THINK TOGETHER
What is one of the best gifts you’ve ever received?
READ TOGETHER
When you become a Christian you get some amazing gifts from God. Eternal life. Complete forgiveness. Unconditional love. But maybe the best gift, and most important is the gift of a new heart. When you receive Jesus as your savior you receive a brand new heart that wants to love and obey God. Listen to how the Apostle Paul says it here in Romans 6:
Romans 6:17. But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
You have become obedient from the heart.
Is it hard for you to obey? Is it hard for you to listen to your mom or your dad? To your teachers or pastors? To your coaches? When you do obey them do you do it because you really want to obey them, or because you have to obey them?
The Bible says that when we trust in Jesus we are given a brand new desire to obey God. Now that doesn’t mean that you always will obey God. You will still sin. You will still disobey Jesus and the adults that he has put in charge of your life. You will still be selfish sometimes, and greedy, and lazy, and mean to your little sister. But when you’re a Christian what you’ll notice is that when you do these bad things they never feel quite right. They feel abnormal and strange.
Why will doing bad things feel bad? Because when you have Jesus in your heart you love God more than you love that bad thing. Deep inside you want to love God and do what pleases him. Now you can stop and think before you say and do the first thing that pops into our minds. You can stop and think about how much you really love God, and Jesus, and others too. Now we can do what is right, and do it from our heart.
Because of Jesus we have a new heart.
With Jesus we can obey from the heart.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Watch the scene from the Grinch where his heart grows. This is not too different from what happens to us when we know God loves us no matter what.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, you’ve given me a new heart. Help me to remember how much God loves me and then obey him from that same love. Amen.
TLICfamily 