man—a man who knew God and listened to God—and God spoke to Him. He was a
prophet, because He spoke God’s Word to the people. His name was Elijah. Elijah got a message from the
Lord and went to King Ahab. Elijah said to the king, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, the God I serve, there
will not be dew or rain in the next few years, except at my word.” God was going to punish Israel by bringing a
drought! Absolutely no rain for the next few years! I bet King Ahab started to get scared!
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When the rains stopped and the ground got dry, King Ahab realized that Elijah was telling the truth. He wanted
to find Elijah, so he sent people looking for him everywhere. He even sent messages to neighboring countries,
asking if they had seen Elijah. God knew what King Ahab was up to, so He sent Elijah somewhere to hide from
the king. God told Elijah to go east of the Jordan River, to a brook called Cherith. God told Elijah that he would
have water to drink there. God also told Elijah that He had a secret plan to get food to Elijah. So Elijah obeyed
God, and went east of the Jordan River to the brook called Cherith.
When he got to the brook called Cherith, some big black ravens flew up and delivered some food to Elijah!
Send out your “ravens” to deliver food to the students. After about 30 seconds, blow the whistle, calling the
ravens back up to the front.
Elijah was so thankful that God was providing for him. He drank from the brook, and he ate the food. And
every time he got hungry, the ravens came and delivered food. Send out the ravens again with the bread, and
blow the whistle after about 30 seconds.
The ravens brought him bread and meat every morning, and bread and meat every evening. After many days
of this, the brook called Cherith dried up, because there was no rain. Oh no! What would Elijah do? Don’t
worry … God still had a plan to take care of Elijah. He told Elijah to go to a house of a widow, where he would
be fed. God always took care of Elijah, and God will take care of you, too!
OBJECT LESSON
Pretend that you’re outside working in the yard in the middle of summer. The sun is hot and you’re sweating
from the work you’re doing. Pretend that you’ve just eaten some salty crackers and pretzels. In fact, let’s have
some people demonstrate this for us.
ING RED IENT S
— salty crackers
— pretzels
— glasses of water
Choose 5 kids to help you. Give each of them several salty snacks and pretzels to eat. But, don’t offer them a
glass of water.
You’ve eaten the salty snacks. But, now I’d like for you to start doing jumping jacks. Come on … keep jumping!
What is one thing you want right now, more than anything else? A drink of water? I think that’s exactly what
you’d want! Does it feel like I’m punishing you, because I’m not giving you anything to drink? Imagine that you
couldn’t have any water, because there wasn’t any water. Not from the fridge, not from the faucet, not from the
bottled water in the store, or even the lake. You would do almost anything for water, wouldn’t you? What do
you think the Israelites did without rain for several years? They were probably DYING for water!
That’s called a drought, and that is what God brought on when He got upset with the people for worshipping
pagan gods like Queen Jezebel did. The people had to go other places for water, searching everywhere for
just a sip of water.
KNOW YOUR BIBLE
In today’s Bible story, we learned about King Ahab, who was known for being a very bad and disobedient
king. God wasn’t happy with him, because he chose to marry someone named Jezebel, who did not follow
God. In fact, Jezebel got King Ahab to do things to make God very angry, like worship pagan gods!
Pagan gods were pretend gods that the people worshipped. The two that King Ahab and Jezebel were known
for worshipping were called Baal and Asherah. Say Baal. Now, say Asherah. The kids will look up 1 Kings
16:32-33. “He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an
Asherah pole and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel
before him.”
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The people made a huge altar and then bowed down to a big wooden image—called the Asherah pole. God
had told His people not to worship anyone except Him, so it upset God that the people were worshipping the
pretend gods, Baal and Asherah. God wanted to be the only God, the one true God, of His people. The Bible
says that King Ahab and Jezebel were some of the worst leaders in history, because of their disobedience to
God.
