Discipleship

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. – Proverbs 27:17 (NIV)

Take a minute and think about your closest friends. Who are they? What do they believe?

The Bible challenges us to hang out with people of like faith. Why? Because they challenge us. They keep us sharp and growing in our walk with God.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t hang out with people that aren’t Christians. You need to do that too. However, you need to make times to be with people of faith like you. This will challenge you and keep you sharp in your walk with God.

Today’s Challenge: Practice Community

Do you have a community? That is a group of people who are challenging you in your walk with God. A group of people who will come along with you when things are tough and help you grow and know God.

A good way to find this is to get plugged into a youth group. Find a youth group if you don’t have one and get involved. Go each week to services and meetings. Let the friendships you develop there challenge you to do more for God.

When you’re there, take time to listen to others and don’t be afraid to talk about your struggles. A community of Christian friends will help you through when things are tough.

Read the Other Challenges

1. Day 1 – Challenge: Practice Quiet
2. Day 2 – Challenge: Practice Generosity
3. Day 3 – Challenge: Practice Community
4. Day 4 – Challenge: Practice Thankfulness
5. Day 5 – Challenge:  Practice Identity

If you’d like a PDF copy of this 5-day challenge as well as some bonus content for further study, feel free to download Every Teenager’s Guide to Growing in God. 

Give generously and generous gifts will be given back to you, shaken down to make room for more. Abundant gifts will pour out upon you with such an overflowing measure that it will run over the top! Your measurement of generosity becomes the measurement of your return.” – Luke 6:38 (TPT)

As a teenager, God wants you blessed. God’s desire is that you’re blessed because He knows that if your needs are met, you’ll be able to look out for the needs of others.

God wants you to be able to buy a friend that is down Starbucks to encourage them. He wants you to be able to give to support the missionary that visits your church. God wants you blessed so that you can go out and be a blessing to those hurting around you.

Today’s Challenge: Practice Generosity

So today’s challenge is for you to practice generosity. Spend some time today thinking about what you could do to help someone else. Could you hang out with your grandpa who is lonely? Maybe you could give some time and volunteer at your church.

You could bake cookies and sell them to raise money for a missionary. There are so many opportunities to practice generosity if you’ll begin to look for them.

If you’ll begin to look, God will show you ways to be generous and to help others.

Many times it’s easy to become so internally focused that we forget to help others around us. We focus on our problems and it blinds us to the needs around us. So today challenge yourself to not be only internally focused. Look around you and see what needs God would want you to meet today.

Read the Other Challenges

1. Day 1 – Challenge: Practice Quiet
2. Day 2 – Challenge: Practice Generosity
3. Day 3 – Challenge: Practice Community
4. Day 4 – Challenge: Practice Thankfulness
5. Day 5 – Challenge:  Practice Identity

If you’d like a PDF copy of this 5-day challenge as well as some bonus content for further study, feel free to download Every Teenager’s Guide to Growing in God. 

But Jesus often slipped away from them and went into the wilderness to pray. – Luke 5:16 (TPT)

What do you do when you’re bored? Do you run to YouTube for something to do? Maybe you like to open Snapchat or fill boredom with TV. And don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of a funny or interesting YouTube video. However, it’s easy to often fill every moment of our lives with something so that we never get a chance to hear God speak. I believe, if we’re being really honest, we simply don’t like being bored.

If you want to grow in your relationship with God, however, you’ve got to learn to practice being quiet. If you’re always filling up the silence in your life with other things, how will you hear God speak? In order to know God better, you’ve got to listen to what He says.

Today’s Challenge: Practice Quiet

This week, we’re making five challenges to help you grow in your relationship with God. Today’s challenge is for you to practice being quiet. What do you think would happen in your life if you spent a few minutes each day this week practicing being quiet with God?

What if you unplugged for five minutes a day, turned off your iPod or phone and just spent time listening to God speak into your life?

What would that look like? How might your life be different?

[Tweet “To hear from God, you’ve got to practice being quiet – @studentdevos”]

For you to grow in your relationship with God, you’re going to have to give God times to speak to you. So today, find a place you can be quiet. It might be in the bathroom when you wake up. Maybe in your bed right before sleeping. Wherever it is, choose today to take some time to unplug and let God speak to you.

Read the Other Challenges

1. Day 2 – Challenge: Practice Generosity
2. Day 3 – Challenge: Practice Community
3. Day 4 – Challenge: Practice Thankfulness
4. Day 5 – Challenge:  Practice Identity

If you’d like a PDF copy of this 5-day challenge as well as some bonus content for further study, feel free to download Every Teenager’s Guide to Growing in God.