One of my challenges to my youth group this year was to set aside (at least) five minutes a day to read the Bible and have a personal time alone with God. Obviously, I hope the students fall in love with Scripture and have a vibrant prayer life and so on, which will require more time than that. But five minutes is a good place to start.
It's understandable that students often struggle with this, given all of the other demands on their time with school and homework, family obligations and so on. If it's not a habit that they have developed while in elementary school, it can take some time to acquire. But many adults struggle with this, as well - even adults who have been Christ-followers for many years.
What's inconceivable to me (yes, that word means what I think it means) is how some people will commit their lives to following Jesus, and trust God with their eternal soul, but they don't spend time actually reading His Word to see for themselves what God has to say!
I'm not saying that you have to be a seminary-trained theologian. That would be somewhat like expecting a person to understand aerodynamics and aviation engineering before flying on an airplane. But you should at least be familiar with his love letter to you.
Some will complain that it's confusing. Sure, parts are, but not all of the Bible. Mark Twain is sometimes credited with a variant of this saying, "It ain't the parts of the Bible that I don't understand that bother me. It's the parts I do!" There is plenty of Scripture that is clear. I'm betting that just learning about those parts, and how to live by the stuff we do understand, will keep us plenty busy without ever having to worry about the more confusing parts.
So what's keeping you from spending some time alone with God today?
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