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(The following is a family devotional guide with suggested questions and scriptures.)
Talk Time
Are you more of a planner or a go-with-the-flow type of person? How do you react when things don’t go according to plan?
If you could plan out your life, how would it go?
Bible Connection
Joseph was a young man, in his late teens, engaged to Mary when she told him she was pregnant. Just imagine you are Joseph for a moment…how would you react to such news?
Reach Matthew 1:20-21 to see what happened.
How did Joseph, a teenager, show immediate obedience (v. 24)?
The Bible says that Joseph was a “righteous” man (v. 19), but even a righteous man had to have been shocked, confused, and heartbroken that his future wife was pregnant. This was not part of his plans! Instead of exposing Mary, Joseph decided to end the engagement secretly. Then, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream and told him to take Mary as his wife, that she was telling the truth about being pregnant with the Messiah. When Joseph awoke, he obeyed the angel’s instructions. But God wasn’t done asking Joseph to obey Him – this was just the beginning.
Just imagine if God spoke to you in a dream and asked you to move with little details.
How would you react? What would you think?
Read the following verses to see what God asked Joseph to do in Matthew 2:13,19-23.
God used a series of dreams to speak to Joseph. In the first dream, He had Joseph move his family to Egypt to protect Jesus from King Herod. In the second dream, He brought Joseph and his family back home after King Herod died. In the third dream, God sent Joseph to live in Nazareth. Joseph’s life was full of the unexpected! He married a pregnant woman, became the earthly father of God’s Son, and moved his family three times in a few short years. But, God met him each step of the way and blessed his trust and obedience. And here we are, two thousand years later, still talking about him!
Faith Connection
Has there ever been a time things didn’t go according to plan? Though we may have a plan for our lives, God does, too. God uses the unexpected to direct us onto His path for our lives. When we choose to trust Him and follow His lead, we will find that He is faithful and that His plan is always better. Mary and Joseph would agree!
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