For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.
Psalm 26:3 (ESV)
This verse has been incredibly important to me personally for a couple of years now.
In a season of great discouragement and anxiety, this verse brought me a lot of peace and reassurance. It reminded me to refocus my attention and my purpose on the One Who is both steadfast and faithful.
No matter the circumstance I found myself in, I could trust God. I could trust His love, His provision and His plan.
Two years later, I am still often reminded of this verse as I am tempted to be distracted by circumstances of everyday life — most of which, of course, I have no control.
In just a few short weeks, thousands of college freshmen will disembark onto college campuses full of emotions ranging from pure excitement at the thought of newfound freedoms that college will bring them to a mountain of uncertainty of how it will all come together.
As they prepare to move to campus, campus is preparing for them to arrive. Countless hours of planning from every department in every building all with the same goal in mind: to ensure the transition of each freshman is a smooth and successful one.
For Baptist Campus Ministries (BCM), our initial goal is to help each student find a place to connect and belong regardless of faith background or previous church experiences.
Then the goal becomes to help students discover God’s purpose for their lives as they plug into the ministries of not only the BCM, but also of a local church.
To begin connecting with new students over the summer, we have been encouraging and preparing incoming freshmen through a weekly blog written by our upperclassmen: http://www.uabcm.tumblr.com.
Without prompting further instruction, we invited students to write something that would have been helpful for them as they prepared to come to the university.
A large majority of those we received centered around the same idea: Even though college is an amazing experience full of friendships and academics, there will be hard days. There will be classes that are difficult. There will be conflict with roommates. There will be relationships that don’t work out.
But it was in those hard days they learned new things and were reminded of significant truths about God. It was in those hard days they developed a deeper understanding of God and a confidence to trust His Word.
Join me in praying for incoming students as they begin this transition to college.
Life, regardless of the stage, can be hard. Things don’t always come easy. Things don’t always work out the way they are supposed to or we think they should.
We can’t control it, but we can control how we respond to it.
- Pray the truths of Psalm 26:3 over them.
- Pray that as these students face discouragement that they would remember God’s steadfast and unwavering love for them.
- Pray that God’s Word would bring wisdom and peace.
- Pray that in those moments where they encounter difficult circumstances that they would walk forward with confidence of God’s faithfulness.
