Teaching

Who remembers our SuperTruth? “God’s plans for me are good.”

Isn’t it exciting to know that God created you, He knows you, and He has a wonderful plan for you? 

God had a good plan for Joseph even though Joseph may not have thought it seemed like a very good plan at the time! Can you remember some times in Joseph’s life when he may have wondered if his dreams would come to pass? When Joseph was thrown into the pit, sold as a slave, put in prison, forgotten by the cup-bearer.

Lay the rope out straight on the floor. Do you remember the rope we used to illustrate Joseph’s life in our last lesson? We will use it again today to look at God’s plan for us! Was God’s plan for Joseph a straight line like this? No!

It sure wasn’t; it looked more like this with all the ups and downs, high and low points in Joseph’s life. Lay the rope on the floor in a wave pattern with ups and downs—highs and lows.

Lay the rope in a straight line. When we create our own plans, do we like to include difficult tasks, hard times, ups and downs, and twists and turns? No!

That’s right; we want it to be a straight line like this rope, right? If your plan is to become a professional soccer player, would you put in your plan to spend five years in a junior league before you went to the pros? No!

Would you put in a delay of a year for an injury? No!

You wouldn’t put those things in your plan on purpose! We usually want to get there as fast as we can, without any low points, obstacles or difficulties. Yet things often happen that we didn’t plan for, like we saw with Chris on his way to the soccer match last week.

Lay the rope in a wave pattern again. Joseph found himself in places and situations that he didn’t expect or understand or choose. Did he respond by complaining or becoming angry or bitter? No.

Joseph responded with patience and obedience, so God could use Him for a bigger plan than Joseph could imagine.

Have a volunteer read Romans 8:28:

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.

You see, we often think of good things associated only with the high points on the curves of the rope, not with the low points. But, with God, just because we are in a difficult situation or a valley, that does not mean the plan isn’t good! God works His good plan for us in all situations. God’s plans for us are good, yet we must choose to follow them patiently and with a desire to please Him, even when we are uncomfortable or in a hard place. And it is in those times that we should pray, and listen to God’s Spirit in our hearts, and be open to God’s purpose in that situation. When we are having a hard time, we should look around and ask God, is there someone we can help while we are here—someone who needs God’s kindness, goodness, mercy, and forgiveness? Or is there a job that we can do while we are in this difficult situation? Can we look past our own desires and wishes to accomplish God’s will and plan? God may have put us in that very spot to show someone His love or to do an important task.

Have a volunteer read 1 Corinthians 2:9–10:

That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.

God has wonderful things planned for us, and He will reveal them to us at the proper time by His Spirit.  

Lay the rope in a straight line. It would be much easier if the plan for us looked like this, wouldn’t it? However, we would miss opportunities to grow spiritually and learn to trust God in deeper ways.

Lay the rope in a wave pattern. We must be patient and trust God and His will for us—even when our lives look something like this! When we trust the Lord, He will use these things for our good.

Discipleship Challenge/Practical Application

It is time for our Discipleship Challenge! Did any of you think about ways you could trust God and please Him when you were in a hard situation? What happened when you did?

Distribute a Trust Necklace Pattern and gold ribbon to each child who did not receive them in Lesson 1.

Let’s continue with our challenge, looking for opportunities to trust God and respond in ways that would be pleasing to Him. The next time we meet, I will ask how it went.