Prayer for Youth - Giving Yourself to God's Word

I Tim 4:15
Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.

Paul has just encouraged Timothy to feed himself on the Word of God through reading, exhortation (preaching), and doctrine (teaching). Now he goes a couple of steps further.

First, Paul encourages Timothy to meditate, or ponder, upon the Word of God. Likewise, we should be encouraging young people to ponder the Word of God. Don't just read a passage, shut the Bible, and forget about it! Don't just listen to a sermon and forget about it! Don't just hear the Sunday School lesson and forget about it! Ponder these things - continue to think about them. Turn your thoughts to them again and again.

One of the ways we can ponder the Word of God is to journal (like this blog). Another way is to memorize Scripture. The process of memorization requires thinking about a passage over and over until it is committed to memory. This is a form of pondering.

Second, Paul goes beyond "meditating" as he challenges Timothy to "give thyself wholly to them". In other words, surrender completely to the Word of God. This suggests allowing the Word of God to have control over our lives. To let the Word of God determine our actions, decisions, words, etc.

The idea here is for Timothy to own the Word of God and allow the Word of God to own him. The concept can be summed up like this:
Get into the Bible
Get the Bible into you
Get the Bible over you

"that thy profiting may appear to all"
This last little phrase is often overlooked, but very important. When we get into the Bible, get the Bible into us, and get the Bible over us, our profiting will appear to all. In other words, when the Word of God has its rightful place in our lives, it will profit us. And others will see that profiting and know that the Word of God has power. We will have become an "example of the believer" - not by conforming to a man-made list of do's and don'ts; but by giving ourselves to God's Word.