Discussion Questions:
- How does a miracle show God’s power?
- Why is it important to remember the things God did for people who lived so long ago?
- Can you tell me about a time when God did a miracle for his people and why that is special to you? Do you think God cares about us the same way today?
- Why is it important to be faithful? Who has been faithful to you? Are you faithful?
- Does your family have any traditions?
- Feel free to talk about traditions that don’t seem to have a God-connection, such as the birthday person gets to pick out where they eat dinner, etc.
- Talk about what each person likes about your special traditions.
All thismonth we're going to be talking about remembering. Specifically, we're going to dig deep into remembering the faithfulness of God. Now, I always try to define words as I use them so we can all try to learn together. Faithfulness is another one of those kinda big, kinda churchy words. We say it a lot, but sometimes we forget to think about what it means.
If someone is faithful that means you can trust them to be there for you and to do what's right. You might have a dog that always waits to greet you when you get off the school bus--that's a kind of faithfulness. You might have a grandmother who always sends you a birthday card with a few dollars in it--that's a kind of faithfulness. Your parents are faithful to take you to soccer practice, and to pick you up again! We see faithfulness all around us everyday in all the ways we consistently do the right thing.
When we talk about God being faithful,we can look at how his love never runs out. He's always ready to forgive us. He's always ready to help us get through something that's really hard or scary. And a lot of times we see God doing miracles that show that he's faithful to take care of his people.
This month we're going to look at a few of those stories with exciting miracles that showed God's people that he was faithful to them. He wasn't going to forget about them, or get bored and go do something else, or give up on them because they kept messing up. God continued to do what was right for his people, even when they didn't do what was right. Now--I will tell you this--God punishes sin. And sometimes bad things happened to God's people either because of their sin, or because of the sin of other people. We live in a world where bad things still happen because there is so much sin in the world. So, God's faithfulness doesn't mean everything is always sunny and easy. Sometimes, I really wish it did. We all wish that from time to time. But it's in the hardest things that God shows up and his faithfulness means the most
Okay, so today we're going to read one of the Psalms. A psalm is like a poem or song written to God. There's a whole book of them in the Bible. It's the biggest book of the Bible, in fact. And a lot of the worship songs we sing have words taken right from the psalms! Also, I don't know why there's a P at the beginning of the word, but you know how that goes sometimes. Silent letters and all that.
So, this is Psalm 77. The beginning of it is kinda sad. Actually, it's very sad. The writer of this psalm is very frustrated and even scared. Do you ever feel frustrated and scared? I definitely do. And it's good to know that even people who wrote the Bible felt that way. Their words tell us what to do when we feel that way. I'm going to read the first 12 verses. If you want to follow along, pause the podcast for a minute to grab your Bible. We're reading Psalm 77, starting with verses 1-12.
I cried out to God for help;
I cried out to God to hear me.
2 When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
at night I stretched out untiring hands,
and I would not be comforted.
3 I remembered you, God, and I groaned;
I meditated, and my spirit grew faint.[b]
4 You kept my eyes from closing;
I was too troubled to speak.
5 I thought about the former days,
the years of long ago;
6 I remembered my songs in the night.
My heart meditated and my spirit asked:
7 “Will the Lord reject forever?
Will he never show his favor again?
8 Has his unfailing love vanished forever?
Has his promise failed for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be merciful?
Has he in anger withheld his compassion?”
10 Then I thought, “To this I will appeal:
the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand.
11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
12 I will consider all your works
and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”
Okay, so like I said, this writer is feeling really scared and uncertain. Remember that word we learned a few weeks ago, "unsettled?" I'd say he's definitely feeling unsettled! He's afraid that God is going to stop being faithful to him and his people. That's a really big fear. So what does he decide to do?
In verses 11 & 12, he says, "I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your words and meditate on all your mighty deeds." He decides to remember everything that God has done. He's going to remind himself of all the ways God has been faithful in the past. All the times God showed up in a big way to take care of his people.
So let's go back to Psalm 77 and see what the writer is thinking about....Picking up at verse 13.
Your ways, God, are holy.
What god is as great as our God?
14 You are the God who performs miracles;
you display your power among the peoples.
15 With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
16 The waters saw you, God,
the waters saw you and writhed;
the very depths were convulsed.
17 The clouds poured down water,
the heavens resounded with thunder;
your arrows flashed back and forth.
18 Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,
your lightning lit up the world;
the earth trembled and quaked.
19 Your path led through the sea,
your way through the mighty waters,
though your footprints were not seen.
20 You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Maybe the most important story, the one told over and over and over and over again throughout the Bible is the story of God rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. If you attended Vacation Bible School at Bloom Baptist Church last year then you spent an entire week learning all about that story. I know because I was the teacher. But in case you didn't, you can find out all about that in the book of Exodus, chapters 5-14. It's a bit of a long story with ten plagues and all this crazy stuff happening that showed God's power to Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and all the Israelites. But the big finale ending happened as the Israelites were finally leaving Egypt. They started to leave Egypt and suddenly the Egyptian army began chasing them. In order to leave Egypt, they had to get past the Red Sea. Moses raised his arms and God parted the waters! And not just a little bit either. There were walls of water on either side, the ground was dry beneath their feet as they left. Thousands of Israelites were able to pass through, but when the Egyptians arrived and tried to follow, the water came crashing down on them. This was a huge, mighty miracle. God kept them safe through each one of the scary plagues, and then brought them safely through the Red Sea away from harm.
Throughout the rest of Exodus and the next several books of the Bible, the Israelites are told to remember again and again. Remember the Lord your God. Remember how he delivered you from Egypt. Remember how he kept you safe. God even told the people to have certain festivals and celebrations every year to remember. He wanted his people to never forget his power and his faithfulness.
When life is frustrating, scary, or unsettling like it was for the writer of Psalm 77, it's really easy to forget everything God has already done. Sometimes it seems like all we can think about is what's happening now, what we don't like or don't understand, or what makes us afraid. God knows that. He knows that we have trouble remembering.....which is why it's commanded so many times and why he gave people traditions to help them remember. Sometimes he even commanded them to create memorials to help them remember. We're going to look at two of those stories in the next two weeks.
Anyway, we have those traditions. Every year at Christmas we remember when Jesus came as a baby. Every year at Easter we remember when he died for our sins and rose again so that we can all have eternal life. Every time someone is baptized we remember that we are all new creations in Christ.
And when we feel worried or afraid, we can remember the miracles of long ago. Think back through your favorite Bible stories. You'll see over and over again how God was faithful to take care of his people even in some really hard times. God is never going to forget about us or get bored or give up!
Our memory verse for this month is Psalm 77:11, "I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago." As we each work on memorizing this verse, let's also take time to remember the stories of God's faithfulness, and to thank him for being faithful to us now. Look for all the ways God is showing you his faithfulness.
Let's pray together.
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