It’s Personal!
What happens when your relationship with God becomes personal? This is a question we have been asking high school students as we have challenged them to make their “relationship with God” more personal.
This past week we had a high school student have a new view of what his relationship with God needed to be. Over the past couple of months he had opened up about having trouble dealing with peer pressure, but this past week he opened up about how he could make his relationship with God personal. He said “You know I really haven’t had a problem with peer pressure lately, because it’s not my friends who are pressuring me to make the choices I’m making, it’s me! I don’t need God to help me to choose better friends; but I need God to change me! He needs to change my heart! I’m the one wanting to make the bad choices I’m currently making. I have had a relationship with God for a long time, but it has been more about what’s in my head than what’s in my heart. I need God to change my heart and when He does that; it will flow into the decision making of my life!”
This is how this high school student is making his relationship with God personal. His story started with what’s in his head, but God is now changing him by changing what’s in his heart! This is making it personal!
Vertical Reality ‘08
I’m constantly amazed at how big my God is! Over the course of this weekend we saw many students and leaders see God in a way they have never seen Him before! The weekend was focus on a person’s Godview. A.W. Tozer says, “The most important thing about a person, is what they think about when they think about God.” As I was studying for the talks, I was intrigued at the many distorted views of God! So many people have a wrong picture of who God is; meaning, they are responding to God in the wrong way.
I love how God was working in one of our student’s lives this weekend! She has gone to church almost all of of her life, sang in youth choir, went on youth trips; but she doesn’t see herself having a relationship with God. The tragedy is that if we asked her if she was saved, she would probably say “Yes I am.” But this is a common tragedy that I’m finding in the world of student ministry! We have taught people that being a follower of Christ is about ‘going to church’ and not about having the right view of God, of who He is and what He is like!
I’m so glad that God brought this young teenage girl to our retreat, because she saw a different picture of God this weekend. She saw that He was not a stained glass God that lives in side of the church, but that He lives in us! I’m excited to see how God is going to change her life. You see, she was not ready to allow God to take over her life, but is beginning to see Him in a different way! She is one step closer to the ONE that can change her life forever.
It’s an incredible privilege to see God work in the life of students!
Galatians 4:4 “Seeing the ONE who reflects my God”
