Aiming to Please God

Hello and Welcome!

Sharing a Bible Game!

Psalm 51:1-2
Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.

It was a Psalm of repentance when King David penned the 51st Psalm. 

As much as this man, (a man after God’s own heart) tried to please God, sadly, he failed. He stumbled. He sinned. He missed God’s mark. Thankfully Nathan the prophet helped him realize his way to turn again to God. James 5:19-20

“Repent!” said a young man sitting in the chair next to the game board. He was watching to see if they missed the mark.

In my Bible class, we are studying the 5 Books of Poetry – Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.

The book of Psalms has been most interesting, especially when one of my favorite games was introduced with our lesson about repentance. Aiming to Please God! It’s about preparing ourselves for battle, aiming to please God, missing the mark, Satan’s darts, and repentance! 

Important Pieces to the Game!

Ephesians 6 speaks of arming ourselves to stand against the Devil’s schemes. Taking up the shield of faith to be able to extinguish the flaming arrows/darts of the evil/wicked one. But what do we do when a dart gets through?

(A), The first step in the game is where the students must choose a ball that has a positive word and number on it, (ours are wads of brown crumpled up paper, “coconuts” used in The Jungle Journey VBS class one year. Real balls would work very nice and you could use a marker instead of taped on words).

(B), They had to find a scripture with the corresponding word/number that is on their ball to arm themselves with as they aimed to please God. (They have a choice, they can find the corresponding card on the poster and look up one of the verses on the card, or for time sake, find the word/number with a verse already typed out. I think they all chose to read the typed one.) 

Arming themselves with scripture against the Devil’s darts!

(C), They stand in line, then aim to “please/obey” God when it is their turn, by aiming their ball to go through the hole in the stand-up board game. If it goes through they pleased/obeyed God! Then they choose a new ball and begin the process again. If they miss, they missed God’s mark/gave in to temptation/sinned and one of the Devil’s darts found a chink in their armor. They must pick up and hold onto the ball they missed with. 

Aiming to Please/Obey God!

(D) Then they must find the dart that is laying on the table, with the corresponding number and opposite/negative corresponding word of their ball and scripture and stick the dart on Satan’s Dart Board! 

We are Satan's Target!!

(E) Then go and read a Bible verse about repentance – Acts 17:30, then try again. 

Aim to please God again with the same ball. If their ball makes it through they pleased/obeyed God and get to take their dart off the board and get a new ball, but if their ball doesn’t make it again, their dart stays up and they must read the repentance verse again and try to aim to please God once again with the same ball. 

(Repeat if keep missing the mark. They only get a new ball if they overcome this temptation/ball goes through the hole.)

The game in process.

Please God or Repent!

This process just keeps going and going! We don’t keep score it is just if they please God or not. These students loved it and learned a whole lot about arming themselves with scripture, aiming to please God, Devil’s fiery darts, and repentance.

When King David realized what he had done he was very sorry and asked forgiveness. 

Godly sorrow produces repentance, 2 Corinthians 7:8-10.

You will find two repentance charts I use in Bible class that help us understand the concept of repentance in our “Gold Star” visual aids!

This month they include directions to the Aiming to please God game, pictures of my two repentance posters, pleasing words for the balls, corresponding scriptures to arm yourself with, the opposite negative words for the darts, and cards for each pleasing word with more scripture to choose from.

A "Gold Star" Just for You! Click on it! 

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