Feelin’ hot, hot, hot...
By Matt Stanislav
It seems like the first D-group meeting of every fall semester, students gather together all over campus and say variations of the same thing: “I really stumbled this summer,” “I let my friends influence me too much this summer,” “I really missed the accountability I had on campus.” What all of these statements imply is that the majority of students come back to campus feeling lukewarm in their faith. Now at first, this does not seem like that big of a problem; at least people are not coming back cold in their faith, right? Wrong!
The Bible is fairly clear in the position it takes on lukewarm religiosity: just read Revelation 3:14-22. In this passage, John is relaying the message he received from the Lord to the Church at Laodicea and he says, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” If these words of the Bible are true, we as Christians need to find ways to avoid living lives of lukewarm faith. So, what can you do this summer to avoid this pitfall? Here are some suggestions for staying hot in your faith this summer.
Daily Bible reading and prayer: I agree with the teachings of John Stott, the famous British Evangelical, when he said that anyone who has a Bible and a reliable alarm clock has the ability to be in the Word every day. One of the easiest ways for us as Christians to stay connected with God is to listen to him by daily reading his Word and talking with him through prayer.
Scripture memorization: In Psalm 119:9-16, the Psalmist asks a question and then answers it. In verse 9 he asks, “How can a young man keep his way pure?” His answer to this question was, “By keeping it [his way] according to your [God’s] word.” The Psalmist then goes on to say, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against you.” If we desire to keep our ways pure, if we desire to stay hot in our faith, then we ought to dedicate ourselves to memorizing some Scripture. My advice, start off with small sections of Scripture that are important to you and then work yourself into larger sections later.
Get involved at with a group of Christians: The latter section of 1 Corinthians 12 speaks of Christians as all being different parts of the Christian body. Each part is necessary and relied upon by other parts. When we as Christians are not involved with other believers, we are depriving ourselves of the support we need and we are depriving others of what we contribute. Many of us will go home to high school friends who are unsupportive of our faith. This makes it crucial that we be connected to the body, whether through a church or through some sort of small group, so that we can remain spiritually hot.
Give yourself some attainable spiritual goals: My final encouragement to each of you is that you set goals for yourself this summer. Some interesting and attainable goals may be: read two to three spiritual (non-fiction) books, write a sermon, memorize a book of the Bible, discover and develop your spiritual gift, spend two to three weekends out of your summer volunteering somewhere, or maybe spend an hour a day in Bible reading, prayer, and quiet time. Whatever you decide your goals will be, write them down and share them with someone who will hold you accountable. If you do this, and you achieve your spiritual goals this summer, I am confident that you will come back to campus in the fall as a hot Christian!