Today’s Reading:
Read I Kings 21:1-8, 15-16, 20-29
Think of a time when you asked someone for forgiveness. Mom and Dad, this is a great opportunity for you to be vulnerable with your kids and share with them a time when you did something wrong that required you to ask for forgiveness. When we hurt someone, it is important that we make things right by asking that person to forgive us. Remember all we have heard about King Ahab this week? He did a lot of things that were evil. He hurt a lot of people. In today’s reading, we see King Ahab humble himself and ask God for forgiveness.
King Ahab was married to a woman named Jezabel. Jezabel did not follow God. In a moment of anger, Jezabel did something very dishonest that cost some people their lives. She wrote an edict, or a law and she used King Ahab’s royal stamp to make it official. She did that without permission. Whenever a king stamped a law, it could not be reversed or changed. Jezabel’s choice led to other people’s deaths.
Elijah, the prophet of God, confronted King Ahab and Jezabel about the evil they had done. Elijah had a message for King Ahab. God was going to destroy everyone in King Ahab’s family and not allow his kingdom to continue. God was serious about the consequence for Ahab and Jezebel’s choices. I Kings 21:27-29 shows us a side of King Ahab that we haven’t seen yet. King Ahab humbled himself before the Lord and demonstrated sadness for his choices. As a result, God showed King Ahab mercy. King Ahab was spared the disaster in his lifetime.
Application/Prayer:
Use a dictionary (or an online dictionary) and look up what the word repent means. To repent means to turn away from sin and to ask for forgiveness for the sin. What is sin? Remember, sin is anything that separates us from God- either by doing something we should not do, or by not doing something we are supposed to do. Read I John 1:9 as a family and thank God for his forgiveness!
June Memory Verse:
“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”
Using the daily reading prompts from George H. Guthrie’s Read the Bible for Life, here’s how to use this devotional:
- Bring your Bible! Your kids need to see that everything you are reading to them or learning about comes from an actual Bible!
- Each day starts with a reading prompt. Read the selection as a family. If your kids are readers, encourage them to read along with you.
- After you’ve read the passage, read the short devotional thought that goes along with each passage.
- Prayer and application are important any time we read God’s word! After each devotional, there is a challenge to help apply what your family has read that day.
- There is a reading for six days of the week. The last reading of the week is a Gospel Conversation Prompt to help you connect the reading from the week with God’s plan for salvation.
Other Resources:
June memory verse coloring sheet
June Fill-in the blank activity