Pursuing Jesus in college is difficult, but it is worth every hardship. You are not alone in this journey. There will be other Christians on your campus, you just have to find them! Here are 7 ways to pursue Jesus during this time of transitioning to college: (more…)
Transitioning to college is a time of change and challenge. The biggest challenge is keeping your faith alive.
College is a time when students are searching for themselves and trying to figure out their worldviews, religious beliefs, dreams, passions, and more. These years are very important in your walk with God. Statistically speaking, freshmen are more open to the gospel than any other year in college. 85% of those who receive Christ do so before the age of 19.
That is a huge number! Think of how influential you are to someone else’s faith journey in college. You could help bring someone from life to death. But this isn’t possible if you turn away from God.
If you don’t make your faith your own now, the world will quickly pull you away from God. (more…)
Hey friends!
I hope summer is going well for you all. I am currently working as a counselor at a camp called SYI, the Summer Youth Institute at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. I’m having a wonderful time! Today we got to go dragon boating down the river! It also made my day when I found out I had a blog post published on XXXchurch.com! I’m super excited about this. The ministry helps with porn addiction recovery. They are a growing ministry and I’m excited to be a part of it.
To read my post, click the link: Follow Joseph Out the Door: A Modern Bible Story
Thanks for all the support from all of you who read my blog and follow me on social media. I hope this post encourages you to flee from temptation in all areas of sin.
During my freshman year at USF, I began to meet with an older women in Cru, a college ministry. She prepared lessons for me and helped me in my walk with Christ. I loved our discipleship time together. As a freshman, I had recently surrendered my life to Christ, so I was very excited to learn. Every word she spoke to me I held on to as if it was gold. I made her an idol. When the year ended, she left and I was devastated.
Our friendship was one of the most helpful, but also the most harmful, during these early stages of my walk with the Lord. Thankfully, Jesus made me realize the problem, and used everything to bring Him glory.
I hope to help you figure out now if you are in a similar situation before the problem gets worse.
I love talking about how powerful our stories are, because when I realized this my life changed. I began to understand why I needed to share my story with other women. Through this, I experienced so much growth in my walk with God!
In the past two weeks I’ve blogged about how powerful our stories are. Here is why:
“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
When we admit our weaknesses to others, God has an opportunity to be glorified. We are powerless. God is powerful.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Have you ever gone through a difficult time, reached the other end, and thought, “How in the world did I get through this?”
God.
My freshman year of college I was in a ditch of loneliness, sadness, and anger. At that time, I never thought I could be where I am now. Now, every time I am vulnerable and I share my story with someone of how God healed me, I let my weaknesses show God’s strength. I get to give God all the glory.
“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.” 2 Tim 1: 8
When Jesus was dying on the cross, everyone thought he was a complete failure, except God. They believed that all he had done was a lie and was now dying a useless death. They didn’t know God’s plan or look at the bigger picture because they focused on the now.
Three days later they saw things differently. God’s plan became clear.
Friends, we are just like this! In the midst of pain and struggling we question God. Then when we see the other side, we see how God used that situation to glorify himself. We begin to think differently.
I love journaling. When I go back and re-read old journals I can truly see that God has used my story to bring him glory. Here is one prayer I wrote in November of my freshman year of college, “God, I know someday I will see how you’ve made a beautiful thing out of this.”
God has answered my prayers. He has fixed my broken heart. And he can fix yours too. He can and will make a beautiful thing out of all your pain and suffering.
Ladies, be vulnerable with the other women in your life. You don’t know what they are going through. Maybe you have similar stories, and God wants to use you both to help each other.
Allow God to use your story to bring him glory.
Check out: The Power of Your Story (Part 1) and The Power of Your Story (Part 2)
Last week, I blogged about how powerful our stories are. (Click here to see it!)
Our stories have as much power as Jesus’ death on the cross. If you are a believer in Christ and have a personal relationship with him, God can and will use your story to bring him glory. Your story is an extension of God’s power!
The second reason why your story is powerful is because our God has an eternal perspective. God knows how each event in our lives will be used to impact eternity!
Isaiah 55:8-11: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
We have to understand that God is SO much bigger than our tiny little brains.
Our thoughts are smaller than his thoughts. Our plans are smaller than his plans. Think of eternity as a line. It is a line that goes on and on and on forever. We are just one dot on that line, so we only see our dot and a little before and after. But God, the Creator of the line, sees the whole line! He knows how one dot will impact the next.
Last summer, I had the pleasure of going to Miami for 10 weeks on Miami Summer Project with a ministry called Cru.
