God Has a Plan for Your LIfe

Devotional for Kids

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29: verse 11 [The Living Bible]

Do you know that God has a plan for your life? He created you for a very special reason. He gave you certain abilities and talents fitted just for the very thing He has for you to do.

Moses’ life is a good example of God carrying out His plan for His children’s lives. You can read about Moses’ birth in Exodus chapters one and two.

The story of Moses starts with the Israelites living in Egypt. Moses’ parents were Israelites. The ruler of Egypt, Pharaoh, was very anxious about how fast the Israelite population was growing. He could see that soon the Israelites would outnumber the Egyptians.

Pharaoh thought the Israelites would fight against him and leave Egypt and then he wouldn’t have their free labor as slaves anymore. He thought if he made them work very hard he could make them weak. They had to build cities for him. He made them work very hard and very fast. But that didn’t stop the Israelite nation from growing larger and the people from growing stronger.

Pharaoh then tried a different strategy. He made a very cruel law. He said that every baby boy that was born to the Israelites must be thrown into the Nile River.

It was at this time that Moses was born. His parents hid their baby boy for three months. God was with them and protected Moses from Pharaoh’s horrible law. When he was three months old God gave his mother a great idea on how to keep him safe.

She wove a large basket with bulrushes and then plastered it with pitch so it was water proof. She then laid her baby boy, wrapped in soft blankets, in the basket. She placed the basket among the tall reeds at the river’s edge. Then she went home.

Along came Pharaoh’s daughter, the Egyptian princess. She saw the basket and had her maids fetch it for her. How surprised she must have been to see a baby inside.

Moses’ sister, Miriam, was playing along the riverbank, waiting to see what would happen to her baby brother. She came running up to the Princess and offered to find someone to take care of the baby for her. Who did she get? Moses’ mother, of course.

Pharaoh’s cruel law could not thwart God’s plan for Moses’ life and for the Israelites. When he was a little older, the Princess took Moses to the palace and treated him as her own son, a Prince. Later on, as an adult, Moses delivered the Israelites from Pharaoh, and from Egypt, and took them to the land God gave them, Canaan.

It’s important for you, as His child, to be close to God so He can lead you in His plan for you. In the Bible, God says,” In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.” [Proverbs 3: verse 6.

As you spend time getting to know God, praying to Him and reading the Bible, He will direct you and keep you, to do the very thing He has planned.

Memory verse for this week:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1: verse 9 [NKJV]

Going deeper for parents:

I marvel at Moses’ mother’s actions. I wonder at her desperation but also her faith. She not only hid her helpless baby in the bulrushes but then she left. Can you imagine doing that?

I believe it was her deep faith in the God of the Israelites; her God. She just entrusted her son to Him. Maybe, because he was a beautiful child, she thought someone would adopt him.

Sometimes God asks hard things of us as He works out His plan in our lives. Sometimes we tell Him we can’t do it. Sometimes we take our time in taking even the first step. Sometimes we wait years to take the second step. Sometimes we’re sure we really messed up His plan for us.

When I read about the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and how they often made decisions that seemed to thwart God’s plan, I’m encouraged that God is able to work even with our mistakes.

My encouragement is in God’s Word, in Philippians 1: verse 6. “And I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day, when Jesus Christ returns.” [The Living Bible]

Ruth Willms

Author: The Lion Tree
http://ruthwillms.com
ruth.willms@gmail.com

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