Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

READ: EPHESIANS 1:17-19; 2 PETER 3:18; 1 JOHN 5:20 In fifth grade, I wrote a report on Eleanor Roosevelt. For weeks I studied her, read many resources about her, and wrote down all kinds of information and facts about her. I even had to dress up like her to make my presentation to the class. By the end of all that research, I felt like I knew just about everything about her. But even with all of m...

READ: MATTHEW 12:46-50; MARK 6:4; JOHN 1:12-13 If anyone understands messed up families, it’s Jesus. Imagine the ridicule He could have received growing up when His neighbors and friends assumed His mother had Him out of wedlock (Matthew 1:18-25). People at school might have muttered about how neither Jesus nor Mary deserved to live. Their cruel words could have rivaled some of the insults I recei...

READ: PSALM 16; HEBREWS 13:5-6   Moment by moment He is always there Never have to worry Don’t have to be scared   Moment by moment He sees my pain He gives me comfort I cannot explain   Moment by moment He shows He cares I am a sinner But my life, He spared   Moment by moment He is always good I can rely on Him Always be understood • Bethany Acker   • Isn’t it good to know that God is with us mom...

READ: 2 CORINTHIANS 3:16-18; PHILIPPIANS 1:6-11; 1 JOHN 3:1-3 When you were younger, did you ever think gemstones came out of the ground perfectly cut and polished? I did. It shocked a younger me to learn that, when gems are mined, they come out looking like small, lumpy rocks—dusted with grime and seemingly fit to be tossed aside. People are like that too. We’re covered from head to toe with the...

READ: MARK 7:20-23; ROMANS 3:10-18, 23-24; 1 TIMOTHY 1:15-16 It didn’t matter how good people tried to make themselves look. The mirror never lied. Not to Amiah. She could see a person’s true image in their reflection. And what she saw were monsters. She didn’t know why no one else saw them, but the monsters were always there, flickering across sheets of glass and curves of metal. A spoon at a res...

READ: 1 CORINTHIANS 8 Halloween can be a controversial time for Christians. While some view Halloween as a celebration of all that is dark, demonic, and evil, others view it as a community-building opportunity to share Jesus with their neighbors. Both sides have valid points, so which one should we pick? The origin of Halloween is definitely worrisome. It was a pagan holiday, believed to be a day...

READ: MATTHEW 28:18-20; 1 CORINTHIANS 3:6-8; 1 PETER 3:15-16 Sharing our faith can be exciting, especially if someone is eager to listen. How can we do this well? Here are some tips: First: Be prepared. The Bible tells us we should always be ready to explain our hope (1 Peter 3:15). If we want to bear witness to the good news of Jesus, it’s important to be investing in our relationship with God an...

READ: DEUTERONOMY 31:6-8; PSALM 23; MATTHEW 28:20; JOHN 8:12 My father wheeled me out of the outpatient infusion center where I had just received my first iron infusion. I watched the bare walls and bleached floor pass by in a watery blur. By the time my dad pushed me into the box-shaped hospital entryway, now empty of people, I was crying and holding my purse like a teddy bear. Parking my wheelch...

READ: HABAKKUK 3; ROMANS 8:28-39; 1 THESSALONIANS 5:18 What are you most grateful for? It’s often easy to praise God for joyful blessings, but sometimes we forget we can also be thankful in suffering. In the book of Habakkuk, God announced His severe judgment on the rebellious people of Judah. The prophet Habakkuk was devastated. God would send the dreaded Chaldeans, and the effect of their brutal...

READ: MATTHEW 11:28-30; JOHN 14:6; 1 JOHN 5:19-20 They blare in our headphones, they shine out from our devices: defining voices of this world. They come subtly, yet suddenly. They echo as a whisper, yet in our minds they resound as a shout. They avert our gaze off of where it should be, redirecting our focus onto worthless lies. The voices of this world try to define who we are. We get distracted...

READ: PSALM 18:19; ISAIAH 43:4; ZEPHANIAH 3:17; 1 JOHN 4:9-10 If you’ve ever had a pet you loved, or saw your favorite animal at the zoo, or had the opportunity to hold a beloved baby in your arms, think about what it felt like when you looked at them. When we truly delight in an animal or a baby, we don’t need anything from them. We don’t expect anything from them, except to just be themselves. E...

