Miracle

A twig snapped. Brayleigh turned to see a pair of yellow eyes staring at her. A wolf!

At first, she was rooted to her spot staring at the powerful black furry creature. Fear brought sweat to her brow and her heart beat against her ribs. A slow step back. Another. The ground beneath her foot slid. Swoosh! Gravity pulled her through the hole. Thud. She landed in the dark earth. Terror gripped her before the pain in her arm. She landed with her arm twisted under her.

From her shoulder to her fingers pain seared. She used her other arm to raise herself off the injured one. It must be broken. Fingers refused to move. Sure enough—a bone was almost sticking through the skin. She passed out.

A while later, she came to and realization of her predicament assailed her. She needed help!

First, she had to immobilize her arm. She inched her belt off, refastened the buckle, and slid it over her head. With gentle movements, she placed her injured arm on the belt and her hand between the buttons of her shirt, to rest on her stomach.

She peered around her. The space was a small room. It didn’t appear to be any other way out—but up. Sunlight barely penetrated. Shaking, she rose and leaned against the wall of her cave. Her head swam and her breath was ragged. A yell would not be heard from any human. She was all alone.

It was up to her and she needed to climb out. Try as she might, she was not able get a good toe hold. A few rocks littered the ground. Brayleigh drug them over to make stepping stones. She tentatively climbed. The climb was slow—she only had use of one hand. Any jolt of the injured one brought extreme pain.

The fourth stone slipped and so did she. Bang! This time, she landed on her backside and thankfully didn’t hit her head. “Thank You, Lord!” The prayer escaped her lips. Realization struck her. She hadn’t prayed. “Lord, I am all alone and hurt. Please help me. I need strength to get out or... a miracle.”

Sweet peace washed over her. With new resolve, she stacked the rocks. She tilted her head up and glimpsed a ledge. “I just need to get to the ledge then maybe I can pull myself up from there.” She giggled. “I’m talking to myself again. Oh, well, hearing myself makes me feel better.”

She lifted her leg. Snap! She spun to the noise. “What was that?” Brayleigh didn’t see anything. Dead silence met her. Her foot came down on the first rock. As she climbed, she kept her eyes peeled to where the sound came from. A scraping came from the dark crevice. She was not alone!

A nose poked out followed by dark eyes. She didn’t wait to find out what it was. Fear made her scramble up the rocks. From the top rock, she leapt to the ledge, pulling herself up. She lie panting on the flat surface. “Amazing! I made it! Thank you Lord!” She paused and frowned, “Did you just give me a miracle?” She poked her face over the edge. “Wow. What a long way down. I wouldn’t normally be able to make the jump. I guess the Lord sent that, whatever it is, to frighten me into a mighty leap.” A smile grew at the realization.

Her legs were weak but held her up. Brayleigh stretched and reached. “I can’t reach the top!” She sat. Knees up and head resting on them, she prayed. “Lord, I need another miracle. I’m too short to reach out of this hole. My arm is throbbing. I keep getting dizzy. I’m frightened, tired, and thirsty. No one knows where I am and I don’t want to cry.” A sob erupted. She swallowed another. Brayleigh got to her feet. Automatically, she reached up and her foot found a hold. The rock took her weight. Her other foot found a thick protruding root.

There she was—suspended on the side of the wall, with loose dirt sliding down all around her. She hugged and pressed as she searched for another foot hold. That’s when she almost screamed!

Those yellow eyes pierced hers. The wolf!

 

She trembled. Did he want to eat her? She whispered, “Lord, now what do I do?”

“He is my creation. Trust me.”

Those words reverberated through her being. “Is that You, Lord?”

“Reach up.”

Her hand reached upward almost on its own. The wolf leaned toward her and opened his mouth. She squeezed her eyes tight. A tug on her shirt collar and she was rising. Without a second thought, she opened her eyes and grabbed hold of soft fur. Inch by inch she ascended.  The progress stopped. The wolf started to slip. “Oh no! Lord, please!”