GAME
Pour a supply of oyster crackers in a bowl that is easily accessible to everyone. You may even want to have
several bowls, if you have a large group. Any even number of kids can play at a time, depending on the
number of appetizer tongs you have. The kids will work (play) in pairs. One person in each pair (representing
Elijah) will lie on the ground and hold the bottom of a 3-ounce paper cup in their mouth. The other person in
each pair (representing a raven) will “fly” over to the bowl of oyster crackers with his appetizer tongs and pick
up a cracker. He’ll fly back to his partner and try to drop the cracker in the cup his partner is holding. BUT,
they have to hold the tongs at their shoulder height. If it misses, the “raven” must fly back for another cracker
and try again.
ING RED IENT S
— 3-ounce paper
cups
— oyster crackers
— appetizer tongs
— bowl
The first pair to get 3 crackers in their cup will yell, “Elijah has been fed!” Play will stop for everyone. Then,
the pair who “fed Elijah” will answer one of the questions below about today’s Bible account. Either switch
positions or choose new pairs to participate. Continue until all the questions have been answered.
Questions
•What was the name of the King in the Bible story? (King Ahab)
•What was the name of the King’s wife? (Jezebel)
•Why was Jezebel so bad? (She worshipped pagan gods.)
•Why was God angry with King Ahab? (King Ahab disobeyed God and made other people worship the
pagan gods.)
•What were the names of the pagan gods? (Baal and Asherah)
•What was the name of the prophet? (Elijah)
•What did Elijah tell King Ahab? (there would be a drought, and that it would not rain until He said so)
•Where did God tell Elijah to go when the drought was coming? (to a brook called Cherith, east of the
Jordan river)
•How did Elijah get food, when he was by the river? (Ravens brought it to him.)
•What did the ravens bring Elijah? (meat and bread)
•How often did the ravens bring the bread and meat? (every morning and evening)
•When the brook dried up, where did God tell Elijah to go? (to a widow’s house)
OBJECT LESSON
Has anyone ever seen a raven before? They’re big black birds that are found all throughout the US. They look
like crows, but they’re a lot bigger and smarter than crows. They have a pointed beak and large wings. Show
the PowerPoint slide of the raven.
ING RED IENT S
— Powerpoint slide
of raven
Ravens are mentioned several times in the Bible, but in today’s Bible story, we are reading about a time
when they worked for God by bringing food to Elijah. The interesting thing about this story is that ravens were
considered unclean in the Bible times.
Read Leviticus 11:13 & 15 aloud. “These are the birds that are detestable to you. You must never eat them …
any kind of raven.” God gave the Israelites a list of animals that were considered unclean … that they were not
supposed to eat. Ravens were on that list, meaning it would have been unacceptable to take food FROM the
ravens, too.
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Ravens were considered a worthless bird. They were unclean birds and couldn’t be sacrificed. Elijah was pretty
upset with the Israelites who were supposed to be God’s people. He was fed up with them for disobeying. God
used the ravens to remind Elijah that even though the Israelites seemed worthless at the moment, there was still
something of worth in them. Even though the ravens seemed to be a worthless bird, God could still use them to
do His will.
OBJECT LESSON
Hold up the two plants for the kids to see. What do you think happened to this plant (the dead one)? It could
have been that the plant got too much water and drowned, but if we feel the soil, we can tell that this particular
plant is dead because it did not get enough water. Do any of you have any plants at your house that look like
this dead one?
ING RED IENT S
— dead potted
plant
— live plotted plant
The live plant looks great, because it has been given exactly the right amount of water! You know what is cool
about this? Even though we (humans) may be bad sometimes at remembering to water plants in our houses,
there are a lot of wild plants that grow just beautifully all over the world. Do you know who waters them? God
does. God remembers to water all the trees and wild flowers and bushes and grass all around the world. He
knows exactly how much water to give them—not too much, not too little. He worked out a system for water to
evaporate and come back down in the form of rain, to give the thirsty plants a drink.
God takes care of the wild plants; He took care of Elijah in today’s Bible story, and He will take care of you.
God used a raven—an unexpected and considered worthless bird—to take care of Elijah.
When God wanted to punish the people in the Bible, He made a drought happen, and it didn’t rain for a long
time. Then, the land started to look a lot like this dead plant, with dried up soil. But God DID take care of His
people again. He DID send them rain. While they were without rain, though, they turned their minds and hearts
back to God.
