Blessings From Heaven, Tuesday

Hello friends, welcome to the SeenPod for Kids.

Thank you for joining me today as we spend time with our friend Jesus.

Spending time with Jesus is the best way to start your day.

Let's begin our time together, praising Him.

The song Showers of Blessing was written based off the Bible verse in Ezekiel 34, verse 26,

where it says, I will cause the shower to come down in his season.

There shall be showers of blessing.

God is the one who causes blessings to come down upon us, and it's not just one or two

blessings, but showers.

Lots of blessings to be poured out upon us.

We need, where he drops round us our calling, but for the showers we plead.

There shall be showers of blessing, over today they might fall.

Now as you've ever come, passing, now as on Jesus we go.

Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need.

We need, where he drops round us our calling, but for the showers we plead.

Welcome to Hide His Word, a special program where we take a few minutes to hide God's Word in our hearts.

Let's go ahead and get started.

We're going to practice Psalm 23, verses 1, 2, and 3, and then today we're going to review Psalm 91,

because we've learned Psalm 91 earlier this quarter, and we want to review it just to keep it in our minds.

So here we go, let's work on Psalm 23 first, the first three verses, and then we'll jump over to Psalm 91.

So Psalm 23 verse 1 says, can you say it with me?

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down where in green pastures, he leads me beside what the still waters.

What else does he do?

He restores my soul.

That means that God helps our soul to be happy and to be healthy because it wasn't.

I had some furniture that was given to me, and it was really bad looking.

It needed paint, it was chipped, it was outdated, it was very old, and so I had a lot of fun restoring the furniture.

And so I sanded it down and painted it and got new little knobs for the dresser drawers, and now they're wonderful pieces of furniture because they were restored.

That's what God does with us, he restores our souls, he helps us to be like new.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

What a beautiful promise.

Okay, let's now review Psalm 91, let's get straight to it.

Do you remember how it starts?

It starts with he who dwells, okay?

Here we go, I want you to say it with me, let's go from verse 1 to 16 all the way through.

He who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in Him I will trust.

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the Fowler and from the perilous pestilence.

He shall cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall take refuge.

His truth shall be your shield and buckler.

You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day,

nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at

noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you.

Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the most high your dwelling place,

no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling.

For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.

In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample under foot.

Because He has set His love upon me, therefore I will deliver Him.

I will set Him on high, because He has known my name.

He shall call upon me, and I will answer Him.

I will be with Him in trouble.

I will deliver Him and honor Him.

With long life I will satisfy Him and show Him my salvation.

We have another great story today about Elisha and a miracle that He did for a group of the schools,

a group of students at the schools of the prophets.

But we are going to learn about that in just a minute first, let's pray.

Lord, come into our hearts and help us as we study to trust you more.

Thank you so much for all these stories in the Bible, all the miracles, the way that you worked

in people's lives in Bible times, and that you want to do the same thing in our lives.

Help us to turn to you and trust you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Elisha visited the schools of the prophets often.

They had different schools set up so that people could go and learn about God,

and learn how to be a worker for Him.

One time, He was at the school in Gilgal.

If you want, you can look it up on a map, maybe in the back of your Bible,

you might have maps in the back of your Bible, or get your parents' help,

and you can look online for a map to see where Gilgal was.

You had the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah.

Now, it was divided into two different kingdoms, two different kings,

and Elisha would go around visiting the schools of the prophets.

Maybe he was teaching a class that day, but when it was time to eat,

he told the servants to get a big pot and make some stew for everyone.

We call this hobo stew.

I don't know what you might call it, but when we lived in Michigan,

we did a harvest party, a harvest festival every fall,

when it started to get cold, and so we would have, well, they would,

start a big fire, put a great big pot over the fire,

and everyone would bring something to add to the pot,

and we would all add something, it might be a can of corn,

or it might be some potatoes, or onions, or frozen vegetables,

and so everyone would bring something, and we would all dump it into the pot

and cook it over the fire, and then we would scoop it out,

and oh, it would always burn my tongue every single time.

