THINK TOGETHER.
Do you know what restraint is?
READ TOGETHER
Proverbs 29:18. Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.
Can you find the book of Judges in your Bible? The book of Judges occurs after the Israelites have entered into the Promised Land, but before they had a king. The great leaders, Moses and Joshua have died, and the prophet Samuel has not yet been born. The book of Judges gives us the stories of Gideon, and Deborah, and Samson. Do you remember any of these stories?
The book of Judges also illustrates today’s proverb.
Where there is no prophetic vision: In the book of Judges there often was no prophet speaking for God and telling the people what to do.
The people cast off restraint: This is a fancy way of saying that everyone just did whatever they wanted to do. Sort of like when the teacher leaves the classroom for a few minutes and all the students start talking, goofing off, and maybe even cheating. In Judges the people did terrible things because they thought God wasn’t watching.
What about you? Do you have restraint? Restraint means that you can keep yourself from doing wrong things, you can withstand temptations, you can make the right choices?
The good news is that when you have Jesus you always have a prophet with you telling you right from wrong. Jesus is the greatest prophet ever. His prophetic vision is one of love. He looks into the future and sees you living with God forever, always being loved. Always loving. Always obeying God. And if we can see this as our future, maybe we can make it happen starting today.
Because of Jesus we have a vision of what our future will be like.
With Jesus and his vision of the future, you can restrain yourself and make good choices.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Listen to and sing together What a Friend We Have in Jesus.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, please help me make choices that look like my future with you.
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