MESSAGE
(show slide #1) Worship God alone.
ING RED IENT S
— PowerPoint slides
Do you worship God? You might say yes, because we sing worship songs at church. But, do you worship God
with how you live? Do you thank Him first when something good happens?
In this Bible story, we see what God feels like when people worship something other than Him. King Ahab and
Jezebel worshipped false gods, and it made God jealous. But, did you know that it’s not bad for God to be
jealous? He wants us to love Him; He created us to worship and love Him alone.
(show slide #2) Exodus 34:14. “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a
jealous God.”
In everything you do, look for ways to worship God. Look for ways to tell Him that you love Him. Look for ways
to rejoice in Him and thank Him. How can you worship God this week, in a way other than singing worship
songs at church? Turn to a friend and share one way.
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(show slide #3) God is faithful.
Psalm 33:4. “For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all He does.”
Elijah didn’t just LEARN that God was faithful when the food arrived; he already believed that God is faithful or
he wouldn’t have gone to the King or the river at all. Elijah had tremendous trust in God’s faithfulness.
And Elijah was faithful to God. He didn’t worship other gods. He didn’t look for another way to get food or
water. He trusted God, and God was faithful. God was faithful to Elijah.
Do you live out your faith in God in your everyday life? You can take a step of faith, and one step at a time, walk
in complete faith as you trust God. God always has been faithful to you, and God always will be faithful to you.
(show slide #4) God will provide.
Philippians 4:19. “And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
What is something that you worry about? Turn to the person next to them and tell them the top two things you
worry about every day or every week. There are all kinds of things we worry about.
God wants us to trust that He will provide. He will meet all our needs. He knows what we need. He is looking
out for you. God doesn’t want you to spend time worrying; He wants you to put your trust in Him and know that
He will provide for you.
Elijah trusted God enough to walk down to a brook and sit there while the birds brought him food. That sounds
a little ridiculous, doesn’t it? Do you think if God told you to do that, that you could go sit at a brook and wait
for some birds to bring you breakfast? Elijah had a radical trust. Do you trust God that much? If you do, then
you don’t have to worry.
(show slide #5) God wants obedience.
Psalm 119:145. “I cry out with my whole heart; Hear me, O Lord! I will keep Your statutes.”
What do you think this “cry out” means? Does it mean that you cry like when you fall off your skateboard and
rip your knee open? Does it mean cry like when you don’t get your way and you’re trying to make someone
give you what you want? Sometimes we cry out when we want something so badly that we just can’t keep it
inside. What’s going on inside you—what you want more than anything—comes out in a sound of crying out.
God wants the cry of your heart today to be an enormous desire to worship and obey Him. Elijah showed
major radical obedience, by taking a step of faith, to follow where God led Him.
What does God want from you? He wants you to follow Him and obey Him. He wants you to cry out to Him …
to worship Him … to trust Him … to do what He tells you to do.
ACTIVITY - VIDEO
Beforehand, download the YouTube video clip called “Angus Buchan: Spreading the Hope of Jesus” submitted
by theofficial700club. This clip is over 8 minutes long; you can stop it after 2.39, or you can keep watching.
ING RED IENT S
— YouTube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_u6UPoEgb8&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLFA2E327
CF8610CA3
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This is the true story of a man named Angus Buchan, who lives in South Africa. He has a wonderful testimony
about how he became a Christian, and God transformed his life and showed Himself to Angus through many
miracles. But one miracle, in particular, stood out. The story of that miracle became a movie called “Faith Like
Potatoes”, based on this true story. Angus was a potato farmer, and farming potatoes is one of the hardest
crops to farm, because you plant them in the ground and pray for rain. With most other crops, you can see
what they’re going to be like when they’re ready, but with potatoes, you just have to have faith that they will turn
out.
