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Jul 19, 2022 18:30pm

Faith TALK: Trust Boundaries

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(The following is a family devotional guide with suggested questions and scriptures.)

T-Talk About It Topic

So far, we’ve been talking about boundaries and have “drawn lines” of what is acceptable behavior and what isn’t. As your parent, I have set boundaries for you. But most importantly, God sets boundaries for all of us. There are some boundaries He tells us: don’t cross. There is pain, danger, consequences, and punishment there. But there are other boundaries that God tell us to cross.

Today’s lesson will look at a boundary God tells us to cross: trusting Him. Whether we realize it or not, we sometimes treat God like He is a person. Since people have hurt or betrayed us, we are hesitant to trust anyone. Hopefully, after today’s TALK, we will all be more open to trusting Him…because he alone can help us go after the dreams He puts in our hearts!

What are your dreams—dreams for the next few years and dreams for adulthood? It’s a great thing to have dreams! In fact, God created us with talents and abilities to help us go after those dreams, but the key part of any dream God puts in our hearts is this: trusting God. If God has given us a dream, we must trust Him to help us do it! That is what our TALK is all about.

A-Anchor To The Bible

In our focus story today, we are looking at the Israelites. These people had been in slavery for the past 400 years, so it was quite likely they had been dreaming of freedom, their own land, and their own rules for a really long time! Then, one day, God sent Moses to free them from the cruel and hard Egyptians. (Dream come true!) Not only that, on their way to their Promised Land, God performed many miracles for the Israelites:

An angel of God led them by becoming a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night.
A strong wind made a path through the Red Sea for the Israelites to escape the Egyptian army; God withdrew the wind causing the waters of the Red Sea to come crashing down upon the Egyptians, drowning them.
God caused bitter waters in the desert to become sweet and drinkable; He even brought forth water from a rock!
God sent manna (bread) daily (from the heavens) and quail to provide meat.
God spoke from Mount Sinai.
The ground opened up and swallowed people who rebelled against God’s authority.

If you saw all these miracles (and more not listed),would you trust God to provide for you?

Because God had done many miracles among these people, he expected their trust. He had a huge blessing in store for them and needed their complete trust in order to get it. Turn to Deuteronomy 1:20-36; Moses is retelling the story in these verses. Let’s read about the boundary God wanted the Israelites to cross. (Mama, save time by reading it on your own and retelling the story to your kiddos!)

God told them to GO and take possession of the land before them, called the Promised Land. (This would represent the literal boundary they were to cross over.)
Moses sent out 12 spies to check out the land and people; the spies came back and said the land was good, but all of the spies (except for Caleb and Joshua) were afraid of the people who lived there (reportedly giants—people larger and taller than them). As a result, everyone grew afraid and refused to enter it.
God became angry when they wouldn’t cross the boundary to take their blessing, so He told them that they all missed out on this blessing for the rest of their lives.

God said that the Israelites’ children (along with Caleb and Joshua) would be the ones who would enjoy this blessing!

God had a huge blessing for His people and wanted them to trust Him to help them take it. It was a land of their own that was already brimming with crops and fruit and water—everything they had been dreaming about for all their lives.

God had shown them miracle after miracle to build their trust that He would take care of them just for this moment. But when He asks them to not just to trust Him, but show it by physically going into the land and going to battle with the people who lived there, they caved into their fears, doubts, and worries. They even complained that God brought them all this way, just for them to die at the hands of the people who lived there.

So, they didn’t cross any boundary:

not the the literal boundary line into the Promised Land.
nor the symbolic boundary line of trust.

They failed the trust test that day. For the rest of their lives, they lived out the consequences of that decision. Their fears, doubts, and worries cost them everything.

L-Learn God’s Word

When the spies told their stories about the giant people who lived in the Promised Land, Moses tried to encourage the Israelites to cross that boundary and trust God by saying:

“Don’t be afraid of those people.The Lord your God will lead you, and he will fight for you.” – Deuteronomy 1:29-30 (GNT)

And though the Israelites chose not to trust then, we can learn from their example by believing God’s Word. God tells us the same thing today: “Don’t be afraid! I will lead you, and I will fight for you—just trust me!” Trust is not just an action in our hearts, but it’s a physical action as well. What will you do to show that you trust God? Let’s go back to those dreams you talked about earlier. In order to accomplish those dreams, you will have trust God to help you do something that will take you closer to your dreams. More than likely, it will be something that you couldn’t do on your own. Something that may make you nervous, worried, or afraid. But if we’re willing to trust God and push past those feelings, His blessing is waiting on the other side.

Don’t just say you “trust God”—show it in your actions today!

K-Keep Each Other Accountable

This is the most valuable step of any Faith TALK! It’s focused on keeping everyone accountable with this week’s Faith TALK, as well as the memory verse.

Here are a few ideas to keep everyone in check:

Anytime you sense a kiddo succumbing to a fear, point them to their memory verse. Encourage them to cross that boundary and trust God! Pray that verse with them at night.
Write your kiddos’ dreams out on paper. Better yet, have them write their dreams out and post them somewhere visible. What can they do today that would help take them closer to their dreams?
Talk about trust: What can they trust God with this week? What boundary is God urging them to cross?
Write the memory verse on a chalkboard and display it by the door.Have them say the verse each morning and initial they did so.