THINK TOGETHER
What do you do when you’re having a bad day?
READ TOGETHER
Yesterday we talked about hope. Our hope is that thing that we look forward to. With Jesus our hope of being loved by God and being with God is guaranteed forever. After hope comes faith. Our faith is that thing that we believe in, that we are trusting in. Our faith must be in our hope. Jesus is our hope, and we have faith in Jesus. Here’s how the Apostle Peter explained it to his Christian friends:
1 Peter 1:7-9. 7so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Our life on earth is one long testing of our faith. Peter compares our lives to gold that is put in the fire so that all the bad stuff can be burned off and all that is left behind is genuine faith. Faith that trusts in Jesus alone for eternal life, and eternal love. Faith that will lead to the salvation of our souls.
Usually when people go through something hard they might try to just make it go away as fast as they can. Or they might act like the hard thing is no big deal to them. Or they might whine and make sure everyone knows that they are having a bad day.
But Peter tells us to let the bad things in life teach us to run to God and learn to trust him. And as we learn to trust him we learn to be like him. We learn to love him, “even though we can’t see him.” And we learn to trust his great big love for us no matter what. And that is worth rejoicing in isn’t it?
Because of Jesus our souls will be saved.
With Jesus we will always have faith in God, even in our hard times.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
See if you can find a video of gold being refined and watch the process with your kids. Talk about how God refines our faith when he allows hard times.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, even though I can’t see you I love you. Help me to trust you more and more especially on my bad days. Amen.
TLICfamily 