Chronicles of a Teenage Christian

6. Why Is Studying The Bible So Important? (5 Reasons)

I’m sure if you’ve been to a church at least once in your life then you’ve definitely heard the phrase, “You must study and meditate on the word every day.” When I first started church and heard this I thought alright that should be easy. I took myself home, lay in bed and opened up to the first page of Genesis, before I got to chapter 5 I had closed my bible and retired to bed. The next day I didn’t even remember what I read and I dreaded ever picking up my bible again because of –God forgive me- how boring I found it.

Like I’ve said before, a mistake that churches make is that they tell you what to do but never why you should or how to do it. The words in the bible seem to be confusing and when it doesn’t make sense it’s so easy to quit and think prayer is enough. It took me two years to even start reading, studying and understanding the bible and I only started doing it about one month ago.

The bible is a library it isn’t one big book but a collection, kind of like a box set where you have all the series/seasons and somehow they all link but still tell different stories and morals/principles. At church I learned a very useful acronym:

Basic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth

The Bible is the manual of life really, it talks on every major and minor thing that one will encounter in their lifetime and it also tells us what to expect in the future. So now onto why it is important to read and study the bible...

Have you ever read about the time when Jesus got tempted by the devil after he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights? Well whether you have or haven’t, go and read Matthew 4:1-11 now then come back... I’ll wait.

Done? Okay so do you notice how every time the devil tried to tempt Jesus, Jesus used the word to completely shut him down. This is reason number ONE for why we must know the word because Satan is in every corner of our life trying to use situations and people to bring us down. One of the only ways we can fight him is if we know our word.

Even notice how in verse 6 the devil tries to use the word against Jesus to persuade him. We must not forget that the devil is a fallen angel so he knows the bible like the back of his hand and will take it out of context to mess with your head and make you second guess your faith. If we know our word then we can tell the devil he is wrong and he will never be able to mess with our heads. (See 4. I’m Not Perfect But My Sin Won’t Define Me for an example)

Now for reason number TWO. I’m sure that if you’re reading this then you’re one of those people who want to have a strong and personal relationship with God. Let me ask you a question, can you trust and be close to somebody you know nothing about? I’ll wait... You can’t can you? You would never entrust your life into the hands of a stranger so how can you trust God if you don’t know exactly who he is? You know nothing about what he has done, you know nothing about His Son Jesus Christ, you know nothing about how mighty his power is, absolutely zilch.

You can cry out to the Lord a million times asking “Lord show me who you are! Help me open my heart up to you because I want to know you Lord, I want to know your face! Take this confusion away from me, answer my questions Lord because I don’t know what to do.” Believe me I did this for two years straight and never picked up my bible once, yes I had a yearning for God but my faith was so lukewarm and wavering. I can guarantee that God was patiently waiting for me to pick up my bible and just attempt to read it and once I did, I never regretted it.

The bible tells us all about God’s plan for us, it tells us how He wants us to be, how much He loves us, what life after death is. He tells us of the days of Jesus, the Book of Matthew is basically the biography of Jesus right from birth to death while Luke focuses more on his crucifixion and resurrection and John focuses on his miracles. When we start to know who God is, our love and yearn for him increases. It’s just like how you fall in love with someone the more you get to know them and you hear them constantly tell you how they have your back and how much they love you.