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You’re nearing the end of another school year. Maybe you’re an upperclassman. A leader in your I-V chapter. Thanks to Jesus, a lot has gone on in you, around you and for you in the last few years. Yet as you near the end of the year—perhaps the end of college altogether—larger questions loom on the horizon: What does God have for my future? What am I going to do exactly?

There is nothing more important in times of transition, closure or upheaval than to reflect on God’s faithfulness to you in the past. Sure, a lot has changed. You’ve made lifelong friends. Maybe you’ve had some “mountain-top experiences.” Perhaps you’ve received a calling of some kind. Yet you may also be freaking out. You’re changing left and right. But the Lord of the Universe, the Hope of the World, the Ordainer of History isn’t changing. He’s still the same steadfast, loving Lord.

“I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. . . . Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty (Malachi 3:6–7).

How can this truth of God’s dependable, unchanging nature help you? It can remind you that nothing you are facing or are about to face is impossible for God and you to handle. “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear” (1 Corinthians 10:13). God’s unchanging nature can also remind you of who is in control of your future (and it’s not you!).

How can reflecting on God’s past faithfulness help you? First, it can give you insight as to how God tends to challenge you, what you tend to be weak in, ways the enemy typically gets at you, what your anxieties are and what your long-standing hopes and desires are.

Reflection can also help you examine whether you have been faithful, in turn, to God and the people he has put in your life. So how do you reflect? There are a few ways that I’ve found helpful. Why not try a few of these?

Read God’s word

Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will observe it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. Turn my heart to your decrees, and not to selfish gain (Psalm 119:33–36).

A weekend afternoon might be a good time for this, or any time you’re not rushed. Choose a few prominent Bible characters to read about. As you read, watch for ways God was faithful to the men and women of Scripture and how those situations relate to you. Hebrews 11 is a good list to start with. It’s a great “hall of fame” of faithfulness between God and his people. Meditate on God’s characteristics as you study—think of ways these attributes can encourage you as you face problems in your world.

Another approach is to read over passages that were particularly helpful to you in the past—perhaps they were underlined in red on a rainy day, way back. Chances are those passages are still relevant to your situation; think about them with yourself in the place of the person dealing with God.

Journal

What have you struggled with over the last year? Freshman year? As a child? What were you praying for? How did God answer? Whether you’ve been keeping a journal for years or are just starting, maintaining a record of your life events and thoughts is perhaps one of the most insightful steps in this process of recalling God’s goodness to you. The ways God steadies your stumbling steps, leads you in your misguided moves and breaks through when you’re going around in circles become more and more apparent as you look at your own history.

A journal can illuminate the patterns of behavior that you have struggled with and how God has dealt with you. Perhaps you won’t get many mountaintop revelations, but often, rereading a journal can be most effective in just encouraging you: “Gosh, look at the dumb things I was worried about” or “Boy, look how God took care of this” or “Why was I stressing over that?” I just have to laugh at myself sometimes when I re-read my journal—agonizing over grades, men, my image, my future. What a sinful, anxious little creature I am compared to the Lord.

Also, your journal can also remind you of a time in your life when you were perhaps more in tune with the Lord, more dedicated to spiritual discipline. That’s definitely been true for me recently. Pouring over my journal and reflecting on memories, I have been seeking to answer questions like “What was I doing right before? How was I submitting to His will at that time? Why am I not doing that now?” Falling backward in my walk with God is one of the hardest things to repent of. But such reflections have helped me get back on track—my journal reminded me of how satisfying a high level of commitment was when I was in my campus fellowship, how great it felt and how much fruit it yielded by God’s grace. God wants us to move forward instead of back, and he can build on our past experience to show us even more of himself.

Remember

O Lord, you have searched me and known me....You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways....Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:1, 3, 23–24.

There may be memories that come back to you every so often that didn’t make it into your journal but can bring insight about where you are with God and where he may be taking you. They may be painful or they may be joyful. But they are part of the fabric of your life, and God wants to redeem them all.

Take a Sabbath day or a free afternoon or evening to just “be.” Just be with the Lord; be still in his presence. No pencil and paper, no guitar, no amenities, just you and him. Wait on him and see what comes to mind. He has shown you favor unending—rest in it for awhile before moving on.

Talk to others

We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ (Ephesians 4:14–15).

Who has gotten to know you really well during these last few years of whirlwind growth? Which friends, staff workers or family members? Ask them how they think you’ve changed, grown, what they’ve sensed about you and your gifts. God may give them insight about you that you can’t see yourself. Such is the body of Christ.

Ultimately, the idea of reflecting on God’s faithfulness to you isn’t meant to ram you into a touchy-feely corner of longing for the past. On the contrary, the lesson to take away is this: if he was faithful then, he’ll be faithful now as you move forward because he doesn’t change. He loves us too much and has sacrificed too much not to be faithful to us now. Even if he surprises you with unexpected change, the truth remains: “I the Lord do not change.”

He who calls you is faithful.

At the end of my freshman year in college, our I-V chapter had a sharing meeting. You may have mixed feelings about those long sharing meetings, but this one was powerful for me. I was new to the fellowship but had already had a taste of what real fellowship is like, and I knew I wanted more. Most of all, I wanted more of Jesus. Then a senior woman named Kim stood up and shared. She said something like, “Four years ago, when I was a freshman, I had no idea what God would do in me the four years that followed. I look back with gratitude, and I can never go back. I can’t imagine still being the way I was four years ago. And I hope that four years from now, wherever I am, that I’ll feel the same way—I won’t be able to imagine still being the way I am now, because God will have taken me further on his way.”

That did it for me. That summarized exactly how I felt. So then I stood up and said, “My name’s Lisa and I’m a freshman. And I want to be able to say what Kim said when I’m a senior.” Sure enough, I was able. During the sharing meeting my senior year, I cried with joy at how Jesus had made his love and healing mercy known to me over the previous four years. God had taken me along a tremendous path, and since then, He’s continued to lead me along. Yes, reflecting is a powerful way to be reminded of God’s faithfulness to you. But remember, the goal is to press onward. The point is that life in Jesus is meant to get better and better—not necessarily easier, but deeper and more satisfying. Remember God’s faithfulness to you, and how he has brought you along. Then remember: God has a lot more in store for you.