Day 1-Quality Time
PRAY: Just tell God you love Him a couple of times, then sit and listen for His voice.
Read: Psalm 40:1; Psalm 119:148; Jeremiah 29:13
How do you know your best friend? Do you talk to them? Spend time with them? Facebook them? Guess what... God wants you to know Him like this, too!
God wants you to know who He is, what He’s like, how much He loves you, what He’s thinking and so much more!
Psalm 25:14 says God wants to tell you His SECRETS. Now that is a best friend.
How do we get to know God this way? You have to spend time with Him. Set aside time each day or night to spend time with God and get to know Him. I’ve heard some students say they don’t know what to do when they spend time with God.
Hopefully, this will help.
- Tell Him how much you love Him
- Turn on worship music and worship
- Read your Bible. Ask God to teach you about who He is while you read.
- Talk to God about your problems and ask for help and guidance.
- Just talk to God about your life and what’s going on.
- Sit quietly in His presence enjoying the fact that He’s with you.
- Listen for His voice. This is one of the most important things you can do.
- After you speak or ask a question, listen for an answer.
- Ask God for more of a desire to know Him.
- Pray for others. Ask God to bless and help them.
- Talk to God like you would with a friend. He’s right there with you.
- TRY IT >>Find time to spend 10 minutes with God every day. As time goes on, increase your time.
PRAYER TIME: Pray for the ability to make time for God. Ask God for help with your needs in your life.
Going Deeper
Read Psalm 141 and see how David spends time with God. See how he tells God how he feels, asks for help, worships and a lot more! Try this out in your times with God.
Why do we do that?!
*What is a “word from God?” Some people say they have a “word” from God. This is simply something the Lord has told them about a person or situation.
Day 2-How to Hear God
Pray: Ask Holy Spirit to show the truth in what you read.
Read: Genesis 12:1-3; Exodus 3:1-6; Acts 9:10-15
News Flash- GOD WANTS TO TALK TO YOU! Does this surprise you? Do you doubt this? Why? Doesn’t it make sense that a God who created people to have a relationship with them, and would send His Son to die for them would communicate with them?
-Stop- Take a moment and think about that. Say this to yourself out loud, “God wants to speak to Me. He does speak to me. I can hear Him.”
One of the things you have to realize is, not only does God want to speak to you, but He does speak to you. The questions you have to ask yourself are, “Am I listening” and, “Do I recognize His voice when He speaks.”
Once you know God wants to speak to you and does, then you can start listening for His voice and training yourself to hear Him. Learning to hear the voice of God is important to any Christian because this is one of the ways we are able to experience His love, get direction for our lives and have a relationship with Him.
God speaks to us in many ways. The key is to know that He’s speaking, asking Him to speak clearly, and walking in faith when you believe you have heard God.
-Remember- 1.) Learning to hear God’s voice is a process and takes time. Don’t give up if you are wrong. 2.) God will never tell you anything that goes against what the Bible teaches. If what you hear goes against the Bible, it’s not God.
Here are some ways God speaks to us:
The Bible- Reading the Bible tells you about God, yourself, guides you and helps you in decision making
Leaders- Pastors, parents, prophets, and other wise people of God are often used by God to speak to us.
Circumstances- What’s happening in your life can tell you the direction God wants you to go.
Signs- These are usually used to help you know you really heard God.
Audibly- You may not hear it a lot, but God can still do it!
In your Spirit- You may feel an urge or impression to do or say something. This is often the voice of God speaking to you in your Spirit! Sometimes, all you may hear is, “I love you.” And that’s enough.
Peace- One of the most important things to consider is if there is peace inside of you. You may be nervous but there should be peace even beneath the nerves.
Dreams- God will often speak to us in the night. Talk to a parent or pastor about this.
Angels- God has used these messengers many times and still does.
Visions- You may see these in you “mind’s eye” or played out in front of you.
-Going Deeper-
Read these verses to see how God Speaks to us. Psams 119:105; Ephesians 4:11-12; 2 Kings 19:11-13; Judges 6:36-40; Exodus 3:1-5; Colossians 3:15; John 14:26; Acts 10:1-16; Matthew: 2:13
-Try This-
Ask Holy Spirit to begin to make you aware of when the Father is trying to speak to you and show you things.
-Prayer-
Pray for your parents, teachers, and pastors. Ask God to give them wisdom. Ask God for wisdom for yourself.
Day 3-Making Wise Choices
-Pray- Ask God to make you wise and to show you His truth.
-Read- Proverbs 1:20-22; Proverbs 3:13-24
Imagine you are walking down the street and suddenly you see a lady on top of a roof yelling to all the people passing by, “How long will all you foolish people continue to be foolish?” How would you feel? Besides thinking the lady on the roof is nuts, would you consider her question? Would you stop and think, “Am I foolish or am I wise?” I hope so. It is very important to think about the decisions you are making in your life. Are they wise decisions or are they foolish ones?
