Big Idea: The fight for our heart is a tough wrestle, but God will not give up on us.

Bible Passage: Genesis 22

This week the kids heard the story of Jacob's wrestle with the Lord. We talked about how at the beginning of this story, Jacob is fearful and afraid to meet his brother, Esau, after he stole his birth-right blessing. Knowing he has to go and meet his angry brother, he sends out gifts and family members before him on his journey, to appeal to his brother. But God meets with Jacob. All night the Angel of the Lord wrestles with Jacob, and even changes his name to Israel – which means "God fights". The passage tells us that Jacob won't let the Angel of the Lord go until He blesses him. After the fight, Jacob (now named Israel) goes to meet his brother, out the front of the procession – he runs to him and greets him with a kiss!

We talked about how God meets with each of us too. He fought for us on the cross when Jesus died to take away our sin, once and for all. God wrestles with our hearts to make them clean. Sometimes the fight is hard, and in order for us to fight against sin and trust God, we need help from the Holy Spirit. We talked about how our fight to be like Jesus is not fought with our fists, but with prayer. The wrestle with our hearts to be faithful happens as we surrender to God, confess our failures, recieve forgiveness and strength from the Holy Spirit to have faith to trust God each day. 

Family Activity

Practice the "fight" for your hearts each day this week. Find some time during the day to kneel together, as a team would huddle before a big sport's match. Kneel together and make fists with your hands as if to fight, and then remind children that the fight for our heart is not with our fists, but with our prayers. Take your fists and put your hands together in prayer, or lay them up palms out, to surrender to God. Pray together in your team huddle, asking God for forgiveness for when you've failed, and for strength to fight the battle to be like Jesus each day. Remind children that there is no sin to big for God to forgive, He promises to hear our prayers, forgive our sins and help us every day because He loves us.