3 Verses that Strengthened My Faith in College

Photo by Emma Langford

It seems that there is a general understanding that college is the trial of one’s faith. Many abandon their faith and few remain bible-believing Christians, or so it seems to appear. Even in Christian colleges, where relatives falsely believe that no atheist ideas will touch the beloved college student’s mind, some students will walk away from the faith.

More accurately, the trials that one faces in college does not maintain or strip away their faith but reveals whether or not they truly have faith in the one true God at all (see 1 John 2:18-19). Praise be to God, He strengthened my faith drastically in a public, secular university, and during this time I even began to grow a passion for ministry. That is not to say that studying the arts and science (English Literature and Nutrition) did not come with challenges to my faith - there were many. Yet the Lord delivered me from them all, and I graduated this month with a better understanding of what I believe and why. I would like to share with you 3 Bible verses that especially influenced me, and how they shaped my understanding of my identity in Christ during my college years. I pray that no matter where you are in life, this will be a blessing to you.

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.” Philippians 1:21-24

One of the things I personally struggled with the most when entering college was anxiety, like most college students. For me, it started in early high school where my perfectionist and type-A tendencies flourished at the cost of a constant feeling of panic. By the time my first semester of college came around, I checked my grades multiple times a day, had sleepless nights when test days and project deadlines drew nearer, constant doubt that I would have time to complete assignments when I had so many other things going on, including work. My poor sister had to help me many times as I cried my eyes out over my biomedical science homework because I felt like one slip could ruin everything (even though it always turned out okay). However, this verse from Philippians reminded me of where my hope lies. No matter what grade I got back from a test, no matter how few people I make happy, no matter how many hours I had to work that week, no matter how many finals I had and how much time I had to study, this is not where my hope lies. No matter what happens, my hope is Christ, and He holds my salvation in His hands with great love for me. If you are a child of God you will never lose your salvation in Christ. He is too strong to let it slip from His fingers, and His blood covers every sin you commit. Even if the worst possible thing happened, and I died tonight, I would be with Christ and experience eternal and unimaginable joy. While I have breath, each day is a gift from God, and my purpose does not lie in worldly success but in living for Christ and glorifying His name. The worship song “Christ Our Glory” puts it well:

Our rest is in heaven, our rest is not here

Then why should we tremble when trials draw near?

Be still and remember the worst that can come

But shortens our journey and hastens us home.¹

“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth.” 1 John 3:18

I have always believed that if one had to choose between kindness and intelligence, kindness would be the best choice. I say this because even the smartest theologians cannot do much for God’s kingdom without love and compassion for the brokenhearted, sinners like us, people in need of the gospel (not to say that you shouldn’t study theology because you definitely should). And yet, what I believed to be kindness for most of my life was complimentary words, lots of smiles, warm hugs, encouraging notes, and patience. What this verse from 1 John reveals to me is that this is a part of kindness, but it does not capture all of lovingkindness - kindness with love. 1 John says love is in truth. I am a person who avoids any sort of confrontation or conflict at all costs (some exceptions if you are my sibling), perhaps the side effect of being the middle child, but I don’t like to share my opinions with people or voice disagreements if it will make them unhappy. Perhaps you can relate to this in some way. Can I tell you something? It is one thing to be hesitant about voicing an opinion, but it is another to hesitate about standing for the truth, and despite what we are often told, there is a difference between opinion and truth. It is one thing to prefer reading fiction or nonfiction and quite another thing to believe or not believe that Christ is the only hope we have for forgiveness of our sins against God.

1 John also says that love is seen in our deeds. I have a tendency to use spare time for myself rather than sacrificing to help others. In this verse, I felt convicted that I was loving in words and talk, albeit imperfectly so, yet avoiding loving others in deed and truth. God revealed that how I understood kindness was a surface level kindness to be full of compliments and nice words without (1) joyful and sacrificial deeds and (2) speaking the truth. I praise the Lord that He put me on campus because when the Holy Spirit revealed the problem and caused me to search for ways to grow in 1 John love, opportunities came through my church to serve the youth and evangelize with fellow-believers on campus, and I also had the privilege of serving through a campus ministry to serve the local community and participate on a mission trip. However, loving in deed and truth should not be limited to special events and opportunities, it should be evident in our everyday lives. Not just serving for something “cool” like a mission trip, but humbling, seemingly “unimportant” services. This took me awhile to realize. In the beginning of college I remember explaining to my friends and family that I didn’t know where to serve in the church. They suggested church nursery, which is usually in need of more volunteers, but I explained that I needed to do something more “important,” whatever that means. How distorted my view of loving in deeds was! After a couple years I began serving in church nursery when I realized that no service is too humbling to do if Christ is the one who laid down His life for those who despised Him.

Remember that love is more than kindness, but it is also boldness to share the Truth of Christ with others and the humility to serve without expecting anything back. I still slip and fall often, but the blessing of learning more and more about how the love of Christ shines through His children has been worth it all.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Colossians 3:1-4

As a child, my parents made a great effort to protect my childhood by filtering what I watched on TV, what music I listened to, stories I read, etc., which is something I am very grateful to them for to this day. When I graduated high school and became an independent adult, I became the person in charge of deciding what I allowed to influence me, that is, what I entertained myself with, fed my brain with, the friends I surrounded myself with, and what I did in my spare time.

Nearing the end of college, this passage from Colossians helped me understand that living for Christ is not about checking a box for avoiding certain sins. Rather, a great part of it is looking at the heart and all that influences it. While we are called to be “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14), we are not to be “conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2). As children of God, we meet this call to shine hope and live as a foreigner to the world by setting our mind, hopes, dreams, and foundation not on the world but on Christ.

I looked at the things I allowed to influence me in my life, and instead of asking “is this a sin?” to meet the check-box requirements, I began to ask “does this lead me away from Christ or bring me closer to Him?”. Asking these questions actually revealed areas of my life where I was allowing certain books, TV shows, podcasts, groups, etc. to soften my views of certain sins and blind my heart to sins I was committing against God. It was difficult because it meant giving up things that had been in my life for a long time but that harmed me spiritually.

Asking these questions is not restricted to something inherently spiritual. If “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do” should be “for the glory of God,” (1 Corinthians 10:31), then I do not believe that asking these questions should be withheld from any aspect of our lives because our entire life belongs to God. I can honestly say that taking time to pray and reflect on what I was allowing myself to be taught and entertained by helped me cut off things that were fixing my eyes on the world instead of Christ and the things above. This does not mean we cut ourselves off from unbelievers in our lives, nor that there is nothing that we can learn from them. I am addressing friends, Christian or nonChristian, who influence you in a way that weakens your faith in God and your understanding of what it means to live for Him. Especially in college, with all of the pressures of peer influence and the independence to follow all the way, it is important to keep our eyes fixed on Christ rather than the world, for where we keep our gaze reveals what our heart is really after. Living for Christ is not a matter of “dos” and “don’ts” but pursuing Him for my purpose, my fulfillment, my joy, my very life, and laying aside anything that stops me in seeking Him.

Resources

1. Zimmer, David, and Nathan Stiff. “Christ Our Glory.” Sovereign Grace Music, https://sovereigngracemusic.org/music/songs/christ-our-glory/. Accessed May 25, 2022.