DITCH THE LESSON PLAN

(Post by: Lilly Hobbs)

On Wednesday nights at my church, we have different Bible Studies and classes going on, as well as an Awana program for the children. I lead the Cubbies group which is for kids who are about three to five years old.

I love each and every one of the kids that are in my group, but we’ve just been having a really rough year. It’s easy to be discouraged when you feel like the kids aren’t really getting it; when they are easily distracted and not focused on the songs or the lesson you’ve prepared.

So, to be honest, that’s the mindset I went into last night’s meeting with. I already felt defeated and not to mention VERY exhausted, with the thought that I was just a volunteer who was “babysitting” and not making very much of an impact for the Kingdom.

I’m such a great missionary’s kid, aren’t I? Goodness, you’d think I would know better by now. Any person on the face of the planet who has ever done ministry would have been able to tell you that I was probably feeling that way because God was about to do something so amazing, and the enemy didn’t want it to happen.

Well, little did I know that God was about to give me a wide-open door to share the simple Gospel with the kids in my group.

It took a lot out of me to get to that moment; like having to deal with a poop explosion and a couple of breakdowns, but we got there.

As we sat down around the table to do the lesson that I had prepared, one of the little boys started bringing up the topic of, well, just guess…

Hell.

Yeah. I bet you guessed that answer!

He started asking questions like, “How do you know if you’re not going to hell? What does it look like to live for Jesus even though we sin?” Y’all! I didn’t plan for that to happen.

In fact, the Lord reminded me of something that Sebastian (Rocky’s son) said the night we were driving home after Rocky had just gotten out of jail. He said, “If it’s God, it’s not going to make sense on paper.”

That’s truth. But here’s what the Church does. We “schedule” and “plan” which Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings it will be “good” to share the Gospel. We write it all out and we line everything up so that it will be the perfect time for people to get their lives on track with God.

Can I just make it plain today? Sometimes God needs us to get our planners and agenda’s out of the way so that He can work. Because our tendency is to box Him in so tightly that He doesn’t even want to work because He knows we don’t really want Him to.

He doesn’t need a “perfect” Sunday or Wednesday to move! For goodness sake y’all, He’s God and we’re not! Why do we keep pretending like we are?

What God needed me to do last night was throw my prepared Cubbie lesson off the table and look at what God had on His calendar. So that’s what I did. Guess what happened? That little boy accepted Jesus last night!!

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

Know that He is God and we are not. It’s not going to make sense on paper; and that’s a good thing.

It means that it’s God working and not you.

“God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.”  – Elisabeth Elliot

SO WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE?

= Do you often find yourself trying to box God in instead of letting Him work?

= How did this post affect you personally?

= What are you going to do differently?