7 day plan

Introducing Children to God and His Love

Day 1 of 7

NIV

Deuteronomy 4:9

9Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

Series introduction: Over the next seven days, we are reading the Bible with Rebeca Alfaro from the Bible Society of Nicaragua. We will read Scriptures which shed light on the importance of introducing children to God and his love. It is a topic of great relevance, since children are a precious gift that God has given us, and it is our responsibility to guide them and teach them about the God’s love and truth from an early age. In this series, we will reflect on the importance of being intentional in the spiritual upbringing of children and how we can pass on to them a solid faith that helps them face their future with hope and trust in God.

So, we invite you to join us on this journey of discovery and spiritual growth. Let each devotional be an opportunity to grow closer to God and to strengthen our relationship with him, while we learn how to guide children towards a meaningful encounter with the Creator. May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all as we embark on this exciting journey together.

Reflection:  Life is full of significant moments and experiences that mark our personal history. Some of these experiences can be challenging, while others are moments of joy and triumph. However, regardless of the character of these experiences, each one of them has the potential to teach us valuable lessons and reveal God’s providential hand in our lives.

The verse urges us not to forget these experiences, but to open the door to find meaning and purpose in every situation. Our experiences, both positive and difficult, can be tools for our spiritual and emotional growth.

The verse also encourages us to share our experiences with future generations, with our children and grandchildren. In doing so, we offer them a spiritual and emotional heritage that can be a guide in their own lives.

By hearing their parents’ stories, youngsters can feel part of a bigger story, and in turn, can be inspired to face their own challenges with courage and hope. When we talk about our experiences with God, how he has guided, provided, and blessed us along the way, we are testifying to his faithfulness and his unfailing love.

Our faith story can impact others and foster our relationship with God. That is why I encourage you to seek God; his love and mercies will help you achieve your goals, in addition to serving your neighbour.

In my work for Bible Society Nicaragua, I work with others to care for children undergoing cancer treatment in the children’s hospital. Will you pray today for each child with cancer and their families? They are clinging to God with faith as they wait for a miracle.

Prayer:  Loving and faithful God, we thank you for every experience and moment that you have woven into our lives. We recognise that in every circumstance, both in moments of joy and in challenges, your hand has been there guiding and sustaining us.

We ask you for wisdom and strength, help us so that our words may be seeds of faith and hope in the hearts of our children and grandchildren, inspiring them to trust in you and walk in your ways. May our words become a source of blessing for children enduring the trials of cancer. Despite their suffering, may they hold onto their love for you and find hope even in the midst of pain. Thank you for your mercy and goodness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Days

Deuteronomy 4:1-49

Obedience Commanded

1Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

3You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal Peor. The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, 4but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today.

5See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?

9Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. 10Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.” 11You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. 12Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets. 14And the Lord directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

Idolatry Forbidden

15You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. 19And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. 20But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.

21The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance. 22I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land. 23Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. 24For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger, 26I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. 27The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. 28There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. 29But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. 31For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.

The Lord Is God

32Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 33Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? 34Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

35You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other. 36From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. 37Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, 38to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

39Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. 40Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.

Cities of Refuge

41Then Moses set aside three cities east of the Jordan, 42to which anyone who had killed a person could flee if they had unintentionally killed a neighbor without malice aforethought. They could flee into one of these cities and save their life. 43The cities were these: Bezer in the wilderness plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.

Introduction to the Law

44This is the law Moses set before the Israelites. 45These are the stipulations, decrees and laws Moses gave them when they came out of Egypt 46and were in the valley near Beth Peor east of the Jordan, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites as they came out of Egypt. 47They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan. 48This land extended from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge to Mount Sirion (that is, Hermon), 49and included all the Arabah east of the Jordan, as far as the Dead Sea, below the slopes of Pisgah.