Listen up, little ones
Listen for the word faith.
Reading
Hebrews 11:1-6-Faith Is...
Optional Reading
Hab 2:1-4
Keys for kids
- Christians have to live by faith.
- Faith is confidence that what God promises is true.
- Faith in God pleases Him.
Questions
- What is faith?
- Is Christianity "pie in the sky?" Why or why not?
- How does faith please God?
Notes
(See Saturday for authors.)
God says that His people live by faith (Hab 2:4 and Heb 10:38). Here, in Hebrews 11, the Holy Spirit explains what faith really is and shows us examples of people who lived by faith.
So what is faith? Faith means trusting that God's promises are real, even when we can't see them yet. Faith isn't pretending or wishing. It's something solid and true because it's based on God's character, and God never lies.
Some people use the phrase pie in the sky. It means a promise that sounds good but probably won't happen. A man named Joe Hill started using that phrase over 100 years ago because he thought some Christians talked too much about heaven and not enough about helping people who were struggling on earth. So pie in the sky came to mean a promise that isn't real. But faith is not pie in the sky in that way. Faith is believing that what God says will happen.
Even C.S. Lewis talked about this. He said that Christianity really does promise something wonderful in the future - like pie in the sky-but the difference is that God's promise is true, not fake. Lewis said that if heaven weren't real, then Christianity wouldn't make sense at all.
So faith means trusting that all of God's promises are true. Faith shows us the reality of what we hope for. It is the proof of things we cannot see yet (Heb 11:1 NLT).
Swedish Method questions
Praise
Psalm 31c, 51a
Prayer
- Ask the Lord to increase your faith.
- Pray for the preparation for preaching God’s Word this Lord's Day.
- Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.