Wings beat the air around her. A huge black bird grabbed the other side of her shirt. Together they pulled her up and over the side. The bird swooped away to the nearest tree to survey her. The wolf trotted a bit away, sat and glowered at her. Brayleigh trembled. She slowly sat up—careful of her injury.

“Thank you again Lord. I don’t understand. Why would these animals help me? Your ways are higher than mine. Shall I get up and go home? How do I thank these beautiful yet frightening creatures?”

All through her prayer to the Lord, her eyes had never left the wolf. “Thank you wolf for saving my life.” She relaxed.

Her gaze went to the bird she believed to be a hawk. “Thank you for helping the wolf save my life.” The hawk dipped his head, flapped his mighty wings, and soared into the cloudless blue sky.

She turned toward the wolf, but he was gone. Brayleigh swiveled her head back and forth. “Well, if you are still watching, I’m leaving now.”

She carefully picked herself up and headed home. “No one will believe me. But I know what happened. Mama always said, ‘God works in mysterious ways.’ Oh, boy... does He!”

 

Boys and girls, the Lord does do things we cannot understand. Anything He does is a miracle because He is the only one who does miracles. His miracles may be large ones like what happened to Brayleigh or small ones we don’t see or recognize. He protects us and gives us things we need all the time. All we need to do is have faith in Him. Trust Him to get us through. He doesn’t say He will take away our trials but that He will get us through them. We just need to have faith. Brayleigh is a fictional character from my imagination but I know people who have experience great miracles like she did, myself included.

The thing I want you to take away from this story is faith and a relationship with the Lord. If you have trusted the Lord as Savior, you have a loving heavenly Father who wants what is best for you. He loves for you to talk to him about anything. You develop the kind of relationship Brayleigh exampled by talking to him and listening to His voice and reading His words in the Bible.

 

The verse Brayleigh quoted is Isaiah: 55:8 “For my thought are not your thoughts, nor are your way my ways.” says the Lord.

It would be a great idea if you memorized that verse.

 

Verses in NKJV unless otherwise stated

 

 

Jairus' Daughter

Thousands of years ago, a girl in Israel was twelve years old when she got sick and died. She was a real girl. We don’t know much about her, so I will make up her story. We will call her Sarah and this is what I think may have happened.

■■■

Sarah an only child, lived in a village where her papa was a well-known ruler or teacher at the town’s synagogue. A synagogue is a place of worship for the Jewish people. Her mama’s name was Naomi and Jairus was her papa.

They were a busy family, with many responsibilities in the town and synagogue as well as caring for others. Naomi made food for anyone who was sick or in need. Sarah helped prepare the meals and accompanied her when she delivered them.

On one such visit, the family was very sick and Naomi told her, “Sarah. I want you to stay out here while I carry the vessels in.”

Sarah stood by the donkey who had a small cart attached. It took a few trips for Naomi to bring in the pots of food. “Let’s take the rest over to Rebekah’s. Then we can see her new baby. I believe they named him Steven.”

“I like the name Steven. Do you think they will let me hold him?”

“We shall see.”

On the way, they were stopped by others and they chatted. This was the best way for Sarah’s family to find out the news and see who needed help. Everyone loved them and liked to visit.

The baby, Steven, was robust and handsome. Sarah was able to hold him and sang him a song that made him fall sound asleep. His mama smiled and took him from her to put him in his bed. “Thank you Sarah. I may ask you to watch him sometime when I have too many chores and the other children are underfoot.”

A few days later, Sarah started coughing and she had a fever. Naomi left her in bed with a servant in charge when she took some meals over to friends. When she arrived back home she immediately checked on Sarah. “My dear, you are quite warm. Let me get you some water.” Naomi gave Sarah sips of water and put a cool cloth on her forehead.

That evening, Jairus came home from teaching at the synagogue. “Where is my Sarah? She normally greets me, eager to tell news of her day.”

“I’m afraid she is sick in bed.”

“I’ll go see her and bring a smile to her face.”

“Sarah, how are you feeling?”

Sarah could only croak out a small hushed, “Papa.”

Papa took her into his strong arms. He wasn’t able to get her to smile, nor could he take her fever away.