The book of Proverbs is 31 chapters of teaching you how to be wise. Why is this important? Because the Bible says, whoever lives wisely will be safe, secure, and will live without fear of harm. (Prov. 1:33) God wants you to live a life where you don’t have to fear the consequences of the decisions you're making but actually look forward to them. If you choose not to do your homework for a whole week because all you have been doing is Facebooking, texting, gaming, or just being lazy, you will end up fearing the results of that decision. But if you wisely, complete your homework every day, you won’t be afraid of the consequences of this action.
-Stop- Wisdom is having knowledge and knowing how to use it in a good and beneficial way.
Wisdom is one of the most important things you can have. You can learn a lot of facts and gain knowledge, but if you don’t know how to use that knowledge in the most beneficial way, it doesn’t do any good. God has great things in store for you. He wants you to make decisions that propel you toward your destiny and future. In order to do that you must have wisdom.
How to Get Wisdom
- 1.) Read the Bible- God’s Word will make you wiser!
- 2.) Learn to listen- Listen and learn from people's successes and failures.
- 3.) Take correction well- learn from your mistakes and correction from others.
- 4.) Ummm learn- Don’t be a slacker when it comes to learning. This is important!
- 5.) Hang around wise people- not just smart people, but people who make good decisions.
- 6.) Listen to good advice- talk to people you respect and learn from their advice.
- 7.) Honor God- live your life to honor God.
-Going Deeper-
Read these verses to learn more about wisdom. Psalms 19:7; Proverbs 1:5; Proverbs 9:8; Proverbs 8:33; Proverbs 10:19; Proverbs 13:20; Psalms 111:10
-Try This-
Pick out two things from the list that you can practice today. Put more into practice over the week. How does it make you feel?
-Prayer-
Ask God to help you to be wise. Pray for the President and government officials. Take two minutes to be quiet and ask God to speak to you. Listen for His voice.
Day 4-Tell Your Story
-Pray- Ask God to show you the truth in His Word and to speak to you through it.
-Read- Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-20
If you were given a million dollars and knew how to get other people a million dollars, would you tell them? Of course, you would! I’m sure some selfish people would keep this great news to themselves, but most people would be excited to tell people how they can get their instant fortune. Do we do the same thing about Jesus? Having accepted His gift of salvation do you now tell others about what an awesome thing that is?
I know talking about a million dollars isn’t as hard as telling someone about Jesus, but do you even want to? If so, you’re on the right track. One of the last things Jesus told the disciples and us was to go and teach others how to be a follower of Jesus.
-Stop-Telling people about Jesus is called “witnessing” or “evangelism”. Jesus’ command to make disciples is called “The Great Commission”.
Jesus didn’t just suggest or ask us to help people become His followers. He commanded us to. There are two reasons to tell people about Jesus. 1.) Jesus commanded us to, and 2.) We care for the people Jesus loves and want them to know Him too.
There are different ways to tell people about Jesus. You can invite them to church, pray for them in times of need, tell them what God has done for you and how He wants to help them too, show them God’s love and kindness even if they aren’t kind in return. One of the most important things you can do is to let people know that you love God by how you live and how you talk. This is the best way you can show people who God is and what He has done in you.
One of the greatest privileges we have as Christians is to make Jesus happy by helping other people come to know Him. Let’s get out there and make Jesus happy!
-Try This- Write down 2 people you can invite to church or your youth group and invite them this week.
-Going Deeper-
Write down what God has done for you and why you follow Jesus. Write it in a way you can remember so you can tell someone who doesn’t know Jesus. Be ready to share your story with someone this week.
-Prayer-
Ask God to give you an opportunity to share your story. Pray for more of a desire to know God and obey Him.
Day 5-Why Church?
-Read- 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
Have you ever seen a giant ear walking down the road? Have you ever seen a giant eyeball driving down the street? Well, unless it was someone in a costume, I’m sure you haven’t. The reason is that our body parts were made to work together. The ears need the legs to get around. The hands need the eyes to see what to grab or pick up. When the body doesn’t work together, it makes everything harder or impossible to accomplish. This is why it is important to go to church.
I know what you’re thinking. “I need to go to church so my body works right?” Not exactly, but sort of. You see, the way God made people was for them to be in a relationship with each other and he gave people abilities so that we could help each other in life and grow in God. The Bible tells us that we are the Body of Christ. This means that God wants us to work together so that we can help accomplish His goals on earth. Everyone uses their abilities to help others and it works beautifully.
When you go to church and use your abilities to help others you are doing your part in the Body. When you bail on church or decide to be selfish and not use your gifts for others, we miss out on what you have to offer. In the same way, you may need help from someone but because they are not helping the Body, you may lose out on getting the help you need.
Suppose you have a great personality and are good at making people feel welcome and accepted. When you go to church and talk with people and make them feel great or talk to the new kid at church so they feel welcome, you are helping the body of Christ get stronger.
-Try this- In what ways can you use your abilities to help the Body of Christ at church or outside of church? If you can’t think of anything talk to your youth pastor, pastor, or parents and get some ideas.
-Going Deeper-
Think about people you’ve seen who use their abilities at church. What do they do? What do you think you can do to help also? Think outside the box. Talk to someone in leadership about it.
-Prayer-
Ask Jesus to help you use your gifts and abilities to help the body. Pray for your relatives and family.