Teen Bible Reading Tips

[James14]

I’m 14 and I would really like to read the Bible. Problem is, I find it very hard to read and a little boring. I often try to read it, then find myself just looking at the words, thinking completely about something else. I know reading the Bible would be a very good thing for me to do with my time and I feel like God really wants me to read it. I think there is some thing he is trying to tell me through it. Please help me by giving me some tips that will help me stay focused while I’m reading and enjoy what I’m reading.

 

[SeekingHisHeart]

I’m 14 and I would really like to read the Bible. Problem is, I find it very hard to read and a little boring. I often try to read it, then find myself just looking at the words, thinking completely about something else. I know reading the Bible would be a very good thing for me to do with my time and I feel like God really wants me to read it. I think there is some thing he is trying to tell me through it. Please help me by giving me some tips that will help me stay focused while I’m reading and enjoy what I’m reading.

I think the first thing to do is to pray for the grace to enjoy the bible and the grace to understand the heart of God through it. It can be difficult to read if you don’t know the back drop(what’s going on) of a particular book, so it’s a good idea to read a narrative about the book you are going to read. There are plenty of great resources online that can help

lifeteen.com/blog/the-bible-where-do-i-start

also faith comes by hearing(Romans 10:17) so it might be a help to you to get an audio bible or even just a NT . I’ve got this one and it’s really amazing having different voices and sound effects makes it come alive, it’s a little pricey thoughamazon.com/Word-Promise-Testament-Audio-Bible/dp/0718024249 if you dont have the extra money there is a free sight, it’s not Catholic, so the only problem is it is missing 7 books from the Old Testament but for free it’s a good one faithcomesbyhearing.com/

 

[Crumpy]

I’m reading a book that talks about teaching young people to read and understand the Bible and their faith.

Too often, the subject is just like you say, complicated and boring.

The method for helping young people is to make the study enjoyable – which it truly is, to study the word of God.

To make it enjoyable, you need to have some help, in the form of a Bible study group using a commentary which helps you understand what you are reading.

Everybody who reads the Bible has this same problem! It’s complicated and boring!
And, so it’s frustrating.

My advice is to stick with it, a little bit at a time. If you can get a “study bible,” it will have footnotes to help explain things. It often has diagrams and articles and maps to help, too.

You should know, though, that nobody has ever finished studying the Bible. There is so much there. God has given us so much, no one has ever been able to take it all in, in a lifetime.

But, you don’t have to do that, either. In a way, it’s like sports. You should read the Bible, but it should not give you pain – like exercising too hard. Keep at it. If you don’t understand it, keep your questions in mind and look for the answers. That’s what I do, and a lot of times I get the answer, but after a long time.

I don’t know what will “work” for you. When I was a teen, I just opened the Bible and read a little, on any page that I happened to find. That’s not the best way to study, but you shouldn’t overlook “discovering” what’s in the Bible, either.

Look in the front of your Bible, and look at the list of names of the “books” of the Bible. Look all around your Bible and see all the things that are in it, to help you.

You said you wanted “tips” and that’s what I’ve tried to give. One thing I liked to do was to copy a verse that inspired me – copy it onto those blank pages at the beginning or at the end of your Bible. Make a note where that verse is, like Gen 3:7 (Gen for the book of Genesis) or Jn 3:16 ( for the gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 16).

Dt 6:4 Hear O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD alone. (Deuteronomy)

John 3:16 God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life.

from Mt (Matthew’s gospel) chapter 5: Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.

My best tip: read, read,and read. don’t stop. Maybe just a little at a time, but don’t stop reading.

 

[Apollos]

I recommend borrowing a Protestant Study Bible with lots of diagrams, outlines and other helps. Then, when you get the hang of how they make the text interesting, you can use their approach on the missing books like Maccabees.

Another method is just to outline the text. The best way to do this is to start by looking at the book as a whole and seeing if it falls into sections. For example, Psalms is divided into five books; Genesis is organized into “generations”; Matthew is organized around five major speeches by Jesus; and Leviticus, arguably the most boring book of the Bible, has a logical structure if you look for key words and phrases like “And the Lord said to Moses…”.