After Naomi and Jairus had finished the evening meal, he said, “I’m worried about Sarah. She looks pale and weak. Did she eat anything?”

“I can barely get water down her sore throat.”

“That’s not good. I hear the Teacher is traveling through. Tomorrow, I’m going to ask Him to come and touch her and make her well.”

“He has healed many people. Will he come to our home? She is too weak to bring her to him.”

“I will try. We must say prayers for her.”

“I’m going to sit up with her tonight.”

Jairus took her in a hug. “That a fine idea.”

The next morning, Jairus found Naomi trying to cool Sarah down with wet cloths. “She’s much worse. Do you think you can find the Teacher? Please bring him here. Our girl is so sick. I’m afraid!”

Jairus wasted no time to go find the teacher.

Jesus, the Teacher, was down by the sea surrounded by a mob of people. Most of the people came from other villages. Many people asked Him questions. Some were waiting to see a miracle. Others were his followers and tried to be near Him as often as possible. A few of His close disciples were also with Him.

Jairus had a difficult time breaking through the crowd. Out of breath and with reverence, he fell on his face before Jesus and said, “My daughter is near death. Please come and put your hands on her that she may be healed, and she will live.” (Mark 5: 23)

Jesus said He would go with him. The crowd followed. Before they could get to Jairus’ house, Jesus stopped because a woman touched his garment. At the time she touched Him, He healed her because of her faith.

■■■

Back at home, Naomi was being comforted by her neighbors and friends. Sarah’s little lifeless body lie on the bed. Tears were shed and wailing could be heard down the street. “Where is Jairus?”

“He went to find the Teacher to heal our baby.”

“My brother and I will go tell him not to bother the Teacher.”

■■■

Jesus was speaking to the woman He healed when two men from Jairus house came. “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” (Mark 5: 35)

Jesus told Jairus, “Do not be afraid; only believe.”

Jesus turned to the crowd and told them they could not follow. He only let Peter, James, and John, three of His disciples, to come with them to Jairus’ house. When they arrived, Jesus said, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.”

The people ridiculed Jesus because they knew she was dead. Jesus made them all leave. He took the tree disciples, Naomi, and Jairus to where Sarah was lying. He took her hand into his strong one and said, “Little girl, I say to you arise.” (Mark 5: 41)

Immediately, Sarah jumped up and walked around the bed to her parents. They embraced. They were almost overcome with joy! The Lord Jesus had made her alive again! He told them to give her some food.

Sarah never thought her mama’s cooking had ever tasted so good. The people who mourned returned and there was a celebration.

Jesus told Jairus to believe. His faith brought Jesus to heal his daughter. He trusted and believed Jesus could do anything even bring his daughter back to life.  Only Jesus, who is God, can bring people back to life again. He made her and gave her life again. Jesus healed many people while He walked on the earth. You can read this true account in Matthew 9:18-26 and Mark 5:21-43. Remember, part of what I wrote is my imagination—the center part about Jesus healing her is fact.

Memorize this short part of the verse: Mark 5: 36c “Do not be afraid; only believe.”

Verses in NKJV unless otherwise stated

Salvation

In the last lesson on Faith (Faith 3)we looked at the verse, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. We focused on who Jesus Christ is. In this lesson, I want to talk about the word believe. In the earlier lessons on faith (Faith 1 and Faith 2), I talked about believing, or trusting, in something or someone even if you cannot see them. The subject of our belief, in this verse and throughout the Bible, is Jesus. If you have any questions on believing, look back at the lessons: Faith 1 and 2. Notice the last part of this verse, you shall be saved. Why do we need to be saved?

Let me ask you some questions. Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever taken anything that didn’t belong to you? Have you ever disobeyed your Mom or Dad? Those things: lying, stealing, and disobeying are called sins. A sin is any thought or action against God. God says in His word that we should obey our parents. We should not steal, kill, lie, or think evil of anyone. God has 10 Commandments that He gave Moses in the Bible for His people. A commandment is a firm law or instruction we need to follow. You can see the 10 Commandments in Exodus chapter 20.

