High School Devotions

Mr. Peter and Mrs. Kathy are in the United States, so they asked local pastors to be guest speakers for our high school devotions each week while they are gone.  The first week we set up the projector and speakers and sat and waited and no one came....so one of my students suggested we open the floor for kids to share about something God has done for them in their life....so she went first, and then she just preached.  She has such a passion for her classmates to know the Lord in a personal way. 

The next week I checked the day before to see who was scheduled to come and it was Joel, the pastor from my church.  So I confirmed with him that evening that he remembered us, which he had.   So happy to have him come and share with the kids.

Then last week, things got so busy and I forgot to check who was on the schedule for Thursday until the middle of the night and that was a little too late.  So Thursday morning we called the pastor on the schedule who must suffer from severe memory loss because he didn't know what Miss Cessiah was talking about.  I immediately began praying and asking God to show me what he would have me share with the kids that morning.

God brought to my mind the verse in Psalm - I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 

When the bell rang for class I told the kids it was going to be me for devotions so I was going to go outside and pray and read my Bible .  One of the students came to me and said Miss can you talk about Psalm 46.  Many of the kids want to follow God but they are afraid. 

I went outside and sat on the outdoor stage and prayed.  Thinking about the verses I was drawn to and the verses Gabriela asked me to read and looking in my Bible I came to Psalm 56:3-4 - what can men do to me....as I was walking back to the Learning Center one of my students was sitting outside.  She was upset about the relationship between herself and her parents and she said Miss there is this song we sang two years ago at convention and whenever things are bad I just want to listen to that song over and over....I Will Run to You by Hillsong.    Great, now I had a song for us to sing to get us ready to worship!

It was totally a joint effort and it was all what God put together for me to share with the kids.  I normally would have spent hours and hours of reading and writing and re-writing .....this was totally God.  I had about 20 minutes to get it together.

So in the end I shared that God knows us, knows everything about us, he knew us before we were even born.  He knows all our fears, he knows the struggles and battles we have each day.

Psalm 139:1-3

¹ You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

 

Psalm 139:13-14

.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

 

Can you imagine the earth giving away, and the mountains crumbling into the sea, and yet being able to say I don't have any fear, God is with me.  He is my help in any trouble.  I hope that really got into their spirits Thursday.  That is a powerful verse!

Psalm 46:1-3

¹ God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.^[c]

 

 

I talked to them about being afraid of what their friends, or maybe losing friends when they follow God, but we should not fear man.  With God we have hope no matter what troubles we are facing, but what if we did not have that relationship with him?  We would have no hope, no joy, no answer to our problems.  

Psalm 56:3-4

³ When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
⁴ In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?

And of course we worshiped with I Will Run to You.

I told the kids I was glad that God knew before me that this was going to happen, He already had a plan for us that day!