If “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable…” (2 Timothy 3:16), let’s see how it might be applied to the experience of a typical college semester. Happy finals, everyone!
When you decide to just “wing it” on your big presentation:
When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. (Matthew 10:19)
Then you realise you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re not making sense:
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom… (1 Corinthians 2:3-4)
When the professor actually expects you to read the recommended texts:
Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. (Philemon 1:21)
When that one student in your class turns in a paper twice as long as yours:
Then they asked Baruch, “Tell us, please, how did you write all these words?…” (Jeremiah 36:17a)
When the class know-it-all decides to bless us all with their wisdom yet again:
…I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf… For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you. (Job 36:2, 4)
When that one person tries to answer questions without having done the reading:
Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? (Job 38:2)
And so the professor decides the whole class gets a pop quiz:
Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. (Job 36:3)
When one person in the group project screws up the grade for everyone:
The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12)
When the professor’s lecture is taking FOR. EV. ER.:
And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. (Acts 20:9)
When studying may very well kill you:
…Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. (Ecclesiastes 12:12)
…He who increases knowledge increases sorrow. (Ecclesiastes 1:18)
…Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” (Acts 26:24)
When you get your grade back:
For you write bitter things against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth. (Job 36:26)
When you’re just holding on till break:
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion… (Philippians 1:6)
I press on toward the goal for the prize… (Philippians 3:14)
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. (2 Corinthians 4:17)
When you throw responsibility to the wind and hang out with friends till 3 a.m. right before finals:
And behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (Isaiah 22:13)
When somehow you pull off a decent grade without studying:
The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” (John 7:15)
When the week before finals hits and suddenly ALL THE THINGS are due:
…For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death… (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)
But then the professor cancels or delays a major assignment:
For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; (Psalm 116:8)
When you finish a class you didn’t actually care about:
Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. (Isaiah 43:18)
When you submit your last assignment and can taste the sweet, free air of break:
…The LORD has anointed me… to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. (Isaiah 61:1)
…neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21:4)
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:17)
If you enjoyed this, check out my post 11 IHOP Words IHOPers Use in Normal Conversations.
