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JU Basic Faith: Faith in Action Print E-mail
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Preparation:
  • Scripture readings from: Hebrews 11, Romans 10:17
  • Spend some time in prayer for the lesson and each student—that God will open their hearts and minds and teach them from His Word.

Introduction:
This session is another essential and foundational lesson. Like the previous two sessions, it is a sometimes difficult concept to grasp because it isn’t concrete. It is also difficult because everyone has varying amounts of faith and each person struggles with different ideas as he or she tries to understand faith. It is important to encourage each student that no matter where they are on their faith journey, God loves them and He is faithful even when we lack faith. He meets us right where we are and will bring us along in our faith journeys as long as we are willing to go. Discuss:
  • What is faith? (this is a time just to brainstorm…the students are going to learn about it during this lesson, so they don’t need to have the exact answer at this point.)
  • How do we gain more faith? (Once again, this will be discussed later, so there isn’t a definite answer at this point.)
  • Where are you in your faith journey? (The students may not want to answer this question aloud, but encourage them to think about it even if they don’t want to verbalize an answer.)

Activity: Here are a couple of activity ideas. The first one is one that has been done a lot and probably has been done by several of the students. It still helps to make the point, but could be overdone. The second one takes more preparation and requires a long table, but hasn’t been done as much.

#1: Blindfold everyone participating and line them up one behind the other and then lead them out to a location away from your meeting place. Place adult leaders around the perimeter to keep anyone from falling or tripping over something that would hurt them. Objective: To have everyone separate and find their way back to a designated location. After about 10 or 15 minutes, have the students pair up and have one person wear the blindfold and the other person be their guide. The guide must direct the person back to the destination by speaking to them and giving them direction. ( No touching).

Discuss: Have the students share the different feelings they experienced—first while they were walking around blindly and then how they changed knowing that someone was able to see and lead them to where they needed to go.
Have them compare this activity to living life without following God to living life following Him.

#2: Hand out balloons to different students in your group. Have them blow the balloons up and tie them off. Ask each student that has a balloon to come to the front of the room with the balloon. You will need to already have the table at the front of the room and turned upside down so that the legs of the table are sticking up. Have each person with a balloon stick their balloon under the surface of the table. You should have at least 15 balloons under the table and make sure that they are evenly distributed.

One at a time, allow students to take the step of faith and step on the back of the table. (Have students help each other balance). You will see that the balloons will not pop. Continue to allow as many students as possible to step on the table until you can't fit any more on. Most of the time one or two balloons may pop, however you should be able to get everyone on the table that had a balloon. You will also find that most of the students think that when they get on the table balloons are going to pop. They are always very surprised. (Taken from www.thesource4ym.com )

Discuss: Ask the students if they thought the balloons would pop and how much of a step of faith it was to step on top of the table. Compare this activity to taking steps of faith with God. Even when it seems that God wants us to do something kind of crazy or that won’t work, God is faithful and will not let us down.


Digging Deeper
Hebrews 11 is sometimes referred to as the Hall of Faith. There are a number of people from the Old Testament who are being commended for their faith in this chapter. Some of the people are fairly well known and we’ve heard a lot about them, others we may not have ever heard of (especially as it gets toward the end of the chapter).

Read: Hebrews 11

Discuss:
  • What do these verses say that faith is? (vs. 1)
  • Who are these people?
  • Are there some of the names that you don’t recognize? (there probably will be and if you have time and you are interested in looking up a couple of them, feel free)
  • Are there any of these people that you can identify with? Are there any that you think that there is no way you could do what they did?
  • Read verse 13 again. Do you ever feel frustrated because you don’t immediately see an answer to your prayers or get what you think you need? (these people in Hebrews 11 are being commended for their faith and it says that they died without seeing all the things they were promised…at least not in this lifetime. However, they still were living by faith when they died. We need to follow their example and live by faith even when we don’t always see immediate results)
  • Where does faith come from? (see the following verse after discussing some possible options)

Read: Romans 10:17

Discuss:
  • Where does this verse say that faith comes from? (by reading the Bible)
  • What are some ways that your faith has increased?

Different people’s faith grows in different ways and with different experiences. Oftentimes the more we see God’s faithfulness in our lives and in the lives of others; it becomes easier to trust Him.

Application: Give each student a small notebook that they will be able to take home in order to begin to keep a journal of God’s faithfulness. (If you have a creative group and want to spend time personalizing the cover or anything, now is the time to do it…otherwise it is fine to just give it to them)

Say: Take some time to write down different times in your life or in the life of someone else that you have seen God remain faithful. Has there been a time that He has taken care of you when you were hurting or going through a hard time? Has He worked out a situation that seemed to be completely negative in order in a way that it became positive? It’s ok if you can’t think of anything right at the moment. Take this journal home and begin to write different ways that you experience God’s faithfulness throughout the day and week. This will be a great reminder for you when you reach a point in your faith journey where you don’t feel like you have as much faith as you have had at times in the past (and this will happen to everyone, so don’t be discouraged when it does). Use this journal as a reference to help encourage you when you reach a point where things seem hopeless. God is faithful, even when we are not! (II Timothy 2:13) Remind yourself of that at all times, but especially during the frustrating times, and look back at entries in your journal to remember specific times that He has been faithful in your life.

Close it out:
It is good to remember God’s faithfulness at all times. He never changes and is always waiting for us to come to Him no matter where we are in our faith journey. Do not get discouraged during what seem like “down” parts of that journey. Everyone has those times (even the people who are listed in the Hall of Faith had those times). Just remember to keep seeking God and keep reminding yourself of the times that He has been faithful to you in the past. Even if you aren’t able to think of a time in your life specifically, look to other’s lives—whether it is someone you know personally or it is someone from the Bible—you will always be able to find evidence of His faithfulness if you are looking for it!

Pray together and for each other! Ask God to help you grow in your faith through the reading of His word and through remembering His faithfulness during times of struggles.
 
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