God is Holy. Holy means perfect and without sin. Heaven is the place where God dwells. It is full of angels praising Him. It is a beautiful place where Jesus is waiting for the time we can come and join Him there. Golden streets, a beautiful river, flowers, trees, mansions, and many more wonderful things fill heaven. Jesus said He was building a place for us there. You may know someone who trusted Jesus as their Savior and later died and is now in Heaven. Heaven is a Holy place that is filled with God’s glory because God is there.

God cannot let sin into his presence in Heaven. This makes a problem for us. We are sinners. At the beginning of this lesson I talked about sin. We have sinned. I've lied, stolen, and disobeyed. This makes me a sinner. You also have sinned. The Bible says in Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All means every person ever born. Because we have sinned, we cannot come close to the glory of God.

So, the day in November years ago when I was born, I was born a sinner. Even though I was extremely cute, I was still a sinner. That means I cannot, on my own, make it into heaven. You, cute as you were on the day you were born, were also born a sinner and cannot make it into heaven on your own. We can never be good enough or do enough good things for the perfect God.

What does that mean? What shall we do? If we cannot get into heaven on our own, what can be done? God knows what had to be done. God knows everything. God knew this was a problem even before He made Adam and Eve. God knew that people would sin, and sin had to be paid for. The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Wages are payment. Let’s say I asked you to mow my lawn. When you were finished mowing my lawn, I would be in debt to you until I paid you for that job. Payment to you would be your wage. Sin is a debt to God and needs to be paid.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, God made it very clear that when sin was committed, it needed to be paid by something dying. Blood needed to be shed to cover that sin. God created Adam and Eve. They were the very first people ever to live. He created a beautiful place for them to live in called the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden by disobeying God. God told them not to eat from a particular tree. God said they could eat from all the trees except for one. They ate from that tree, disobeying God. The sin had to be paid by something dying and spilling its blood. God killed a lamb as payment for their sin. The blood of the lamb was shed as a picture to cover their sin. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:22c …without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Remission is another word for forgiveness.

Our payment for our sin is death. That means someone has to die for my sin, your sin, and everyone’s sin. That someone needs to be without sin, or perfect, for the payment. How can sin pay for sin? It can't. If I died for myself, that wouldn’t work because I am not without sin. The person paying for my sin has to be without sin. That Person is God the Son, Jesus Christ. He is our Savior. Jesus, being God, is perfect. He is without sin. He never told a lie, stole, or disobeyed His parents. He never did anything wrong. He never sinned. When Jesus Christ grew up and became a man, He took all our sin on Himself. He died for that sin on the cross.  His perfect, sinless blood was the payment, the wage, for our sin. Wow! He died for my sin. He died for your sin! He died for everyone’s sin!

Jesus also conquered death. After He died, He was buried. He was placed in a grave, and on the third day, He arose!  He walked with His friends on the earth. That means He is alive! Then, He went to Heaven to sit on the right side of God. He is in Heaven waiting for us. He loves us so much that He did all those things for us.

There is only one thing you can do about all of this. That one thing is to believe, or trust, in what God did for you on the cross to forgive your sin debt. When I was a little girl of five years old, I asked my daddy, “How can I go to heaven?” He explained to me that I was a sinner. I needed to have someone pay for my sin. Jesus paid for my sin on the cross. I needed to have faith, to believe in him to take away my sin. That day, I asked Jesus to be my Savior. I thanked Jesus for dying for my sin. Because I did that, one day after I die, I will be in heaven. I did what the verse at the beginning of our lesson says. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” Earlier I mentioned a verse, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The last part of the verse talks about the gift from God is eternal life. The word eternal means forever. If we trust Jesus for what He did for us on the cross, we get the free gift. The free gift is to go to heaven someday and live with Him forever.

Have you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior? Do you have faith in him? I hope so because I want to meet you in heaven someday! 

If you need to do this, ask your parents or Pastor and they will be able to help you.  I am praying for you. If you have a question for me, you can write it in the comment box at the end of this or any of the lessons.

