Why Teenagers Should Study the Bible for Themselves
I will never forget the day I fell in love with Scripture. I was sixteen years old and sitting under a tree at summer camp. This particular Christian camp was adamant about personal quiet times, and made time in the schedule for them every morning. This was the fourth day of camp and the first time I had ever consistently studied the Bible for four days in a row. I was studying the book of James with the help of a devotional, and I was seeing connections and learning things I had never known before. Having grown up in the church, I was surprised at how new the Bible seemed to me at that moment. But something about seeing the beauty and truth of Scripture for myself—using my own eyes and my own mind—at that time in my life stirred deep passion within me. I was hooked, and I have never looked back.
While God can reach us at any point of our lives, there is something special about the teenage years that primes us for cultivating a love of studying Scripture. In those years, teens are beginning to take ownership of all aspects of their lives. They begin to own their school work, their hobbies and interests, their friendships, and hopefully, their faith. Studying the Bible on their own is essential for teens to really see God for themselves and see how He is the only One who can satisfy their longings.
As a teenager studies Scripture, they see the story of God with their own eyes rather than through the eyes of their parents or Sunday school teachers; they open themselves up to the Spirit’s teaching and conviction; and they personally encounter God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture. In these ways, they grow deeper in their knowledge and love of God, which lays a foundation for the rest of their lives.
This foundation is vital as teens grow into adulthood. But it also will support and sustain them as they face the many challenges of being a teenager in today’s culture. Teens are extra sensitive to their longing hearts. They feel a deep need for peace, confidence, fulfillment, acceptance, and joy. We know that these longings are met by and through a relationship with Jesus Christ, and that relationship is cultivated as we study God’s Word and encounter Him there.
Studying Scripture on their own, then, is deeply important for teens. This practice will help them as they take ownership of their faith and will show them how the longings of their hearts can be satisfied in Christ. Here are three easy ways you can encourage the teens in your life to study Scripture:
Be a model for them.
Passion inspires passion. Therefore, the best thing we can do for our teens is passionately show them how impactful Bible study has been in our own lives. This can be modeled through speaking about our own personal Bible study time or simply through studying the Bible consistently and showing them how we prioritize it in our own lives.
Share resources with them.
Sometimes a teen’s biggest barrier to Bible study is not knowing how. The Daily Grace Co. can help by providing them with the resources they need to be successful. Check out our teen resources here on our website!
Pray for them.
Finally, we can best serve our teens by praying for them as they grow—praying that they would take this next step of ownership in their faith. We can specifically pray this prayer from Ephesians 3:16–21 over the teens in our life:
I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us—to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
