Lesson 1: Faith

What's in the Box?
Lesson 1
Required Materials: Box

How do you explain faith to kids, especially teens who live in the "here and now," with technology constantly at their fingertips?

Sure there are lots of scriptures you can point out and study, but how do you make the concept real?  How do you make them understand something you can't see or touch?

That's where the box came in...I told them there was something inside, but secretly, I knew there was only air inside the box.  I listened with great joy as the girls shook the box and guessed random things. "A tissue.  A paperclip.  A piece of paper, yes, definitely a small piece of paper. I heard it."

With great confidence, they each shook the box and guessed.  They would even encourage each other when they thought they had guessed it correctly. 

But then, I let the last one open the box.  "Nothing, its empty...you tricked us" she said in disbelief.

I asked them why they believed there was something inside. 

"You told us there was."

Then came the kicker:  "Ok, I told you there was something inside, but you hadn't seen it, touched it, or even heard it bouncing around inside that box, but you all believed there was something inside, didn't you?"

They all stared at me like they had just been told Santa Clause wasn't real. 

I asked them "So what is it called when you can't see or touch something, but you believe it's there?"

"FAITH!" one of the girls screamed out with excitement.  With that one word, they all realized I hadn't really lied to them.  They all realized exactly what faith meant.  I pointed out how they listened intensely when they shook the box, how they used all the reason they could to deduce a logical guess. How they even compared their guesses with each others, but in the end, all that was in the box was their belief that there was something inside.

Faith is usually defined as a belief in things unseen. 

We have to have faith in lots of "things" in our lives.  I can't actually see the money in my bank account, but I have to have faith that the bank is keeping an accurate watch on it.  I can't see the level of gasoline in my Jeep, but I have to have faith in the gage that tells me when my tank is full or getting low.  Faith is everywhere around us.

But why is faith important?

In the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, the word "faith" appears 231 different times, not counting the different variations of the word "faith" like "faithful, faithfully, faithless."  Out of those 231 different times, only two are in the Old Testament, once in Deuteronomy and once in Habakkuk.  I guess you could say faith is more of a New Testament concept.

No, "faith" is not the most often reoccurring word, but it is considerably one of the most important.  Where would we be without faith?  Just contemplate that for a moment...

The phases I hear most often quoted from scriptures are "O ye of little faith" and "have faith."  But its hard to have faith if you don't believe, and its hard to have a lot of faith if you don't really understand what faith really means.

Plain and simple, faith is a lot about trust.  If you trust someone or something is true, then you can have faith in that person, statement, or object.

In Mark 11:22, it is written:

"And Jesus answering saith unto them, 'Have faith in God.'" KJV

It can be as simple as that. Simply believing, even though we can't see or touch Him.

Challenge:

Look up other verses that include the word "faith" and see how important having faith is for a Christian.