Every stage of life

Faith When You Are Young

Yes, God meets you and uses you while you are young, not only when you are grown. Youth can feel like a waiting room, as if the real life and the real usefulness come later. The Bible tells a different story: God spoke to the boy Samuel, a young shepherd named David was chosen, and a boy’s small lunch fed a crowd in Jesus’ hands.

If this is you

Being young can feel like being told to wait, that your ideas are cute but not yet serious, that your faith will count once you are older. And yet youth carries gifts the years can dull: openness, courage, the willingness to believe that things can change. God does not overlook any of that.

Jesus meets you here

When God first called Samuel, Samuel was only a child, and he answered.

“And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.”
1 Samuel 3:10

When a great crowd was hungry, it was a boy’s small lunch that Jesus took, blessed, and multiplied to feed thousands. Small in your own eyes is not small in his hands.

“There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?”
John 6:9

Jesus welcomed children and the young without hesitation, and warned anyone who would push them away.

“But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of God.”
Matthew 19:14

A next step

Bring Jesus the little you have, your questions, your energy, your honest heart, and watch what he does with it. You are not too young to be called.

Where to go from here

You do not have to have it figured out first. Any of these is a good door in.

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Come and see

You do not have to take anyone’s word for it, ours least of all. Jesus never asked people to sort themselves out before they came to him. He simply said, come and see. Whatever season you are in, however full or empty your hands feel, there is room for you at his side. The Gospel of John is a gentle place to begin, and it costs you nothing but a little quiet and an honest look.

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Jesus Christ is Lord.

Frequently asked questions

Can God really use me while I am young?
Yes. God called the boy Samuel (1 Samuel 3), chose the young shepherd David, and used a boy's five loaves to feed a crowd (John 6:9). What is small in your eyes is not small in God's hands.
Does Jesus care about young people?
Very much. Jesus welcomed children and the young and said the kingdom of God belongs to such as these (Matthew 19:14). He turned no one away for being young.
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