What are Little Bites from Heaven? The Spiritual Life Committee knows how important faith is to our families at DeSales. However, we also know families lead busy lives and finding time to sit down to foster that faith, read the Bible together and answer the questions our children have about God sometimes takes a back seat to other things. That’s why we think Little Bites from Heaven is a great tool to do just this. Dinnertime allows an opportunity to connect over food while having fun, joyful and meaningful faith-building conversations with your children. Little Bites from Heaven provides devotional time for all family members that includes scripture, questions to discuss and a short devotional. It’s as simple as read the scripture and devotion and discuss the questions together. We believe Little Bites from Heaven will help to prioritize what is most important and at the same time, foster and grow a deeper understanding of your family’s faith rooted in Jesus Christ.
Devotional: He’s Got the Whole World
“He’s got whole world in his hands. He’s for the whole world in his hands…” Have you ever sung that song? If God has the whole world in his hands, then he can do whatever he wants with it, right? He’s in charge. Jesus affirmed this when he prayed to his father, “may your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” (Mt. 6:10) People talk about God’s will a lot, and really there are two aspects about the will of God we need to grasp. Both are true, and both are important to understand and believe in. There is the sovereign will of God – what God has planned for history that always comes to pass, without fail. Then there is the revealed will of God – the way God wants us to live – which is clearly revealed in the Bible. This part of the will of God does not always come to pass because of the fallenness of this world and our disobedience.
The will of God is the way he works out his divine plan for all things, That includes small things:”Not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.” (Mt 10:29) And it includes big things: ”the King’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord; he guides it wherever he pleases” (Prov. 21:1) Nothing and no one can hinder God’s sovereign will.
Scripture:
You can have a Bible close to the dinner table to use during devotions. The kids can take turns reading the scripture each week out of the Bible!
“Because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.”
Ephesians 1:11
Discussion Questions (pick a couple or all questions and allow for everyone to answer. There’s no answer key! As parents, we sometimes think we have to have all the answers, but we don’t. It’s ok to sometimes not have all the answers! But God does and it’s good to let our kids know when tough questions arise that some things only God knows, and we can’t always understand, but we can always trust Him )
1. Can you think of anything that God does not have in his hands or is not in charge of?
2. Can people look back at choices they made or things they did in the past and say that they missed God’s will?
3. If God is working out his sovereign plan, what is he working all things towards?
Little Bites from Heaven are excerpts taken from Dinner Table Devotions written by Nancy Guthrie
