Download a PDF of the Can’t I Just Live in Today?.
Part of WHY? A RESOURCE KIT FOR TALKING TO STUDENTS ABOUT DISASTER, RELIEF, & RESTORATION
Core Text: James 4:13-15
Core Visual/Illustration: Several items can be used: a calendar; last week’s newspaper, last week’s news magazine; a website printout of events and highlights from the birth year of someone’s birthday.
Major Teaching /Talking Points:
Teaching Point #1
In times of great distress, we may want to retreat into living only for today and neglect tomorrow. See 2 Peter 3:3-4.
Teaching Point #2
What’s more, others around us may need us to anticipate tomorrow and what it may bring. See James 1:27, Galatians 2:10.
Teaching Point #3 Yet we need not obsess or despair about tomorrow. See Matthew 6:34.
Teaching Point #4 The Biblical writers are well acquainted with disasters of all proportions (the flood, the destruction of Jerusalem, Herod’s killing the Bethlehem babies, the crucifixion).
Teaching Point #5
Living in today can be either an escape from life’s uncertainties or an act of faith and trust in God’s promises (Romans 8:28).
Teaching Point #6
The Gospel will have the last Word on all our situations and circumstances. John 6:35-40
Questions/Discussion Starters for Youth:
- It sure does seem like sometimes God is not present and active in our lives. When might we be tempted to think this?
- Recall some instances in the Bible and in your own life that remind us that God remains with us and faithful to His promises.
- “Today” offers lots of diversions and distractions that can tempt us as escapes from proper concerns. How might we avoid such temptation?
- We can also be tempted to worry excessively about today. How might we avoid that temptation?
- Try some ways to describe that creative tension of living both in today and anticipating the needs of tomorrow.
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