First 30

One of the things I loved about college was the sense that you could do anything! Everything was new, and anything was possible!

Ever watch the show The Amazing Race? If not, here it is in a nutshell: It’s a race. And it’s amazing.

It’s a competition where pairs of people compete against several other teams while they race around the world. The last team is eliminated.

Every team has to ask for help at some point. Players ask for help in one of two ways:

Some people ask for help and then take off.
Some people ask for more than just help. And I don’t just want you to TELL ME how to get there. I want you to TAKE ME there.

The second option is obviously the most effective, but if I’m honest, the first response is a pretty good description of how I approach my relationship with God. When I find myself…

…really needing something
…in trouble
…in a painful situation
…with a big decision I need to make quickly
…with a big project event, test, game, project, or performance that I want to go well

I usually take off running before God can even give me an answer.

Too often, God is where we go in big moments when we need quick answers. But God doesn’t want us to stop there. He is a person. He is someone who wants a relationship.

God wants to be the Guide we ask to go with us.

Jesus actually explains what this looks like in a conversation He had with His disciples. They were all eating together, in what ended up being the last meal before Jesus was going to be crucified.

He said, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (John 15:5a NIV). Vine and branches would’ve been things in nature they saw regularly. Grape vines were a big part of the culture they lived in. Jesus refers to Himself as “the vine.” For the branches, the vine is the source of life—it is where the branch gets what it needs to survive and thrive.

The only place I see grapes are in the produce section of Kroger. So I want to put this into a word-picture that makes more sense for us. Think of the source of electricity for things in your dorm. If you want a lamp, television, phone charger, video game system, or hair dryer to work, you need an electrical outlet.

The vine is the power source, like an electrical outlet.

And just like a vine works in conjunction with a branch, an electrical outlet works in conjunction with an electrical cord. The outlet is the source of energy for the cord.

The branches are like an electrical cord.

So basically, Jesus is saying, “I am the outlet, you are the cord.”

Jesus continues: “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit” (John 15:5 NIV). Jesus is saying, “A big first step for you is to stay in step with me—to stay connected.” In electrical cord terms, the main job is to plug in.

Jesus says, “If you stay plugged in, you will bear much fruit.” When an electrical cord is plugged into an outlet…

The lamp gives light
The cell phone charges
Your game system fires up

Things come to life!

If you want to get the most of life, stay close to the source of it.

As an exclamation point on this verse, Jesus concludes, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5c NIV). You can try to do everything on your own. You can accomplish some great things. But you won’t bear the fruit that God intends for you unless you stay close unless you stay connected.

Getting disconnected doesn’t mean you no longer have a relationship with Him. It just means you’re missing out on getting the most out of life. The great news is God is with you, and He is for you. He loves you and wants nothing more than to help you.

Remaining—staying connected—is something we can practice and get better at doing. It’s a habit we can build.

We can be close with God. We just have to plug in with Him. There are a lot of ways to begin developing the skill:

Reading the Bible
Praying
Spending time with others who are connected to Him

Those are all great ways to “remain” in Him. But for today, let’s start with just one—a question that goes like this: Will you guide me, God? It’s a great question to ask at the beginning of the day, before a class, before a conversation, before you walk into your house, before you text someone, before you go on a date, before you walk into youth group, etc. It’s a way of learning to plug yourself into the source before you face the next part of your day.

Know that God is looking out for us. He wants us to live lives connected to Him because He knows being connected and close to Him sets us up for the most fulfillment. He knows if we want to get the most out of life, we need to stay close to the source of it.

As you head out today, I want you to start here: Ask God to guide you. Stay plugged in to the one who wants to bring you to life. Live a life plugged into his mission today.

THE 140:

If you want to get the most of life, stay close to the source of it. Click To Tweet

This devotional is one in Sugar Hill Church’s First 30 devotional series for college students. To access the entire series & podcasts be sure to check SHC’s site each day, as new ones are added daily.

