Youth, Teens, & Adolescents- “Clean from the inside out”

Excerpts from Susan Reynolds Brackley  :

....We cannot deal with sin on a surface level any more than we can put a new and clean shirt on without washing our skin and think that the smell will disappear. Just as our bodies need to be clean from the private and hidden areas right on up…. our sins need to be dealt with from the heart.

Jas 3:13  Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

Jas 3:14  But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

Jas 3:15  This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

Jas 3:16  For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

Jas 3:17  But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

Jas 3:18  And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

The book of Proverbs is written to instruct God’s people in wisdom. Did you realize that Proverbs has many specific teachings directed to your age and stage in life?

You may feel that because you are young that you have the whole world and plenty of time ahead of you….and perhaps some of you do. But what are you going to fill your lives with?

Proverbs says that youth is a wonderful time of life. Your vigor is ripe, your zeal is ripe, your health is usually ripe. But your wisdom is at a low point. God knows this and wrote specific things to you in His Word- because Jesus cares specifically about youth.

Youth have much going for them but they also have a few things going against them… 

like pride

bad relationships

not wanting to be led or taught

Naivety

bombardment of drugs

lack of wisdom

lack of help from godly and wise people

and lack of zeal for the right things in life … like Jesus and His Word.

Jesus did not create us to squander our young years on emptiness and selfishness. The decisions that you make today and tomorrow are what make up your life.

Don’t ever forget that -

Every drunk took his first drink once

Every sex offender went after his first victim once

Every person that is addicted to porn peeked into things that he / she shouldn’t have once

Every abuser struck their first victim once

Every smoker inhaled their first cigarette once

Every demonic person flirted with superstitions once

The decisions that you make today… have a great potential to carry on to make up your life.

Minutes turn into hours.

Hours turn into days.

Days turn into weeks.

Weeks turn into months.

Months turn into years.

Years are what make up your lifetime!

Eph 5:15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

Eph 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

For the entire article including her introduction and several passages of Scripture, go here.