God’s Guidance

 

Your students will understand that they must rely upon God.

 

Treasure Hunt Puzzle – Create three (or more) different maps (one for each group) on plain white paper. Then cut up the maps into as many pieces as you need so that each person has one piece. Mix up the pieces and have students break up into groups of five. Tell them to find their groups by fitting their maps together. Once a group has its map, they can then find the treasure. A bag of candy would do the trick. This works better if the maps lead groups to different locations, which makes it harder to piece together the correct maps and also allows for each group to find the treasure, even if they are not the first to find it.

Ask:

• How were you able to find the treasure?

• Did you assume that your first group had all of the pieces to the map?

Why?

• When you were putting together the maps, what did you do when you realized you had the wrong pieces?

Say something like, “We’ve all been put in a position where we thought we knew what we were doing, but then realized we didn’t. Sometimes we end up with very different results or end up in a very different destination than we were expecting.”

 

Say something like, “We’re going to listen to a song about this. It’s called ‘Compass’ by Jonathan Thulin. As you listen, circle lines or phrases that relate to being lost.” (You can find the lyrics online and print them off. Warning: the part with Manwell Reyes is tough to understand without the lyrics.) Hand out the Student Guides and lyrics (if you have them) and play the song.

 

Ask:

• What are some of the hints that he’s lost?

• Have any of you been lost? What was it like? Did you panic?

• How did you become ‘unlost’?

 

Say, “Let’s look at a few Scripture parables about being lost. A parable is a story that is designed to communicate a central truth. Not everything in a parable has a spiritual meaning to it.” Break students up into groups of 3-5 and have each group look up one of these passages and answer the questions about their passage:

• Luke 15:1-7

• Luke 15:1-3, 8-10

• Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

 

• Who is Jesus talking to in this passage of Scripture?

• Who/what is lost in this passage?

• How does the person respond when the lost person/item is restored?

Give the students a few minutes to read the passages and write down their answers. Then ask them to give a brief explanation of their passage and answer the questions.

 

After each group has shared, take a look at Proverbs 3:5-6. Explain that we each get lost in many different ways. The writer of this proverb tells us to trust God and not ourselves. Too often we think we know what to do, but in the end we make poor decisions.

 

In Romans 7:15, 18-20, the Apostle Paul talks about doing what he doesn’t want to do and not doing what he does want to do. We can all relate!

 

God tells us to trust Him, as He knows what’s best. When we trust ourselves to do what is best we find ourselves lost, like Jonathan Thulin says in this song. God is our compass, and we need Him to give us direction in our lives. Otherwise, we will end up lost like the coin, or the sheep, or the son. When we get “lost” we can trust that God hasn’t lost track of us.

 

Say, “I’m going to give you a couple of minutes to write down ways that you can rely on God’s wisdom rather than your own.” Share one or two of your own ideas as examples. After a couple minutes, say, “When we trust that God will guide us, He will give us answers to our big questions.” Close in prayer.