Memorize:  Acts16:31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

If you already know that verse, pick another one from the lesson to learn, and say it to someone. If you know all of them, then say all of them to someone.

 Verses in NKJ unless otherwise stated.

Faith 3

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” You find this written in the Bible in the book of Acts chapter 16 verse 3. Some of you may have heard or read that verse before. What does it mean? First of all, who is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is God. God is made up of three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. God, three in one. It is hard for our brains to understand. God is greater than us and far above our thinking. God the Father and Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit, as one God, created everything. The world we live in, the trees, mountains, flowers, oceans, birds, animals, people and everything else were created by God. God loved us and made the world beautiful for us.

God the Father sent His only Son, Jesus (God the Son) to come to be born on Earth. We celebrate His birth at Christmas time. Look at the word Christmas. Christ is in the word Christmas. I love Christmas! I love to see the snow and beautiful decorations. I love to give and receive gifts. We celebrate Jesus’ Birthday by giving gifts to each other. Aren’t you glad on your birthday you don’t have to give gifts to others? Remember, when you are opening gifts on Christmas, that it is Jesus’ Birthday, and wish Him a Happy Birthday!

Jesus is the One called Christ who was promised to come since the beginning of the Bible. The Bible is God’s word and everything in it is true because God never lies. Everything in the Bible points to Jesus coming. Jesus is the One Abraham believed would come someday. Abraham believed God’s promise that through his family one special someone would someday come. Jesus Christ is the promised One, the Savior.

I just mentioned Abraham, and you may be wondering who Abraham is. Abraham is the father of the Israelites, also known as the Hebrew Jews. The Jews are people chosen by God to be His special people. You may have heard of the country of Israel. Israel is the place and name of God’s chosen people. If you have someone to help you, or if you can do it yourself, look at the world map and locate Israel. It is a very tiny country in the Middle East, next to the Mediterranean Sea. We can read about Abraham in our Bibles. He was born thousands of years before Jesus Christ, God’s Son, came to be born. God promised to send a Savior, or Deliverer, for all the people of the world. Abraham believed in Christ our Savior. Jesus Christ would come to save His people from their sins many years after Abraham lived. Abraham would not live to see Christ, but he still believed in Him. Most people throughout the Old Testament of the Bible believed that Christ would one day come, and they were looking forward to that day.

The verse I wrote at the beginning of the lesson is: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Hopefully you understand who the Lord Jesus Christ is. He is the focus of who we are to believe in. I will explain why we need to believe, or trust, in Him in the next lesson on Faith: Salvation. I know these lessons may be difficult to understand. I am praying for you that the Lord Jesus will help you understand who He is.  

Memorize: Acts16:31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

Faith 2

There are many examples of people with great faith in the Bible. For a list of many, you can read of them in Hebrews chapter 11. We call this the faith chapter. You may have heard of some of the people listed in this chapter, like Moses, Abraham, Sarah, Rahab, and Noah. These people demonstrated or acted on their faith in God. They lived before Jesus Christ came to die for their sin. They had faith in a Savior hundreds of years before that Savior, Jesus, came. 

                                                     

 









During the time Jesus lived on the Earth, people also expressed great faith in Him. There were many times that Jesus healed people because they had faith that He could heal them. Jesus healed people who were blind, lame, crippled, or had other things wrong with them.

One such person you can read about in Mark 5:22-24, 35-43 and Luke 8:41-42, 49-56. This person of faith was a father of a young girl. The girl became very sick. The father went to find Jesus because he knew or had faith Jesus could heal his daughter. After the father set out to find Jesus, his daughter died. The father got to Jesus and asked Him to come to his house to heal his daughter, not knowing she was already dead. Jesus and the father were on the way to his house when the man’s servant ran up to him and told him it is too late, for his daughter had already died. When Jesus heard this, he told the father to believe or to have faith. When they got to his house, Jesus told everyone not to cry and to leave the house for she was only sleeping. Jesus went over to the young girl and took her hand and said, “Little girl, arise.” She sat up, and Jesus told the parents to feed her. That was a miracle. The man had faith in Jesus. He came looking for Jesus to heal his daughter. He believed Jesus was the only one who could heal her. 