I once spent an entire summer comparing 1 Samuel-2 Kings with 1-2 Chronicles and actually did it on a computer, with a two-column table set up in a word processor, and I cut & pasted sections that were about the same things next to each other. I noticed a lot of interesting differences, but then I realized I could understand the story much better if I marked off who was king where and when. Then I was able to mark off what parts of Isaiah and other prophets corresponded to what parts of the Sam-Kgs-Chr story. **All of a sudden the story made sense, **and now I know who all these Rehoboam and Ahaz and Elijah characters are. I found out who Jezebel was, and “The Widow of Nain” that Jesus refers to, and found some fun little stories about a guy who was so fat that when he was stabbed with a sword it disappeared in his belly, and my personal favorite, The Golden Hemorrhoids!!!

 

[Crumpy]

It’s really important for a young person to be very careful about using the internet.

This should be a safe website, but you should always talk to a real adult person, like your father or mother, before you spend any money or do something that you are told to do on the internet.

When you read the Bible, you must also be careful. In places it talks about sacrificing animals – DON’T take this as advice that you must follow.

Even Jesus tells a young adult man, to sell all he has and to give the money to the poor. You really need adult supervision about doing anything radical like that, that you read in the Bible.

You should never do anything that hurts anybody or let anybody hurt you.

I wrote another post, with a few of my own tips for studying the Bible. If there’s something you need help with, to understand, use this website. Go to the Scripture forum, and ask a question publicly. (Don’t use personal messaging, because you don’t know who you are really talking to.)

When you ask a question about the Bible, please tell us what Bible you are reading – like The New American Bible or the Revised Standard Version. The Bible in English is a translation from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. These different versions of the Bible are different translations.

 

[James14]

all the Bibles in my house are NAB and there isn’t any Bible study groud around where i live (small town and parish), let alone one that does not consit mostly of elderly ladies (no offense, i just feel people my age would make it more enjoyable).

 

[Crumpy]

I’ve never tried to explain anything like this to a teenager.

I had a thought in the last 24 hours that the Bible was written by adults for adults. And, even then, rabbis, and later Christian ministers had to preach and explain it, because it’s difficult to understand, for a number of legitimate reasons.

There are translation problems, because we don’t know what the original words meant, in some cases. Another common problem is that what we read in one place sounds like and maybe actually does conflict with what it says in another place.

If you don’t have a group to study the Bible with, then I’d also suggest this:

Carefully read the Ten Commandments, in the Old Testament. They’re actually in two places, Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21. The words are slightly different.
You can probably read these fairly quickly. Keep track of where these are in the Bible. Read them at least once a week.

The first five mention God, and have to do with our relationship with God. The second five commandments have to do with our relationships with people.

A second group of verses you should read and meditate on are those in Psalm 1. Study what the difference is between someone who has faith in God and tries to serve God and someone who does not have faith and does not try to serve God.

This is an important psalm (prayers that are thought to have been sung in worship).

A third section of scripture that you should read and become very familiar with is what is called the Beatitudes, located at Matthew 5:3-12.

Aside from any other reading that you do, you should always come back to these and meditate on them.

For example, the first beatitude is, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That’s a big deal. It’s very important. The words “poor in spirit” is confusing to a lot of people.

Notice that the word “blessed” is used in both Psalm 1 AND in the beatitudes? That’s very important. It means blessed by God, which is also to say, this is what gives us our greatest joy. To be poor in spirit is to live our lives so that we depend on God alone, and we don’t trust in anything as much as in our relationship with God.

You asked for “tips” in reading the Bible. A friend of mine told me that he always likes to find himself agreeing with the Bible. That’s a good tip. If you think you don’t agree with the Bible, you should study until you get there, agreeing with the Bible. And, be sure to look around at how the Catholic Church understands the Bible.

Other people twist the words of the Bible, or disagree with it, and so on. Be sure you are always in agreement with the Bible and the Church.