Summer Vacation

The Summer Vacation of a Lifetime

It looks like summer is here. The sun is shining, the days are longer, and school is out. Yes, summer has definitely arrived. The beach. Fun in the sun. Late nights. Friends. Sleeping in. Those are just some of the words that come to mind when we think summer.

Believe it or not, summer can be an easy time to forget about God and lose focus. With all the fun and excitement, we can get distracted from God and our relationship with Him.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if over the summer you grew more in your relationship with God than you have all year? Begin to think of summer as a time to strengthen your relationship with God so you’ll be ready when school starts up again, especially if you are going to college.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun with your friends this summer. God is definitely not against that. But what He really wants is for you to experience a relationship with Him that is so much better than any friendship. He wants to be your priority. Let God be the reason you have the summer of a lifetime this year.

Daily Time with God

Spending time with God every day is one of the most beneficial things you can do to have the summer of a lifetime. If you make it a habit, you will lay the foundation for a vibrant, real relationship with God and grow in your faith. As you begin to consider God your best friend, ask yourself this: what do best friends do? Well, that’s pretty obvious: they spend time together!

So what does it look like to spend time with God? Well, it looks like almost any other relationship. You have to both talk and listen. We do this through prayer. We can talk to Him out loud or silently and then we take the time to listen to Him.

We also spend time reading the Bible. Try picking one or two books of the Bible to really study this summer. Or, you can study different topics, like love, righteousness, forgiveness, or any other subject you want to know more about. Use websites like www.blueletterbible.org and www.biblegateway.com for additional study tools like commentaries, summaries, and dictionaries.

Be sure to journal. Write down what you are learning, your prayers, your thoughts, and what’s going on in your life. That way, at the end of the summer, you can look back over your journals and see how much you have learned. It’s also a great way to see how God has spoken to you.

Here’s the challenge: Spend at least an hour with God every day of your summer. Do a variety of the things we just talked about. Switch it up. Change locations. You can spend time with God in your room, outside in the sun, at a park or at the beach. Bring your Bible with you when you go to the coffee shop, the ice cream parlor, or out with friends. Like any other relationship, your time with God doesn’t have to look the same everyday.

Don’t Forget About Youth Group

Youth group is something that is easy to forget about over the summer.

Instead, make going to youth group a priority. Continue to be involved in everything that is going on there. Think about it: This is the perfect group of people to talk with about God and everything you’ve been learning. If you have questions about the Bible, you can talk to your friends or your youth pastor about it.

Youth group is also a time to be taught and challenged so that you can grow even more. Find people in your church that you look up to that can be examples to you. Ask them questions about their relationship with God. One of the main ways we can grow in our walk with God is by learning from other Christians.

Prepare to Share

Over the summer, it is pretty much guaranteed that you will come into contact with people who aren’t Christians and who don’t have a relationship with God like you do. As you are growing and maturing in your walk with God, don’t be afraid to share your faith with people.

You can start off by telling other Christians what you are learning in your daily time with God. When you go to the supermarket or the mall, look for opportunities to talk to people about what they believe. Make it a point to be friendly and engage in conversations with strangers. Before you leave these conversations, you can ask people if you can pray for them and even let them know that Jesus loves them. And as soon as you have the chance, be ready to share the story of the Gospel with them.

It’s really easy to get nervous about sharing your faith, but remember the message you are delivering! Don’t be afraid to tell people what you believe and why you believe it. It is “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16, NIV).

Another way to get involved in actively sharing your faith is through summer missions. If your church is going on any type of mission trip, get involved. It will change your life and you will grow more than you can imagine. You can even check out GlobalExpeditions.com for upcoming solo missions opportunities. Global Expeditions offers mission trips during both the winter and the summer and travels to over 10 different countries. Be sure to take a look!

Let this be the best summer of your life. Set goals for yourself so that you can see your progress when it’s over. If you do these things and really make it a priority to grow in your relationship with God this summer, you will grow closer to Him. Get ready, the summer vacation of a lifetime awaits you!

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