In Mark 2:1-12 and Luke 5:17-25 we read about four men who had great faith in Jesus. They had a friend who was not able to walk. He was crippled or lame. They heard that Jesus was going to be at a certain house. They knew Jesus could heal their friend. They took a bed they could carry and put their lame friend on it. They carried him to see Jesus. When they got to the house where Jesus was, they couldn’t get in, because there were too many people. So they went up on the roof and opened up a hole in it. They tied ropes to their friend's bed and let their friend down into the middle of all the people so Jesus could heal him. When Jesus saw them and perceived they had great faith, Jesus said to the lame man, “Your sins are forgiven you.” He also healed him and told him, “Take up your bed and walk.” The man immediately picked up his bed and walked! That is a miracle. The men had faith in Jesus. They believed Jesus could heal their friend. The lame man also had faith that Jesus would heal him. 

In Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-9 we find a centurion, or soldier, of the Roman army who knew Jesus healed people. He had a servant who was sick, and the centurion wanted Jesus to heal him. The centurion went to Jesus and asked Jesus to heal his servant. Jesus started to go to the centurion’s home, but the centurion said that he wasn’t worthy of Jesus to come to his home. The centurion said for Jesus to say the words and his servant would be healed. He knew (believed, had faith) that Jesus just needed to say the words and it would be done, even though He was far away. Jesus was impressed with the centurion’s faith. Jesus said, “I have not found such great faith.” The servant was immediately healed. The centurion had great faith in Jesus. 

These are just a few of the ones Jesus healed because of their faith. In first lesson (Faith 1), I explained that faith is believing or trusting in something or someone. These people all had faith. They knew in their hearts that Jesus could and would heal. Wouldn’t it be great to have such faith? I will share more about the faith you can have in another lesson.

Please memorize this verse: Hebrews 11:1 Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You are probably wondering what that verse means. Let me help you understand it. This verse is talking about having faith in Jesus Christ, our God. Even though we do not see Jesus, we trust Him to be our Savior and we will live with Him in heaven someday. 

Those of you who are older and would like a more detailed breakdown of the different words in the verse may read on. Remember, faith is believing or trusting in something even if you cannot see it. The word substance is kind of tricky. It means what something consists of, the physical matter, or material. It can be a subject matter. In this case the subject is Jesus Christ, God the Father and heaven. Evidence is a means of proving or disproving something. Evidence is used to make things clear so you will know how to understand something or believe something. Let’s say there was a cookie jar in the kitchen with one cookie in it. You saw the cookie and thought that cookie would be good for dessert after dinner. You went outside to play for a while. When you came back in, you went into the kitchen and the cookie was gone! You decided to look for evidence to find out who took the cookie. You first asked your mom where the cookie went. She didn’t know. So you asked her who had been in the kitchen. She said the neighbor had come over for a short visit with her husband. Your mom said she and your dad enjoyed the visit with the neighbors. Your evidence now shows four people could have taken the cookie. You are building up your evidence. After asking more questions, you find out your dad gave the last cookie to your neighbor. You now have evidence that the cookie was eaten by your neighbor. The word evidence in the verse is talking about things we cannot see about God and heaven. Think about what evidence we have that God exists. God exists even though we do not see him. We find evidence in the Bible, creation, other Christians and your relationship with Jesus. I hope this helps you understand a difficult verse. 

Verses in NKJ unless otherwise stated.

Faith 1

What is faith? Faith is belief in or having confidence in something we might not see, hear, or touch. Believing is like relying on or trusting in. In the lessons on obedience, I talked to you about trusting your parents. In Obedience 2, Tyler the Tiger learned to trust his parents. Trusting in your parents is pretty easy when you can see, hear, and touch them. Trusting or having faith in something you cannot see, hear, or touch is difficult.