Angus planted the potatoes, even though it hadn’t rained in a long time and the ground was dry. Everyone told
him it was crazy to plant potatoes. But he trusted God and was obedient to Him as he prayed for rain. At the
end of the potato farming season, when it was time to see the harvest, Angus believed there would be potatoes
in the ground. God did provide—big and perfect potatoes! The movie goes in depth about Angus and his life,
and it’s a great movie to watch with the family.
Angus is still alive today and preaches everywhere, sharing His testimony of God’s great faithfulness. We can
learn from Angus and his faithfulness to God. Just like Elijah, Angus trusted God to provide. And did God
provide? Oh yes!
You can also show a trailer for the movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8YAzrssT8c
PRAYER
What do you depend on God to provide for you? Even if it’s not food, we can still count on God to provide for
us. Share some examples with the people next to you. When we need patience, God may provide us with an
extra good night’s sleep, so we can be more patient the next day. When we’re feeling a little grumpy, we can
ask God for joy, and He will show us things we can be joyful about. Our needs are not always things we can
hold in our hands.
ING RED IENT S
— watercolors
— paint brushes
— water
— small cups
— paper towels
In the Bible story today, God used birds to provide; and today, God can use anything to provide for you. He
might provide through the grocery stores, or through your parents, your church, your friends, through nature,
through music, through Scripture.
— large pieces of
art paper
Kids love to paint and use different mediums to express themselves artistically. We can talk with God and show
our heart to Him through art. The kids will use watercolors to paint a picture of what it means for God to be
their Provider. (Keep cups of clean water and paper towels within their reach.) They can paint a picture of a
time when God provided for them, or maybe it’s a picture of something they trust God to provide for them.
The kids will then use their pictures as they verbalize their prayer. Prayer today will be a time of thanksgiving
and commitment to trust God as their Provider.
ACTIVITY
This game could get messy, but the kids will enjoy it. Give 10 students each a pair of the non-latex rubber
gloves. Spray their hands lightly with adhesive spray and put a plate of graham crackers at one end of the
room. The kids will pass the crackers to each other, one by one, down the line. It will be difficult to pass them
when everyone’s hands are covered in sticky spray. What was so hard about this game?
It would have been easier to get the food to the next person if you didn’t have sticky spray on your hands.
And sometimes, it’s difficult the way God chooses to provide for us; sometimes it’s not in the way WE would
want. Elijah probably had a different way in mind. Maybe he would have rather had God just shoot down a
hamburger and milkshake from heaven every day, but God did it HIS way. God does not promise that He will
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ING RED IENT S
— non-latex rubber
gloves
— spray adhesive
— graham
crackers
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work things out the way we have envisioned in our minds. He doesn’t promise that it will be in the expected
way. He doesn’t promise that we can sit there and it will come to us; there may be some work—hard work—
involved. No matter what, though, we can always trust Him to provide what we need. Our job is to trust Him
and obey Him, even if it’s difficult.
TAKE HOME REMINDER
Give each child a craft feather to take home. The feather is a reminder of the birds that brought Elijah food,
and a reminder that we can trust God to provide for us. We only need to be obedient and trust Him, and He
will take care of us.
ING RED IENT S
— feathers
Matthew 6:25-26, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your
body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds
them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”
In this verse, God talks about how He will take care of us. He says that He takes care of the sparrows by
providing them with food, and He promises to give us what we need and take care of us. This feather is a
reminder to you that God is watching out for you, and that God will provide for you.
BLESSING
May you trust God as He provides for you.
EXTRA ACTIVITIES
MUSIC
You are provided with some great Yancy songs for this quarter: “All I Need is You” and “Every Good and
Perfect Thing.” During worship, encourage the kids to focus on thanking and praising God for all the ways He
has provided for them. For more information about Yancy, go to her website at yancynotnancy.com.
SCRIPTURE MEMORIZATION
Psalm 34:8-9 (NLT)
“Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! Fear the Lord, you His godly
people,
for those who fear Him will have all they need.”
