4 Obstacles that Keep Young Women from Reading the Bible

Every generation faces its own unique challenges in their Christian life.

And it’s easy to use our unique challenges as excuses for complacency rather than using them as opportunities for growth.

Undeniably, one of the most important aspects of the Christian life is the Word of God. Reading God’s word is how we get to know our Saviour and how we grow and mature into Christ-likeness. 

Our generation of young Christians knows this is true. But many of us are still not reading our Bible. 

There are a billion stats on the many reasons young people aren’t reading God’s word. But regardless of the reasons, every young person who decides to open their Bible faces some very real challenges.

We have an enemy who also knows how important the Bible is in a Christian’s life. And he will stop at nothing to try and keep us from reading it. 

It’s easy to use these challenges as excuses to stop reading our Bibles but that is just what our enemy wants us to do. Instead, we need to recognize the challenges as very real obstacles the enemy uses to keep us from God’s word and turn them into an opportunity to fight for deeper intimacy with Jesus through His word.  

Here are four obstacles I’ve witnessed keeping our generation from reading the Bible.  

Instant Gratification Culture

We live in a results-driven culture. The quicker we see results the more successful we believe we are. 

This mindset is affecting everything from fitness to entertainment, to how we shop. It’s also affecting how we read our Bibles. 

We come to God’s word expecting to receive profound truth, life-altering wisdom, soul-stirring encouragement, and highly motivational verses after spending only 5 minutes in the Bible. Unfortunately, unlike Google, God’s word doesn’t work that way. 

Past generations instinctively understood a concept today’s young people need to be taught: Fruit takes time to grow.

Our grandfathers tilled the soil in the spring and no fruit sprung up out of the hard ground. Then they planted seeds – still no fruit. They watered and weeded without seeing any fruit on those plants. They waited and prayed for months, before finally, in the proper time, fruit began to grow and ripen. 

When we open God’s word, we are not opening the Amazon prime app where we can select the exact colour and size we want and have it arrive on our doorstep two days later. When we read our Bible, it’s more like planting a garden. 

The early years of reading the Bible are like tilling the soil of our hearts, becoming familiar with the stories and the text. We plant seeds of truth into our hearts and minds, truth that – like seeds – might not seem too helpful or exciting at the moment. 

But we keep reading, watering those seeds by learning new truths that help the old truth develop in our thinking. 

Until finally, maybe weeks, months or even years later, God’s truth is ripe in our hearts and it produces an abundant harvest in our lives.

I’ve been reading the Bible since I learned to read and for years, I didn’t “get” much out of it. I couldn’t understand what the passage was talking about, I found myself falling asleep. But I am so glad I kept reading. 

I was storing up knowledge that is now producing the fruit of godliness in my life. What I read in my Bible today, makes sense because I remember the stories I read as a kid. I’m finding answers now because I had questions first.

As we read God’s word, let’s stop trying to make it gratify our own wants and desires instantly. Let’s read it to learn who God is, and allow Him to faithfully use the truth we fill our minds with to produce the fruit of godliness in its perfect time. 

Constant Distraction

Every Christian who has set their mind to read God’s word has faced distractions. But the distractions today’s young people face are definitely unique. 

Not only do we have the common distractions of family, school, friends, to do lists, and worries on our mind, we also have a distraction called a phone. 

How many times does our time in God’s word get eaten up by scrolling through social media feeds and replying to all our texts? How many times have we been distracted by a notification that interrupted us when we were reading the Bible? 

God’s word is so important to our spiritual lives that our enemy will use every means to distract us from reading it. Let’s not allow our phones to become a tool in Satan’s hands to distract us.

A few years ago, I realized how distracting my phone was to my time in God’s word.  I knew I needed to do something to change this pattern. So I decided to turn on airplane mode before I go to bed every night. I don’t turn airplane mode off until a set time each morning so I can’t use the internet or data and I don’t have any notifications asking for my attention. 

If your phone is keeping you from reading God’s word, I encourage you, take steps to change that. 

You could do the same thing as me. Or you might consider leaving your phone in a different room before bed or installing an app like Freedom, which will block your internet between set times every day. 

Let’s ask God for the grace to take this tool out of our enemies hand and pursue undistracted time in His word. 

Busyness

I know several girls who are at school by 7am for sports or music practices. Then they have homework, sports games, social clubs, and art classes in the evening. They genuinely don’t have much spare time. 

This last week, I was tempted to put aside my time in God’s word because of busyness. I was sick and so I decided to sleep through my usual devotion time to try and get better. I worked all day and had events each evening. Any spare time in-between was used for other things that genuinely needed to get done – writing, helping around the house, and preparing for my music practice. 

But the truth is, we always have time for the most important things in our life. If we don’t have time to read the Bible, it’s because reading the Bible is not as important to us as everything else we are doing. 

Half-way through my week, I realized I was cooperating with the enemy by not reading God’s word. I was believing that extra sleep was more important to get me through the day than God’s word. I was believing that getting all my tasks done was more important than sitting at the feet of Jesus. 

When you are tempted to skip your time in God’s word because of business, ask yourself, “are these other things more important than God’s word?” 

Jesus said, “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” (Luke 4:4) 

Lack of Examples

How many of you regularly see your parents or siblings reading the Bible? How many of you know older, godly people who talk about their time in God’s word? 

Apparently, it’s not just teens struggling with this, it’s our parents too. 

When God’s word is valued by our parents it’s much more likely to be valued by us. When God’s word isn’t read by our parents, it’s much more likely that we won’t read it either. 

I am blessed to have parents who love God’s word. Often, when I was growing up, I would wake up in the morning and find them reading it. 

So when my Dad gave me my own Bible reading plan I was eager to join my parents and read my Bible. 

If you are a parent or mentor, it’s so important to model for the girls in your life what it looks like to love God’s word and talk to them about what you learn from your time in scripture. 

But if you are a young woman with a desire to know God through His word, don’t let a lack of examples become an excuse to stop reading the Bible. God has put that desire in your heart and He will be faithful to reveal Himself to you as you open the Bible and seek Him in the pages.

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The challenges that keep young people from reading the Bible are real. We shouldn’t deny them. 

But the challenges are God’s tools to test us and to prove the goodness of His word to all who accept them as an opportunity to seek Him with greater hunger. 

I’d love to chat below!

• Have you faced any of these challenges when you try to read God’s word?
• Has your phone ever been a distraction when you try to read God’s word?
• Do you see many examples of older Christians who read the Bible daily?