I have a chair I am sitting in while I type this lesson to you. It is big and black with soft padding, a high back, and wheels. Every day I go to that chair and I sit right down. I don’t worry if it will not hold me. I never go to the chair and say, “Large Black Chair will you hold me up today? Are you strong enough? Can I trust you to do what you have been designed to do?” That would be silly! I just go and sit down on it. When I go to someone’s house, church, school, or a restaurant, I sit on the chair that is available to me. I don’t even think about it. I just sit down.

                                                                          

God wants us to trust Him like that. He doesn’t want us to say, “Large, big, powerful, creator God, will you hold me up today? Are you strong enough? Can I trust you to do what you have said you will do?" That would be like when I talked to the chair. It’s silly! God, the Lord Jesus, is all powerful! He created, or made, the stars and the world with everything in it out of nothing! He holds it all together in His mighty hand!

Let me ask you a question. Can you see the wind? You probably shook your head no. You can see its strength when you see trees moving in it. But you still cannot see it. Wind is important to us because it moves our weather around. We get rain and snow because wind blows clouds together. Wind helps clouds pull water from the oceans. Clouds need water from the oceans to make rain and snow. Wind that is moving fast makes a howling noise, but each piece of wind doesn’t make a noise. So, we really cannot hear, or see wind.  

                                                                       

Do you know what gravity is? Gravity is the pull the earth has on objects. When I jump in the air, I come right back down. Try it. Get up and jump. Are you still up in the air? No, I don’t think so. That would be amazing if you were. You landed on the floor. You cannot see gravity, hear it, or touch it. But it is still there. Gravity is important because without it we would float away! It is what keeps us on the earth.

How about air? You breathe it and your body needs it or you would die. It is very important. You cannot taste, see, hear, or feel it. The only time you can feel it is when something blows it on you, but if there is not that movement you do not feel it.

We all need air, gravity, and wind for us to survive. We have them all around us all the time, but we cannot see, hear, or touch them. Air, gravity, and wind exist even though we cannot see, hear, or touch them. God exists although we cannot see, hear, or touch Him. Gen. 1:1a says, In the beginning God… God has always existed and always will exist. He is what we call eternal. He has always been and will always be. That is hard to understand because we live in time. God does not live in time. He created time for us. He lives outside of time.

Faith in God can sometimes be difficult because you cannot see, hear, or touch Him. The Bible is God’s word and it says in Rom. 10:17 So then faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God. Where do we get faith? We get it from God’s word. The more you read or hear God’s word, the more faith you receive. God gives us faith if we ask Him for it.

Why do we need faith? We need faith, which is trusting and believing in Jesus and what He did on the cross, for forgiveness of our sin. When we trust or have faith in Jesus, we can go to heaven someday. We also need faith to please God. Heb. 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. This verse says we please him by having faith in Him. We need faith. We need to believe that God is real.  He rewards children and adults who look to find Him. We find Him in His word, the Bible.

You may not be able to read all the words in the Bible. An adult or order child can help you. Listening to someone read to you out of the Bible, or listening to a Bible lesson, is the same as reading it.  You have been learning about God today just by listening to or reading this lesson. Good Job! You are on your way to growing your faith!

                                                                        

Every time I sit on that big black chair, I know it will hold me up. Sometimes I sit in a chair and I hold three of my grandchildren! You know what? The chair holds all four of us! Every second I take a breath I know I will breathe in air. Every day, every second, I know gravity will keep me on the earth. I don’t float all around the room. The wind is also there every moment, moving our weather every day.

Just like these things always happen without us seeing, hearing or touching them, we know they are there and they help us. That is the same with God. He is always there helping me. More importantly, God created and controls the gravity, wind, and the air we breathe. He is more powerful than anything! The Bible says, even the winds obey Him.

At the beginning of this lesson, I said faith is believing or trusting in something you might not see, hear, or touch. Do you believe gravity, wind and air exist? That is faith. You believe what you cannot see, hear, or touch. I have faith in God. He exists even though I have never seen or touched Him. He Loves me. He created me. He loves you. He created you to have faith in Him. Do you Have faith in God?

Memorize: Rom. 10:17 So then faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Verses in NKJ unless otherwise stated.