Living with Faith

Having the confidence to achieve personal goals

by Helen Gwynne-Kinsey

Suitable for Key Stage 4/5 - Church Schools

Aims

To reflect on the power of faith.

Preparation and materials

• Have available the YouTube video Audio Adrenaline – Believer and the means to show it during the assembly (available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLDmrVPQd98). It is 4.09 minutes long.  

Assembly

1. Today I am going to give you the opportunity to reflect on the concept of ‘faith’.

I am going to start by asking a question. How many of you can truly say that you have faith in yourself? By this I mean that when you are presented with a challenge, you have the confidence to know you will be successful in accomplishing it.

2. Sadly, we sometimes miss golden opportunities due to a lack of confidence. We may feel a little afraid of what we have to face and would rather not try at all than end up being a failure, but this is not the way to live.

3. The Bible sums up faith in the following way in Hebrews 11.1 (NLT):

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen.

4. I would now like to show you an example of such faith in action. Derek Rabelo is a Brazilian surfer. The incredible thing about Derek is that he was born completely blind, yet his family always believed that he could do anything he wanted to do despite his lack of sight.

Derek’s father was a keen and very good surfer, other family members were pro surfers and so when Derek said that he wanted to surf, too, he was given a bodyboard and took to the water. Derek now spends his days surfing around the world and sharing his incredible story. ‘We should all believe in ourselves and chase our dreams’, he says.

Show the YouTube video Audio Adrenaline – Believer (at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLDmrVPQd98).

Time for reflection

Let’s reflect on what we’ve just seen.

Prayer

Dear God,
Help us to grow in confidence and faith that we might achieve our personal goals.
Let us gain inspiration from believers such as Derek Rabelo, who, in his own words, ‘lives by faith, not by sight.’  
Amen.