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Listen to Today’s Devotional:

My best friends in middle school were Barry, Zach, and Jared. We all lived in the same neighborhood, so it was easy to hang out. We often rode to school together and would take turns going over to each other’s houses. Barry had the best house to visit. His dad built a barn, so it was fun to climb the rafters and goof off. We had a blast!

At the time, it felt like we would all be friends for the rest of our lives. Most of us have tried to stay in touch, but honestly, things changed.

Have you had that experience? Maybe you had friends in middle school that your whole world revolved around. How many of those people are you still close with? How many of them would you still consider to be your best friend? My guess is, it probably isn’t many.

Do you know what happened? Did you have a falling out? Was there a big fight? Or did you just drift?

Chances are whatever happened isn’t all that memorable. You just aren’t close anymore.

You just aren’t close anymore.

So let me ask you about your relationship with God. Have you ever felt the same way about him? Have you ever felt like you used to be closer, but now, for whatever reason, you aren’t?

I think we all want to be close to someone. We all want to feel like someone knows us, likes us, and cares for us. In theory, the idea of being close to God seems appealing. It sounds great, but it can be intimidating.

I think this is true in college: the idea of being close to God can sound a lot better than actually being close to him.

I believe that we’re afraid that God may ask us to do something that we don’t want to do.
Other times we’re afraid that if we get close to God, we’ll have to give up anything that’s fun and just be miserable all the time.

This is crazy because we hear the opposite message at church. We hear that God has big plans for our lives that we don’t want to miss. We hear that God created us to have a relationship with him that is real and personal. But deep down, we have this suspicion that there is more to the story than that. That being close to God is complicated. And that staying close to Him, especially in college, is nearly impossible.

But it’s not.

Staying close to God is possible.

Do you remember Abraham? He was a pretty big deal in the Bible. (He has his own song.) His story is in the very first book—Genesis. It all starts in chapter 12, where his name isn’t Abraham yet, but Abram. And in Genesis 12, the first thing we learn about Abram is that God shows up and speaks to him. He tells Abram to leave the country he’s living in—basically to leave his family and everything he has ever known—and go to a land that God will show him.

But what’s so interesting is that God doesn’t give Abram a command and then wait to see what happens. God tells Abram to leave, and then He keeps talking.

God continues, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”(Genesis 12:2-3 NIV).

God was asking Abram to take a big step, but before he started, God also wanted Abram to know that He had a plan in place. He wasn’t just asking Abram to leave his life so that he would be miserable, but so that God could use him and give him a life he had never imagined. God wanted more for Abram, and it was all going to start with Abram taking one step.

Abram’s story didn’t end there. It started there. Over and over, God walked with Abram and made promises, giving him bigger glimpses into the role he would play in the future of the people of God. But the point was never to get Abram to do more things. God was continuing to draw Abram closer to Himself. The point was for Abram and God to develop a history together so that when the time came and it seemed like God was asking Abram to do crazy things, Abram could look back at what God had done for him already and say, “God is trustworthy. God is good. More than my obedience, God just wants me.”

In the same way, God is always drawing you in His direction.

Sounds nice, right? It sounds like really good news. But the question isn’t whether or not it sounds good, but do you believe this is true for you? Do you make decisions based on a belief that God approves of you and wants a relationship with you, or are you distancing yourself because you think He disapproves? Because the truth is, when we believe God wants to be close to us, it changes things.

What would you do differently if you really believed what God says about you? How would you live differently? How would you think differently? What if, just for today, you decided to live as if the things God says about you are true? And what about your relationship with God? Do you think you’d be more likely to stay close to Him if you trusted Him?

So today, I want you to take a step toward being close to God. When you think about Him and you start to feel guilty or want to pull away, choose instead to think of how He sees you. To believe what He says about you and what He did through His Son Jesus to show you His love. Draw close to Him. In fact, even as you head out tonight, ask Him to help you understand just how much He wants to be close to you.

THE 140

When we believe God wants to be close to us, it changes everything. Click To Tweet