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The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend.  We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.

FIVE BY FIVE*, LESSON 3: God answers prayer.

Confident prayer flows from a personal, experiential trust in the character of God.  Trusting that God will answer your prayers, and always in the very best way possible, begins with the knowledge of the revealed character of God in scripture.  “As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.” (2 Sam. 22:31)

Scripture is clear; God answers the prayers of his people when they turn their hearts toward him.  But how does He answer?  What can we expect?

Consider these questions as you prepare your heart this week to lead your students.  Would our God be good if He gave us what we asked for even if it was not the best?  Would He be a loving Father if He gave us that which would, in the end, do us harm or send us on a detour from His perfect plan?

While the answers to these questions seem clear theoretically, we still struggle with them in practice.  Especially when what we’ve asked for seems good and right to us.  The truth is that what we ask for may in fact be good and right but not best and not God’s will in that circumstance.

Accepting the fact that God is more interested in our character than He is in our comfort, and believing in His goodness even when it doesn’t seem good to us, is a very real part of the Christian walk, a critical feature of a Christian worldview, and one that we must teach the children early before the storms of life come to shake their faith.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God… -1 John 5:14a

MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Jeremiah 33:3
Ephesians 3:20
Matthew 7:11
James 1:17
Isaiah 55:9

*What does “5 by 5” mean?  In spoken communication over two-way radios, a transmitting station may request a report on the quality of signal they are broadcasting. “Five by five” means a signal that has excellent strength and perfect clarity — the most understandable signal possible.