Jesus & Tough Times: Lesson 2 | Devotion 1

Take a look at the Band Aid you put on the other night. (If it already fell off, go put either a Band Aid or a piece of tape around your finger.) Take a moment and close your eyes and feel it around your finger. Notice how it feels tight around your finger.

Can you feel it sticking to you?
Regardless of exactly HOW it feels you know that Band Aid is there with you. If you had a wound or a “boo-boo” you would trust that it was healing underneath the Band-Aid. This is how it is with Jesus. We trust that He is with us, healing our wounds and walking us through the toughest of times.

As you look at your Band-Aid now:

• Pray that you would learn to trust that Jesus is going to get you through this tough time.
• Be honest with Him about how you are feeling.
• Ask Him to show you how to have faith in who He is, and how He will bring you through hard times.

Jesus & Tough Times: Lesson 1 | Devotion 3

Are you starting to believe that God cares about your feelings?

Are you starting to be more honest with God about your feelings? Why or why not?

Take some time today and really contemplate why being with honest with God is either easy or hard for you. Is it that you don’t really trust Him? If this is true how can you get to know Him better so you do trust Him?

Today meditate on why God would love you so much He want to hear everything.

Jesus & Tough Times: Lesson 1 | Devotion 2

Remember how we wrote letters to God this week about how we are feeling?

God wants everything. We have talked a lot about telling God when we feel bad things; we can be honest about when things are going great too. He loves to hear everything from us, whatever is going on with you.

Take a few moments and write a note to God in the space below about WHATEVER you are feeling today, good, bad, ugly or mehhh.

Jesus & Tough Times: Lesson 1 | Devotion 1

"While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God."  Hebrews 5:7

Have you ever cried yourself to sleep? If not have you ever been so angry you wanted to punch something, or screamed into a pillow in your room? Think for a moment, “When things are going wrong, what do you do?” Do you scream, hit someone, or take it out on a friend or sibling? You know, Jesus Himself expressed a lot of emotion when HE experienced a tough time.

Look again at Matthew 26: 36-46. Stop and think for a moment about all that was going on with Jesus at this moment. He was about to be arrested, beat up, spit at, bullied, teased, whipped, and nailed to a cross. After all of that He was going to die a painful death being treated like a criminal when He had done nothing wrong. If you knew all of this was about to happen, how would you feel? No, stop for a moment, close your eyes and think about how you would feel. It’s fair that Jesus really didn’t want it to happen and that He needed to talk to God about it.

Can you relate when things are going bad for you? Do you want God to “fix” it? At the very least to you want things to change? Are you honest with God during those times about how you are feeling? Why or why not?

Something to think about...

• Do you tell God on a regular basis how you are feeling about life? Why or why not? Have you ever thought about how He wants to hear from us, and all that we are thinking and feeling?

• Jesus showed us that it’s alright to tell God anything we are thinking or feeling. God also showed us that He helped Jesus deal through His feelings. Do you believe God can help you through the tough times better when you are honest with Him? Why or why not?

Knowing God: Lesson 3 | Day 5

The last two days, we’ve looked at being on God’s mission. Throughout this study, you’ve learned that knowledge without action is worthless.

Today, you are being compelled to act.

Spend some time asking God what that step is today. Ask Him how He wants you to join Him on His mission to make His name known. Listen for His response. And today, or tomorrow, or next week when He shows you what that next step is, take the initiative to act.

Knowing God: Lesson 3 | Day 4

Take a moment and read Revelation 7:9-12.

Take some time today to imagine the scene of the passage. All peoples from all places gathered together in worship to God for the salvation He has brought to them.

What do you think it will look like?

What do you think it will sound like?

You know, this scene is the end goal of missions. It’s the ultimate result of God’s knowability. It is the fruit of the Gospel at work over the generations.

In your journal or note-taking app, reflect on this scene and what God is showing you. How do you think you will feel when you are in the midst of this mass of humanity, praising that God you know as Lord and Savior?

Knowing God: Lesson 3 | Day 3

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

Read Psalm 46:8-10. Here we see that knowledge of God should be spread to the whole world. God’s mission is something that is still unfinished. People who study world missions write about “unreached people groups.” These are groups of people who do not have any access to the message of the Gospel. They will be born, live, and die and will likely never here about Jesus and what He did for them on the cross.

As we think of God’s mission, we can respond in several ways. We can pray that God would continue to be known by the lost. We can give money to support the work. And we can go. Today, here’s a challenge for you to pray.

There’s a great website online called The Joshua Project (http://joshuaproject.net/) that is focused on praying for unreached people groups. Go to this website today, and spend some time praying for the featured unreached people group of the day. As you pray today, ask God in what ways He may be calling you to put hands and feet to your prayers by giving and going.