THINK TOGETHER
What is something hard that we are facing as a family? (big or small)
READ TOGETHER
God’s people, Abraham’s family, the Hebrews, were slaves in Egypt for 400 years. But finally they were going to be free. After the ten plagues Pharaoh decided to let the Hebrews go.
But it wasn’t long before Pharaoh changed his mind…again…and decided to chase after the Hebrews and make them his slaves. The Hebrews who left happy and rejoicing now were being chased by Pharaoh’s army with chariots, spears, and swords. And, even worse, the Hebrews were trapped at the edge of a large body of water called the Red Sea. They couldn’t go forward or they would all drown. And they couldn’t go backwards or they would all be killed by Pharaoh’s army.
What should they do? What would you do?
Listen to what God told Moses to tell the people to do:
Exodus 14:13-14. 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
God is telling them to do the hardest thing ever – nothing. Just stand still, stop screaming, and watch God fight for you.
And then God said this to Moses:
Exodus 14:16. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.
Next God told them to do something even harder – go forward into the sea.
Into the sea!
You see back then people thought that the sea itself was evil. They believed that everything bad came from the sea. And they believed that no one could control the sea.
But God can.
God opened up the Red Sea for his people. He turned it into dry ground. He made a path through it, so that all the people could walk through the Red Sea that day to the other side.
And this took great faith. The Hebrews had to trust that God was more powerful than both Pharaoh’s army, and the evil sea. And he is!
The story of the Red Sea is a picture for us of what God still does for us in Jesus. In our lives we will face some very hard things. Maybe we will get sick or hurt. Or maybe we will need to be kind to someone who isn’t very nice. Or maybe our family will have to go through something hard together. But did God make the Red Sea disappear for Moses and the Hebrews? No. And he isn’t going to make the hard things in our life disappear either.
Instead, God is going to ask us to trust that he loves us no matter what, and then he is going to ask us to walk through the hard things of life – the hurts and the sadness, the temptations and the trials – believing that, because of Jesus, God will always be with us.
Because of Jesus and his cross, the hardest thing ever has already been done – sin defeated and forgiven.
With Jesus we can do hard things and learn to trust God.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
If your family is going through something extra hard use today’s blog to talk it through with your children. Why doesn’t God just make hard things go away? What sin is God trying to help us overcome? How can we trust God together?
PRAY TOGETHER
Dear Jesus,
You did the hardest thing ever when you died on the cross for me. Help me to do hard things knowing that you love me and are trying to help me be less selfish.
Amen.
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