Herbivorous animals were created to feed on herbs, whiles carnivorous animals feed on flesh of other animals. In that same way the stomach was made to be filled with only food and the heart of man was created for a purpose and if not used for that purpose the heart can never be satisfied. In other to be satisfied the youth of today engage themselves into computer games, smoking, drinking, drugs and sex yet there is still an insatiable desire.

The question that needs to be answered is “when is the heart satisfied and free from all its wondering?”People have the strong desire to worship God but they are not able to and at the end they up give and conclude that worshiping God is very difficult. Worshiping God is difficult because man is trying to serve God using his thought. In the book of Genesis as recorded in the Bible, the earth was without form, and void and darkness covered the face of the earth. However when God spoke the earth became bright, beautiful and habitable.

God also created man after He had finished with the other creatures in the garden. Man was lying on the ground motionless with an empty heart. However man became a living soul immediately God breath the breathe of life into the heart of man. Without the spirit of God in the heart of man, he was but a dead being. In other words the heart of people can only change when the true word and life of God which is in the Spirit enters. The reason why people are not satisfied in the life they live is because they are looking for other way to become satisfied instead of the way of God. No one disputes the fact that the whole world is zooming hope on the youth of today since they are the prospective resource to champion the challenges of tomorrow. When brainstorming issues concerning replacing the ageing labour force with the youth, then comes the rhetorical question “is our world secured in the hands of the youth”

Just as it is in countries all over the world, Ghana is also facing challenges with problems of the youth which includes teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, armed robbery and the like. All effort to help the youth come out of these problems have hit the rocks. In Ghana, among the students (especially university and college students) there is so much involvement in the works of God yet there is also that lack of joy, peace and happiness but rather sorrow, despair, fear and insecurity yet they claim they are born again Christians. This is due to the struggle to overcome sin in their lives. Personally, I realise that this begins from childhood and progressively develops into a herculean task. Although they dedicate all their hearts to the service of God, their hearts are captured by lust and desire. Emerging from this kind of life style are the under listed:

FORNICATION
ABUSE OF ALCOHOL
EXAMINATION MAL PRACTICES
LESBIANISM AND HOMOSEXUALITY
HANDLING OF PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIALS
AMONGST MANY OTHERS

In addition to the above, they think they can be happy when they acquire knowledge through education, get the best opportunities in life, marry, raise families and become successful or assume positions in the society yet peace is not found in their hearts. This is because most of our students have not truly experienced the life transforming power that exists in Jesus. In the bible, there were people who met Jesus with more difficult problems yet all those problems were solved by Jesus.

In a nut shell, most of our students suffer struggling to stop sin with their own power but not with the power of God. Those who do this are not biblically born again Christians. For this course, most students have forsaken the genuine ways of God and are now trying to go to God by their own means (Jeremiah 2:13). Others have put aside the Word of Life and are using their own imaginations to worship God. In other words, they are forcing the big oceans into their own small coffee cups. For this, Apostle Paul states in Romans 10: 3 that “for they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.”They pray hard, give arms, serve the church, live religiously but are always condemned in sin.

How then can change be experienced in the heart of the youth? Just as the stomach was made for food, the heart of man was also made to contain only the Word of God and that will bring change and nothing else. I have seen the hearts of drug addicts being changed. I have also seen prisoner becoming ministers and servants of the gospel after receiving redemption and forgiveness of sins as they joined the activities of IYF. The forgiveness they received didn’t come by diligence, fasting and prayers or paying tithe and offering but by believing the word of God just as it is without adding their thoughts to it.

Therefore what did the word say? Colossians 1:22 states explicitly that “in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.” Christ so as to make as holy and blameless before God gave us His body. It is therefore a polite way of saying Christ is a liar if we still say we are sinners and are not holy. Also 2Corinthians 5:21 say “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”Christ took our place as sinners to give us righteousness that we didn’t desire or asked for freely.

Finally to cap it all, Hebrews 10:14 explains the love of God in this way “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Christ offered his body once to make perfect forever those who believe and accept the works of Jesus and not their works and efforts. I am of the hope that through the 2010 IYF World Camp here in Ghana, the heart of the youth will be shaped and equipped with the requisite qualities and skills deserving enough to lead.