Youth Group Students Discuss "Time With God"

Over the past few weeks, the high school youth group has been talking about "Time With God."  When the series kicked off the students were open about the challenges that could stand in the way of their time digging in the Word and growing in the Lord through prayer.  Some of them talked about how they may feel guilt about something they have done so they felt like they couldn't go to the Lord.  Others talked about not wanting to learn about something else they shouldn't do, in other words they didn't want to feel the Lord's conviction.  Some said it simply wasn't a priority for them.  Our team had the opportunity to begin to respond to some of these challenges, reminding the kids that the Lord is all-knowing and there is nothing they can hide from him.  At the same time He is gracious and merciful and wants to be in a relationship with them.  His conviction is how he restores that relationship.
The next week, they talked about rules vs. relationship.  As believers, we desire to be in a relationship with the Lord and He has created a way for us to be in a relationship with Him.  He values that relationship, not a set of rules that dictates that we spend X minutes with Him each day.
Each week the kids have the opportunity to digest the lesson in small groups.  So many of the kids from youth group come from Christian homes and deal with the very real struggle of knowing what they should do so they do it out of obligation rather than a real desire to grow in the Lord.  Our team longs to see their faith grow so that their relationship with the Lord isn't dependent on the faith of their family (although their family will certainly play a vital role in that relationship).  Many of them will go to college  far away from their families and youth group, we believe they must be rooted in truth so they are able to rely on the Lord to help them to withstand the many challenges to their faith that they will face in college.