There are many difficult things about college. It takes a lot of time and effort to be a student. In order for us to make it through, we need support. God will always be there to provide us with that support.

It is important, however, to realize that we shouldn’t just call on God when we need a good grade or when we need money. God is so much more than that; He is our provider, but he is also our King and he deserves all that we can give him. We all fall short of God’s glory, that’s why Jesus took our place, but we should still do our best as Christians to keep a strong relationship with God so that when we face temptations and hard times God can help us through them. I know that giving him the time I need to give him has been a huge struggle for me. I’m sure many of us have this issue, but here are some things we can do to help us sustain and grow our relationships with our wonderful God.

1. Set Out Time For Him

By this point in your semester, you should already know your schedule pretty well. You can pick out specific points in your day to read your Bible or just have a conversation with God. One thing I try to do is read my Bible every morning before I leave and every evening before I sleep. Granted, sometimes I run late and have to catch up on my reading later on in the day, but generally this has worked out well for me.

2. Have Your Friends Hold You Accountable

There are several things you could do to make sure you that you don’t let your time with God get overrun by other things in your life. Setting up a Bible study with friends could be a good way to do that. This is something that could even happen during your lunch break with a Bible app on your phone. It doesn’t even have to be a big event. You could each bring a favorite verse from something you read on your own and have conversations about why it is important to you. Plus there is always the chance that something you read could help someone else out. Having friends to talk to about godly things builds you up as a Christian. It’s always good to have people who will hold you accountable. All these things will only help you grow as a Christian.

3. Bring God Into The Small Moments

This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. I’ve tried to make a habit of thanking God every day, even for the small things. For me it usually happens when I first walk out of the dorm in the morning. I always tend to make a comment about the weather or something, thanking him for a beautiful day, or thanking him that I have layers to warm me up on cold cloudy days. There is always something to be thankful for. Thank God for the day, for the friends you have, for your family, thank him that you actually got your homework done the night before. Things like that will keep God in your thoughts throughout the day. We also need to make sure we let God know how much we truly appreciate him. Doing that will help us see how much God truly does for us, so that we can know to trust him on those days that blessings might be hard to find.

4. Carry a Small Reminder of God’s Promises

I recently purchased a small book called God’s Promises for You. It has several verses picked out for many different subjects: from accomplishments, to healing, to work. Every Tuesday and Thursday my boyfriend and I take the time to read through one of the subject's set of scriptures. It’s a small thing we do, but it gives us a good reminder of the promises God has for us. It’s a good thing to remember, because when we are in our time of need we can remind God of his promises and he said in Isaiah 55:11 that his word would not return void, so it’s something that we can stand on in prayer.

5. Make Time To Pray

God is there for us. He wants to talk to us. We can’t build a strong relationship with him if we never talk to him. He should be number one in our lives. Letting other things take over our prayer time is something we are all guilty of from time to time. Just know that God is waiting on us. He’s waiting to welcome us back whenever we are ready. It might be a slow process, taking time out for God, but once you do you won’t regret it. Once I started giving more time to God his presence started growing in my life. It became easier to talk to him. Having a close relationship with God is something I’m still working on but I know with every moment I give him I’ll only get closer to him.

6. Switch To Christian Music

If I’m being honest, sometimes I just want to jam to Justin Bieber’s new stuff, but I don’t think that secular music is all we should be listening to. Switching to playing more Christian music is a big change, but it really has more of an effect than you think it would. I’m not saying you have to cut out secular music completely, but listening to more Christian music can bring about a big change in your attitude and overall mood. Play K-love when you have a long car ride to take. If you’re stuck in the car anyway you might as well spend some of that time with God, especially if you are alone on a long drive. I’ve had some quality time with God that way. I blare K-love or Air1 and sing my heart out. I know no one but God is listening so I feel okay to just let everything out and be completely open, praising, worshiping, and just having conversations out loud with God. It’s just a great place to spend some quality time with our Heavenly Father.

7. Go To Church

This may seem like an obvious thing, but the Bible says in Hebrews 10:25 to not forsake gathering together. Church is where we go to stay uplifted, feed our spirits, and grow in God. I understand that it’s hard not to sleep in on the weekends when we’ve had such long and stressful weeks, but God is our strength. He will help us in our time of weakness and reward us for our faithfulness. Even though it is tempting to continue sleeping, going to church will always help us strengthen our relationship with God. Find a church where you feel welcome and start making it part of your week to go to church. You can always take a Sunday-afternoon nap to catch up on sleep. Catching up on time with God is more important.

I’m not saying I accomplish all of these things. Part of the reason for this was to help myself as a Christian. It is a difficult thing to manage everything around our college lives but this is one thing we definitely need to work on. Taking up at least one of these can help a great amount in your relationship with God. He’s waiting for you. All you have to do is take a step in the right direction.