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Spiritual Emphasis Week
Fall 2024

Spiritual Emphasis Week Day # 1
Written by 8th graders: Leena Amey, Lauren Formsma & Kole Schenk

Today was the first day of Spiritual Emphasis Week presented by Trevor Hunt. Trevor is a youth pastor at Magnify Church. He started with a game of heads or tails. The winner got a prize and had to choose between a bigger or better item  than the one before.  After the winner chose, Trevor revealed that the other prize could have been better and our winner doubted the trade that was made.  This illustration helped us understand that the amount of a trade doesn’t always compare to the value of the other.  In the same way it relates to God’s promises and how we doubt him with sin.

Trevor then shared the verse we will focus on for the week,  Jeremiah 2:13 which says; “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”  This verse reflects that the Israelites traded away God for false idols. He emphasized how we trade God’s promises for something that we can control. When we start to have a mental battle we tend to rationalize things and it can become so easy to sin.  The Devil implants the phrase, “Did God really say… ?”  for example with Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve’s doubts turned to sin and separated them from God. Sin makes separation, and separation leads to questions like:

• Does anyone notice me when I walk through school?

• Will my friends still like me if they knew the real me?

• Do people like me or just put up with me?

• Am I enough…?

Trevor asked us, “Have you ever made a bad trade, choosing others over what God says about you?” He then challenged us to share with a friend or family member about a time when you felt that you weren’t good enough.

Application: We need to stay strong in our identity in Christ.  We need to hold strong and not fall to the trades that Satan offers us. We might think that having control over our lives is the solution, but God has a better plan for us.  We need to keep his promises. We as Christians shouldn’t trade away our faith, but instead hold strong through the storms and follow God’s plan.

Spiritual Emphasis Week Day # 2
Written by 8th graders: Hannah Tenney and Cole Miller

Today Trevor told us about “Broken Cisterns” and “hiding behind a shelf”. First of all he explained to us what it meant to use a broken cistern. The verse he shared with us was Jeremiah 2:13 which says: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” This is the verse that will be referenced all week. If a cistern is broken it can’t hold water. He referred to this as putting our lives into something other than God. Putting our identity in things besides God is a broken way of living. God is the only one who can sustain our wellbeing. Trevor then went on to explain what it means to live hiding behind a shelf. Sometimes we can become people pleasers. This means we do things that show others “the me I want them to see”. He talked to us about how this means we often display the things and/or become the things we think that others will like.  Sometimes we hide who God has called us to be because we are so busy trying to be someone else.  Trevor challenged us with these questions…

• What is something that you put on your “Shelf” for others to see?

• Who or what do you usually turn to for approval?

• What is something you’ve put a lot of effort into that didn’t fully satisfy you?

• Have you ever done something just to feel noticed or accepted? How did it make you feel in the moment? Did that feeling last?

One thing that really helped us understand what we put our identity in was how explained the phrase, “The Me I want you to See”. He brought a shelf to represent the things that he wanted his friends to see in him. He said that it prevents us from seeing God, and if we shield ourselves with the shelf, then people can’t see the real us. Sometimes you don’t want people to see the real you, but you don’t have to be scared of it.  The more you shield yourself from the real you, the farther away from God you will get.

Trevor ended with saying that sometimes we find things that feel right in the moment but they don’t last, we know that God DOES last and that his love will never go away.

Application: We  should not be afraid of showing who we really are. If we hide ourselves behind the shelf that we want people to see, It separates us from God. We don’t need our approval of others to define who we are, all we need is Jesus. Jesus shows us who we are, so we don’t need others to tell us what we are or we aren’t.