College is right around the corner! (Or quite possibly already under your feet if yours likes to make an early start.) So what does that mean for a Christian in college? Well, plenty: the end of a summer quite possibly fuelled by camps and conferences which have left you on a spiritual high, maybe a move to another city, returning to the classrooms and lecture halls ready for loads of learning ;), meeting new people or catching up with old friends, a new routine (for studying and socialising).

But as Christians, we are called to more than the daily slog; we’re called to take up our crosses daily and live out our lives for Jesus. We are meant to be the bright lights and stars in this dark world, shining for the Lord, spreading His love and the Good News and trying every day to live like Jesus did. Read on for some reminders that’ll hopefully help you as you try to imitate Christ in your college life.

1) Remember God is with you. Do not worry. He is in control.

First and foremost, remember that we have a Mighty God who is capable of all things. Through Him all things are possible. You’re not alone in this momentous task. God has sent His Holy Spirit to help us. He’s not leaving us out on our own.
You’ve may have heard this verse quoted before but I’m going to do it again because it’s so applicable: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6).
It’s so true! God cares about the lilies in the field and the sparrows of the air, He’s not going to forget about us! He loves us with a crazy momentous love that’s far too large and great for our little human brains to understand but He loves us!
I think we’ve all become control freaks, whether we recognise it or not, and we refuse to wholly fully trust in God. We always make our own Plan B’s and we have back-ups and we struggle about in the sand trying to do things our own way. But our God is a loving God who we can trust to take care of us and all our problems. In fact, He calls us to give up our problems to Him; “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28).
Our God is bigger than any problems we may face in our time in college; be they exams, finances, friends, relationships, living out the Gospel, God is in control. What a great comfort we can find in that! Our God can handle them all!

2) Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel.

We are called to be ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). This is both a privilege (we are co-heirs with Christ! Us! Me! With all my sin and fumbling through life!) and a responsibility. If we call ourselves Christians, then every day we are witnessing to those around us. It’s amazing how much people pick up, even sub-consciously, just from how we live. The lifestyle choices we make, the way we interact with others (both those we know well and those we don’t know at all), whether or not God is our top priority in all situations; these are the subtle yet so extremely powerful ways in which we are witnessing to those around us.
Think about it. How many Christians do your friends know? In my college it’s a pretty slim chance they’ll know more than two or three devout Christians their own age. That means that the way they see me living my life is playing a large part in the kind of image they form about Christianity. That’s a massive responsibility!
And let’s add to this: This is a 24-hour gig. There’s no time off. At all times we are called to live like this. We can’t pick and choose the bits of our lives that we want to live in a Christ-like manner and the bits that we’d rather ignore Him. It is all for Him. As the song goes: Jesus, all for Jesus. All I am and have and ever hope to be.
Now, I mess up so much. It saddens me to think of the amount of times I’ve missed or spoiled an evangelism opportunity because of my own embarrassment or just sheer ignorance. And chances are you guys mess up a good bit too (no judgment guys, just yanno, we’re all sinners). But we can pray to God for help. He’s not going to leave us on our own. With His help, we can strive at all times to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel.

3) Love your neighbours.

College can so quickly become a social game. That’s great! I love my college friends and I don’t see anything wrong with hanging out with them. In fact, I feel quite strongly that God has given me this group of friends to be a witness to and to talk to them about Him. But what about the lost and the lonely? The people immediately labelled as too ‘weird’ or ‘different’ to talk to.
It is easy to love those who love us back. It requires a lot more of us to love those who annoy us, those who are rude to us, those who are strange and won’t boost our super-cool factor.
Jesus calls us to love our neighbours and that means loving even those who are difficult to love. How difficult is it really to give someone a smile? A smile is such a small gesture but it can have such a big impact. Be kind and compassionate and love your neighbour as yourself.

4) God loves you. Don’t doubt your self-worth. You are a child of the King.

At the end of the day, the call of Christianity is “Come home.” From there, from inside God’s loving arms, we grow each day and become more and more like Him through the work of His Holy Spirit, through studying the Bible, through spending time with God in prayer. God loves you. The Maker of the Universe, the divine God who is the only God, who knows all things and sees all things and can do all things, He loves you and me! How crazy is that.
When I first started college I spent the first few months doubting myself. I can’t remember the amount of times that I had to tell myself that I deserved to be in college just as much as everyone else around me, no matter how much cleverer, funnier, friendlier, prettier or more exciting they were.
We are children, loved children, of the King. He loves us. He will care for us. He will never leave us. And that’s the blessed assurance we cling to.

Bible verses

I don’t know about you but for me all of this can get quite overwhelming. So I’ve included some Bible verses to help:

“The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
– Zephaniah 3:17.

““For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.””
– Jeremiah 29:11.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
– 2 Corinthians 4:18.

Prayer

My prayer for you this new college season is that you will grow in your love for God and for those around you. I pray that you will settle well into your colleges and that you will be able to join Christian societies and churches that will further encourage you in your walk with God. I pray that you will always know how deep and how wonderful God’s love for you is.