Before going on project, I prayed that God would bring one other women who had been sexually abused. I desired to use my story to help someone else heal. One day in Miami, I went on a walk with one of my friends. She was upset and said that she didn’t know why she was telling me this, but wanted to tell me her story. She had been raped her freshman year of college. I was the first person she had told.
God planned that both her and I would be in Miami that summer. She felt weird inside because the Holy Spirit was telling her to share her deepest pain with me. We cried and talked together, and I began to understand that God would use my story to glorify himself. That summer I got to help my friend begin a journey of healing, and I continued healing by viewing my life through God’s eternal perspective.
Later that week, I found out that 5 other girls on project had been sexually abused.
I prayed for 1 girl, God gave me 6. Before project, we each focused on our dot and our hurt, but God was focused on how our hurt could help others.
Here is my favorite part of the story! After project, one of the women felt called to share her story with other ladies, specifically the Greek women on her campus. She went to each chapter meeting and shared her story. She shared what she had gone through, how God redeemed her, saved her, and how now is experiencing real love in a relationship with God.
Later that semester, Cru at her college hosted an event called Girls’ Night Out by Marian Jordan. At the event, they witnessed 98 girls pray to give their life to Christ, most of them were women from sororities that my friend shared her story to.
Dear reader, my friend realized that God could take her story and use it to change women’s eternities! He can do the same with yours! Your story is powerful! I challenge you to stop focusing on your dot and focus on the line. Let God use your story to impact others eternities! Love, Joy
Check out: The Power of Your Story (Part 1) and The Power of Your Story (Part 3)
I hope this post has been encouraging! Be sure to add me on social media and share my blog with your friends! Thanks!
Dear Roommate,
When paired with a random roommate in college, learning to live together can be challenging. It can be even more challenging if you both have different beliefs and lifestyles. If this happens and she is not a follower of Christ, here are 5 ways to help show her the love of Jesus in a kind, non-threatening way.
Remember that Jesus loves her just as much as you. She is also the daughter of a King, she just may not know that yet. You two were paired up for a reason, and maybe that reason is so she can come to know Jesus.
Love, Christian College Gal
I hope this post has been encouraging! Be sure to add me on social media and share my blog with your friends! Thanks!
In the past three years, God has continued to show me over and over again how he can take my story and use it for his plan and his purpose. For the longest time I struggled believing this. I thought there was no way that God could use my broken life in any positive way. My freshman year of college, I was sexually abused. Immediately, the feeling of shame entered my heart.
I thought my story was filled with too much pain to bring God glory. Have you ever thought your story was too shameful to share or help anyone?
We all have a story, and we all have parts of our story we don’t think will bring the world any good. We all have been through challenges in life. We all have faced heart ache, anger, sadness, struggles, but if you are a believer in Christ and have a personal relationship with him, God can and will use your story to bring him glory.
Romans 8:28 states, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
God has a purpose and a plan for your story. He knows that it will be used to further his kingdom, impact eternity, and bring him glory.
Why, you ask?
Because our stories are powerful.
Revelation 12:10-11 says, “And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”
These verses take place in the middle of a battle between God and Satan. “They” refers to Christians, and the verses explain the two ways that Christians can triumph over Satan.
The two reasons are:
Our stories have so much power that they are in the same sentence as the power of Jesus’s death!
Why do our stories have this power? Because if you are a Christian, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is inside of you. The power of the Holy Spirit is inside you.
Your story is an extension of God’s power.
God has shown me how my story is powerful. He has used it to bring him glory. He has brought many women to me who have similar stories and used my story to help these women find power in their stories. He has used my story to impact others eternities. He can and will make a beautiful thing out of all your pain and suffering.
Never let Satan convince you that your story has no purpose. Never let him convince you that your story is too shameful to share with others.
Allow God to use your story to bring him glory.
Check out: The Power of Your Story (Part 2) and The Power of Your Story (Part 3)
I hope this post has been encouraging! Be sure to add me on social media and share my blog with your friends! Thanks!
Dear Summer Vacationing College Student,
Congrats on making it through another year of college!
Now you get to rest up! Enjoy your break, time away from school, and rest! Not only does summer provide rest, but it can also challenge your faith and obedience to Jesus. During the school year, you have your routine. You wake up, drink your coffee while reading the word, get ready, and go to class. But during the summer, you might not have a schedule, and it becomes easier to forget about spending time with God. Summers can also be spiritually isolating because you might be going home to non-Christian family and friends, and you’ll be away from your church and Christian community. All of this can make growing in your walk with God a challenge, but take heart because you can make decisions now that will allow you to continue to grow during the summer.
Why is it important to continue growing in your walk with God during the summer and not just take the months off? (more…)
