![]() Beyond going along to youth group, they’d never particularly botheredabout the Bible before but suddenly something had clicked. ![]() Like the pair of fifteen-year-olds I know who recently decided to meet regularly before school, buy some croissants, and go through some Engage devotional notes together. It is experiences like that – little tastes of God’s goodness, little demonstrations that the Bible is relevant today, little discussions in which it’s okay to be uncertain – that will give teenagers the courage to open the Bible themselves. Together, they were hearing Jesus’ voice and responding to it. Those verses had something to say to the girls, and the girls had something to say in return. The disadvantage was that we only looked at one verse at a time, no context – but the advantage was that it put the Bible in a framework of relationship. One of them would draw out a verse, we’d discuss it briefly, and then I’d ask what they thought we should pray about. When I worked in a boarding school, I had a jar full of Bible verses that I would bring for the girls at bedtime. So they need to read it – and learn to love Jesus’ voice for themselves. They need to realise that the Bible is not just an instruction manual or a history book, not just a collection of stories or a guiding hand, not just a love letter or a source of truth, but all of these things and more. They need to whisper its words to themselves at night and act on them by day. They need to read it, to explore it, to tussle with it and wonder about it. Our teenagers need to know that the Bible is a living book, breathed out for them by the Spirit of God to help them know Him better. I can’t think of a better way to do that than through the Bible. We need to listen to Him, follow him, and see for ourselves what He is like. It’s the same for any of us: in order to keep going in faith, we need to know the Lord. Jesus said that his sheep know his voice, and that’s why they follow him (John 10 v 3-4). But I think the answer lies in another question: Do they know Jesus? The road from 12 to 21 is a fearsome obstacle course. They have given up because of taunts from their peers, or because they struggle to square the Bible with what they’ve learned at school, or because they want to date a non-Christian, or one of endless other reasons. We all know young people who only a few years ago were singing Christian songs at the top of their voices, asking sweet questions about what God is like, and running into church with shouts of delight – yet who now seem to have no faith at all. ![]() It’s a question I can’t help but ask whenever I spend time with children who are enthusiastic about Jesus. Will They Make It to Christian Adulthood? The challenge of faith during teenage years ![]()
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