I'd be like, okay, this is really, really hot.

Don't eat it too soon, and I would always burn my tongue,

but it tasted so good.

It was so yummy.

And that was fun, because everyone would bring something to contribute,

and they would all add it to the pot to make some stew.

That's what the sons of the prophets were told to do.

They were all supposed to bring some food.

Now, what was happening in the land of Israel that time was there was a famine,

and that means that there wasn't enough food.

Let's look at 2 Kings, chapter 4, verse 38.

We're going to 2 Kings, the Old Testament,

chapter 4, it's after 1 Kings, 2 Kings, but before 1 Chronicles.

2 Kings, chapter 4, verse 38, to turn one more page.

2 Kings, chapter 4, verse 38.

Let's see what that says.

And Elijah returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land.

Now, the sons of the prophets were sitting before him,

and he said to his servant, put on the large pot,

and boils stew for the sons of the prophets.

The Bible doesn't tell us why God was letting a famine happen again in the land of Israel.

Maybe he was trying to remind the people that when so many of them were obeying Satan,

he couldn't bless them like he wanted to.

We don't know, but there was a famine.

And so one of the students went out to the field to gather something for the stew.

Maybe he was going to dig up some vegetables or something.

But as he was out there, he saw this plant, kind of like a vine, and it had gourds on it.

I think of gourds like butternut squash, or a different, like,

squashes that you would pick off of a plant, maybe in your garden.

So he found these gourds, and he was so excited, he was probably very happy.

Yeah, I found some food.

And so he brought it back, and what did he do?

Look at verse 39.

So one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine,

and gathered it from a lapful of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew,

though they did not know what they were.

They sliced them up, put them in the pot of stew, even though they didn't know what they were.

It's very important to know what you're eating, especially when you're foraging for food out

in the wild or in the wilderness.

You need to know what it is, because there are things that are very poisonous that can hurt you.

And that's what happened here.

By now, everyone must have been hungry, and when the stew was finished cooking,

everyone sat down to eat.

Elisha was with them, and they were all looking forward to a good meal.

But suddenly, as they started eating, they knew there was something wrong.

It didn't taste right, and they realized that there was something poisonous in it.

Oh no, all that food wasted, and they could have gotten very, very sick.

They were so hungry.

Now there wasn't going to be anything for them to eat at all.

Have you ever been really hungry?

Only maybe your mom or your grandma, they're making the food, and you're just like,

can I please have something that smells so good?

I'm so hungry, and they're like, no, be a half to eight.

You're just like, no.

Oh, these people were so hungry.

But God told Elisha just what to do.

Look at verse 40 and 41.

Then they served it to the men to eat.

Now it happened as they were eating the stew that they cried out and said,

man of God, there's death in the pot.

So he said, then bring some flour, and he put it into the pot and said,

serve it to the people that they may eat.

And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

He had them bring flour and put it in the pot.

How could flour fix it?

Because God worked a miracle.

Do you think that the students asked the blessing again,

and thanked God for helping them to have a good meal after all?

I'm sure.

You know, boys and girls, Elisha always knew that God and his angels were with him,

even though we couldn't see them.

And God's with us too.

In our day-to-day lives, when we sit down to eat,

when we go and we play, when we play at the park, when we go to school,

all of that God is with us.

And he has his angels right there with us.

Aren't you glad that he's right there?

That we can turn to him whenever we're in trouble?

I am.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord, come into our hearts.

Thank you so much for your promise that you will never leave us or forsake us,

that you've sent your angels to be with us, to camp around us.

Help us to remember that, to keep you in our minds throughout our days.

In Jesus' name, amen.

What you're doing and that they approve.

Let's see Pod Kids on YouTube.

If you have enjoyed this program and would like to find others like it,

go to startingwachiesus.com.

The materials for this devotional podcast are used by permission from my Bible first.

Visit their website at mybiblefirst.org to get your own copy.

For more information about this episode,

check out the description box below.