Beforehand, make a copy of the memory verse sheet at the end of the lesson for each team. Cut the pieces
of the scripture passage apart on the lines indicated. Place each scripture set at one end of the room. Each
team should have a pair of appetizer tongs and a black feather boa. At the signal, the first person on each
team will lay the black boa across their shoulders, from hand to hand, pick up the appetizer tongs, and “fly”
to where their team’s scripture papers are. They will pretend to be ravens, picking up one piece of paper with
their “beaks” (tongs) and returning it to their team. Once they return, they will pass off the feather boa and the
tongs to the next person, who will “fly” down to retrieve another piece of the scripture.
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ING RED IENT S
— DVD music
downloads
ING RED IENT S
— appetizer tongs
— black feather
boas
— memory verse
sheet at end of
lesson
— PowerPoint slide
of verses
As the slips of paper are delivered, the team members will work together to put their verse in order. Once it’s in
order, they will read it out loud.
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ACTIVITY - SKIT
Beforehand, make three signs that say:
One week later
Two weeks later
One month later
ING RED IENT S
— basketball
— poster board
— large marker
— 2 actors
(When the scene opens, actors are playing basketball.)
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Actor #1:
Dude, you’re pretty good at basketball!
Actor #2:
Thanks! I love this game. I think I started holding a basketball before I started walking.
Actor #1:
I love it, too. I play all the time with my brothers and sisters at home. Hey, you know what we
should do sometime? We should go get pizza at Ted’s Pizzeria. They have the BEST pizza in
town! Have you been there?
Actor #2:
That sounds so cool. I would LOVE to go. Let’s do it!
Actor #1:
Ok, I’ll call you and tell you when. I gotta go now, see you later.
(They exit. Hold up the sign that says “One week later.”)
Actor #2:
Hey! What happened? You never called about going to the Pizzeria, and I called and called
you. Why didn’t you get back to me?
Actor #1:
I’m sorry! I meant to call you, but I had something I had to do with my family this weekend.
Whatever. Let’s play a little basketball right now.
Actor #2:
Ok, that’s fine. I understand.
Actor #1:
So, why don’t we go to Ted’s Pizzeria THIS weekend instead? How does Friday night sound to
you?
Actor #1:
That sounds great!
Actor #2:
Ok, I’ll call you.
(They exit. Someone holds up the sign that says “Two weeks later.”)
(Actor #2 walks up with a basketball and sees Actor #1. Immediately, Actor #2 seems upset.)
Actor #1:
Hey, I’m sorry I never called about going for pizza! I had to work on a project, and couldn’t
call to tell you that I couldn’t go.
Actor #2:
Sure.
Actor#1:
Seriously! You gotta believe me! We will go THIS weekend for SURE. I promise.
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Actor#2:
For real?
Actor#1:
Yes, I promise.
Actor#2:
Ok, good. We’ll go this weekend. Don’t forget to call me!
Actor#1:
Ok, I will. See you on Friday!
(Actors exit, and someone comes out holding a sign that says “One month later.”)
(Actor #2 is dribbling the basketball alone when Actor #1 walks up.)
Actor #1:
Hey!
Actor #2:
(silence)
Actor #1:
What’s the matter? Aren’t you talking to me?
Actor #2:
(silence)
Actor #1:
Ok, I get it. I never called, and we never went for pizza. Well, sometimes things just come up!
Actor #2:
Whatever. I guess I shouldn’t believe you anyway. I can’t trust you.
Actor #1:
Well, I don’t know what else to say. Sorry.
This skit is a good example of a situation that’s probably happened to all of us. Is there anyone in your life who
constantly lets you down? And then, you start to think that person is not telling the truth, no matter what they tell
you? Is it easy to believe that person? No, it’s not easy to believe them. Why? Because they aren’t being faithful
and honest.
If someone consistently lets you down over … and over … and over again, it’s hard to trust them. But GOD is the
opposite of that, because He always comes through and provides for us … over … and over … and over again.
He will prove His faithfulness, just by being Himself. God is always faithful, and you can trust Him.
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SCRIPTURE CARDS FOR MEMORIZATION
Taste and
see that
the Lord is good.
Oh, the joys
of those who
take refuge
in him!
Fear the Lord,
you His
godly people,
for those who
fear Him
will have
all they need.