Hands-On Faith for Families – Week of June 12, 2023

Theme: Let God Comfort You

God Comforts Us by Taking Away Guilt

Scripture: I acknowledged my sin to You, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. (Psalm 32:5 ESV)

Play: Take turns pretending you are a monkey trying to pull a banana from a jar. A parent’s hands can form the “jar” around your wrist. As long as you keep your hand in a fist and hang on to the imaginary banana, you are captured. If you let go of the banana, your hand will slide right out.

Talk: Sometimes, when we do something bad, we have a hard time forgiving ourselves, and we can’t let go of the horrible feeling about what we’ve done. That feeling is called guilt. The Bible tells us that when we confess our sins to God, He takes away the guilt, too (Psalm 32:5). But just as the monkey has to let go of the banana in the jar to go free, we have to let go of our guilt to be free. We have to trust that God has truly forgiven us. Do you remember a time when God took away your feelings of guilt?

Pray: Ask God to help you trust in His forgiveness when you mess up.

— Chris Brack