Faith Game for Kids

I believe God spoke to me when I was planning my lesson to teach my 2nd and 3rd grade class at church. We are talking about faith and believing in Jesus when we cannot see Him. 

Our story is from John 20:19-31 about Thomas who needs proof that Jesus rose from the dead. Thomas has not yet seen Jesus and he says to the other disciples, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Jesus appears to Thomas and shows him exactly what he requested. Jesus goes on to say to Thomas an encouraging word and a special message that is meant for all of us, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

We are blessed! We have not seen Jesus with our own eyes, but we still know Him to be real and alive. I'm so excited to share this lesson God gave me with each of you!

Our Bible verse today is Hebrews 11:1, "Faith is being sure of what we hope for. It is being certain of what we do not see." (NIRV)

To get the kids to really understand this, I planned a game for them that uses their memory verse. For the game to work, the kids MUST FIRST KNOW THEIR BIBLE VERSE. This game will not work properly if they aren't familiar with how the verse should read.

Work on the verse with the kids until they have it memorized. This is a simple verse, so it shouldn't be too hard for the kids to get quickly.

Hide the pieces of the verse around the room for the kids to find. I purposely left out the end of the verse.  You want the kids to spend a bit of time searching for it. Don't give the answer right away. Make them keep looking and searching.

I didn't have to force my kids to keep looking. These kids would not give up!!

They looked everywhere in the room. Because they had memorized the Bible verse they knew that piece of the puzzle existed. Therefore, it must be in the room! They had faith that it was there, and they didn't even realize or understand they were illustrating my point even further.

Finally, after several minutes of both teams searching and searching, I called them back to the table. Some of the kids didn't want to come willingly. They refused to give up on the missing piece.

We started to talk about the missing piece. I asked each team,

 "What piece is missing?"

They were surprised to be missing the same piece, "What we do not see". I asked the kids a question again, okay so you have, "Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and ...Faith is being certain of what?"

"What we do not see!"

Only one boy figured it out.

"The piece is not here, is it? Because we do not see it?!"

YES!

I began to ask the kids more questions about their search. 

Why did you want to keep looking? 

Because I didn't find the last piece.

I know what piece is missing.

I know what the Bible says!  

EXACTLY! We knew what promise God gave us. We found it in our Bibles today. However, we didn't find every piece of the puzzle in this room.

Just like this game we played, there are times in our life where we don't know what we are supposed to do, or how things will turn out. We ask God for help. We search for answers in our Bibles and try to find clues to help us. We pray. Sometimes God doesn't answer how we expect. God is silent. He doesn't give us an exact answer. Instead, He says, "Trust me. I know what I'm doing. Wait."

We must believe Him. Even when we cannot see the missing puzzle piece, or find the missing piece, we know that part of the puzzle exists. God promised it in our Bibles, so we know it is true. Just like He spoke to the men who wrote the Bible, God still speaks to each of us.

When we have a problem, we can be certain that God has an answer. We know that the answer exists. We know that God knows exactly where the missing piece is and when it will appear. It's up to us to have FAITH and wait, believing that it will happen.

Faith is being sure of what we hope for. Faith is being certain that missing puzzle piece exists and continuing to look for it because you know God is good and has the answer.

We believe in faith when we cannot see with our physical eyes,
but our spiritual eyes can see the promises of God.

My kids were so inspired by this faith game being walked out. One little boy told me, "That was a really good trick you played on us." The game hit especially home with him because for years he has prayed for a dad. He said he prayed a thousand times for this. He believed that God had a dad for him. He didn't know exactly who he was, or when he would come. But he sure did hope for it and believe it would be true. He even had a specific man he hoped to one day call Daddy. Two months ago, God gave him that missing puzzle piece. He gave him a dad he could call his own. God did a miracle for him, and this little boy never gave up believing that it would happen. He believed even when he could not see!

I printed my special version of Hebrews 11:1 on a piece of brightly colored paper. I had two sets of the puzzle on different colored papers, so the kids could work together in two separate teams. After they found the puzzle pieces, they would need to put the verse together.

I cut each line into a puzzle piece. I made sure to cut the edges of "It is being certain" and "Hebrews 11:1" differently so they do NOT connect. You want the kids to believe there is another piece in between them.

Planning this lesson, I know God spoke to my heart. There are dreams I have spent months believing for. I know God gave me a vision, and I have been prayerfully waiting to see it come to pass. There are days that I struggle with doubt and wonder if I heard from God correctly. And there are days like today where I feel God's presence so strongly that I am certain it will be. Both kinds of days bring me to my knees as I cry before God.  I needed this reminder probably even more than the kids in my class. God give me faith to be sure of the things that I hope for and make me certain of what I do not see.