Last night we talked about what it means to be a Student in God's Name. S.I.G.N. is the name of our Wednesday night youth group and it is an acronym for students in God's name. So, we need to understand what it means to be a student in God's name.
The first piece of the puzzle is being in God's name. This means being transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It means that you have put your faith in Him and Him alone for salvation. This is where being a student in God's name starts. But that is really just the beginning.
The second piece is seen in one of the passages that we discussed last night. It is the questions of who or what you truly serve.
““No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matthew 6:24, ESV)
As we discussed this passage I explained to students that though Jesus was talking specifically about money in this passage that money isn't the only thing that we tend to put first in our lives. We talked about some of the other things that people tend to put first in their lives. Some of these included power and control, the opinions of others, grades, good job, and sports.
Student's in God's Name put God first in everything.
One of the final pieces that we talked about were the realities of where we invest our time and energy. I took a brief survey from the students about the amount of time they spend in activities that could be considered hobbies (ie sports, video games, music, etc.). On average most of the students spend about 10 hours a week on these activities.
None of these activities that we talked about are inherently sinful or wrong. Many of them have value in some way shape or form. The questions is are these activities idols in our hearts.
So here are some questions to think about with your student.
What do my time commitments say about what I value?
How much time should I be spending on spiritual disciplines and pursuing godliness?
How do I make my participation in life's activities something that glorifies God and shows that He is first in my life?