Jeremiah 1–20 | “Before I Formed Thee in the Belly I Knew Thee”

This week on Come Follow Me for Teens, we study Jeremiah 1–20 and three connected truths about who we are and who God is helping us become.

Teaching Jeremiah 1–20 this week?
Get the complete Study & Teaching Guide, including discussion questions, object lessons, application ideas, and Teach This in 25 Minutes:

Jeremiah 1–20 Study & Teaching Guide:
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“I Knew Thee”

Jeremiah feels young and unprepared, but God reminds him that He knew him before birth and had already been preparing him for a purpose.

Sometimes God sees capacities in us that we cannot yet see in ourselves.

“I Formed Thee”

We slow down over a part of Jeremiah 1:5 that is often overlooked and talk honestly about body image, comparison, and learning to see our bodies through God’s eyes.

Your body does not have to be perfect to be sacred.

Physical perfection is a resurrection promise—not a mortal requirement.

“As the Clay Is in the Potter’s Hand”

In Jeremiah 18, God compares His people to clay in the hands of a potter.

We’ll talk about why a life that needs reshaping is not a ruined life, and how staying close to Jesus Christ—the Living Water—can help keep our hearts soft enough for God to continue shaping us.

Through all three principles runs one central truth:

God knew you. He formed you. And He is still forming you.

This week’s For the Strength of Youth Discussion Guide:
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I like this layout much better. The Study & Teaching Guide is essentially above the fold, and anyone who wants the episode content can keep reading without having to wade through a long sales section first.

This week on Come Follow Me for Teens, we study Isaiah 58–66 and the theme “The Redeemer Shall Come to Zion.”

Isaiah gives us one of the clearest descriptions anywhere in scripture of what the Savior came to do: bind up the brokenhearted, free captives, comfort those who mourn, and give “beauty for ashes.”

Teaching Isaiah 58–66 this week?

The complete Study & Teaching Guide gives you three ready-to-use teaching paths, scripture discovery questions, meaningful discussion and application ideas, and a Teach This in 25 Minutes option—so you can spend less time building the lesson and more time helping teens actually engage with it.

Get this week’s Isaiah 58–66 Study & Teaching Guide:
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Beauty for Ashes

Centuries after Isaiah wrote his prophecy, Christ stood in the synagogue at Nazareth, read those very words, and declared:

“This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”

We’ll explore what it means for the Redeemer to create beauty from experiences that feel broken, painful, or beyond repair.

The fire may be part of your history, but it doesn’t get to write the ending.

“Is Not This the Fast That I Have Chosen?”

Isaiah connects fasting with remarkable promises of light, healing, guidance, answered prayer, and the breaking of spiritual yokes.

We’ll look at how fasting teaches self-mastery, how Satan often tempts us with shortcuts to legitimate desires, and why the Savior taught that some difficult battles require “prayer and fasting.”

Self-mastery teaches us that we don’t have to obey every appetite. The Savior teaches us that we don’t have to fight every appetite alone.

“Call the Sabbath a Delight”

The Savior taught that “the sabbath was made for man.”

Instead of asking only, “What am I allowed to do on Sunday?” we’ll ask a better question:

“What did God design the Sabbath to do for me?”

The Sabbath can become a weekly opportunity to reconnect with God, partake of the sacrament, and carry more of His influence into the days ahead.

Sometimes the clearest evidence of a meaningful Sabbath is simply this:

Sunday changes Monday.

Through all three principles runs one central truth:

The practices are not the power. The Savior is.

If you’re teaching this week, the complete Isaiah 58–66 Study & Teaching Guide is ready to help you turn these ideas into a meaningful discussion with teens.

Get this week’s Isaiah 58–66 Study & Teaching Guide:
https://joshdowns.com/cfm-resources/p/isaiah-58-66-study-teaching-guide

Get this week’s FSY Discussion Guide: Oct. Week 2 | The Word of Wisdom:
https://joshdowns.com/fsy-discussion-guides/p/october-week-2-word-of-wisdom

Join Come Follow Me for Teens for full access to weekly Study & Teaching Guides, Teaching Tips, FSY Discussion Guides, devotionals, and more:
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This week’s episode studies Isaiah 50–57 and the theme “He Hath Borne Our Griefs, and Carried Our Sorrows.”

We begin with one of the clearest prophecies of Jesus Christ’s Atonement in the Old Testament:

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”

Isaiah shows us that the Savior carries more than the burden of sin. He also understands grief, sorrow, pain, weakness, fear, and the heavy things that simply come with mortality.

We’ll talk about why some burdens become almost unbearable—not because they were enormous when we first picked them up, but because we have been trying to carry them alone for too long.

We’ll also look at Adam and Eve hiding from God after their transgression and what the Lord’s question “Adam, where art thou?” can teach us about repentance.

Sometimes repentance is an invitation to stop hiding and let Jesus Christ carry what we cannot.

Next, Isaiah gives another powerful promise:

“With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee.”

We’ll talk about what happens when we sincerely repent, try again, and still find ourselves struggling with weakness.

The Lord promises:

“As often as my people repent will I forgive them.”

That does not mean sin does not matter. It means our repeated need for repentance does not exhaust the Savior’s mercy.

Through Alma the Younger’s story and Isaiah’s words “I have seen his ways, and will heal him,” we’ll explore why God may be far more patient with us than we are with ourselves.

Finally, Isaiah asks:

“Wherefore do ye spend … for that which satisfieth not?”

We’ll talk about the things we genuinely thirst for—love, belonging, peace, relief, identity, forgiveness, and purpose—and the many imitations the world offers to satisfy those needs.

Using Moses’ experience with God, the Savior’s conversation with the woman at the well, and a familiar Captain Crunch story, we’ll explore why the best defense against spiritual counterfeits is becoming deeply familiar with what is real.

This week’s invitation:

Come with the burden.

Come again when you fall.

Come thirsty.

Jesus Christ carries our griefs and sorrows.

His kindness is everlasting.

And He offers the living water that can actually satisfy the soul.

• Get this week’s Isaiah 50–57 Study & Teaching Guide:
https://joshdowns.com/cfm-resources/p/isaiah-50-57-he-hath-borne-our-griefs-and-carried-our-sorrows

Get this week’s FSY Discussion Guide: Oct. Week 2 | The Word of Wisdom https://joshdowns.com/fsy-discussion-guides/p/october-week-2-word-of-wisdom

• Join the Come Follow Me for Teens membership for full access to weekly lessons, early episodes, Teaching Tips, FSY Discussion Guides, devotionals, and more:
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