READ: HEBREWS 2:17-18; 4:14-16, 1 PETER 5:7-10 God wants us to pour out our hearts to Him. Think about that. God tells us to spill out all our wants, needs, emotions, dreams, troubles, joys, and thoughts to Him. We might be tempted to think God only wants us to confess our sins, ask for direction, and thank Him for our blessings when we pray to Him. But that’s not the case. God offers Himself as a...

READ: PSALM 51; MATTHEW 18:21-35; EPHESIANS 4:32 I witnessed my father and mother fighting at a very young age. As the years went by, I learned that my father was not only a gambler but was also unfaithful to my mother over and over again. As I grew up, my hatred for my father grew. He was not sorry for his faults. He was self-centered and insensitive, which made me abhor him all the more, even th...

READ: MATTHEW 6:19-33; COLOSSIANS 3:2-4; 1 TIMOTHY 4:8 I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve had a six-pack (abs, not sodas) on and off for about twenty years. Exercise has become part of my lifestyle. But something I realized about ten years ago was that my weight training had become an obsession. It slowly moved from low priority, to medium priority, to high priority, and finally to, “Life, get out of...

READ: PSALMS 25:1-5; 32:8; ISAIAH 30:21; JOHN 8:12   God is the one who guides my way, Directs my path, and leads each day. I want to go where He takes me, Even in times when I can’t see.   The road for me is dark ahead. He takes me by the hand and says, “I know the path that you should take. Trust me for the right choice to make.”   So I press on, holding His hand, And with His strength, I always...

READ: JOHN 20:24-29; ACTS 17:10-12; PHILIPPIANS 1:9-11 We all have doubts and questions from time to time. Does God exist? Are heaven and hell real? Does the Bible actually teach what people say it does? Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Maybe it’s questions from a friend that make us doubt. Maybe it’s something we hear on social media, in a movie, in a book, or from a teacher. Or maybe it’s ju...

READ: PSALM 139:23-24; 2 TIMOTHY 1:9-13; 2:19-26 As a kid, one of my jobs after dinner was to clear the table and help wash the dishes. Many of my mom’s fancy dishes couldn’t go into the dishwasher but had to be washed by hand. I can still remember the feeling of having finally rinsed them and put them on the drying rack, only to discover there were some spots I had missed. Bits of dried food woul...

READ: LUKE 9:10-17; ROMANS 5:5; 1 THESSALONIANS 3:12 Do you like leftovers? I love them. I would prefer to take leftovers as my lunch over a sandwich any day! When I was growing up, I remember my grandmother would designate one day of the week to have “must-go” casserole for supper. That meant she would take all the leftovers from the week before and make some sort of casserole—it was always somet...

READ: MATTHEW 11:28-30; MARK 6:30-44; LUKE 5:16; 6:12-13 Have you ever heard the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand? If you’ve spent a lot of time in Sunday School or youth groups, familiar stories like this one can be easy to skim over. But when I reread Mark recently, I found my eyes drawn to the verses just before this miracle. It’s fair to assume that Jesus and His twelve apostles are ex...

READ: MATTHEW 14:25-33; HEBREWS 12:1-2 Lemarti woke up on the third day doubting his purpose here in the treehouse village. As a dendrology intern he felt lonely and useless. Was he wasting everyone’s time? Sure, he’d studied trees in his classes the past couple years, but these people had been researching—and living in—the forest for generations. Every day he discovered more things he still had t...

READ: JOHN 1:9-13; ROMANS 8:16-17; 1 JOHN 3:1-3 Have you ever heard someone say they were “created to be” an artist or an athlete or a leader? Growing up, I believed I was created to write because it brings me so much joy and allows me to encourage others. Perhaps there’s something you enjoy doing that has come to feel central to your identity too. But what if we weren’t created to “do,” but to “b...

READ: ECCLESIASTES 3:1-8; ROMANS 8:28-30, 38-39; 2 CORINTHIANS 4:4-10 Here it is. Autumn. We see the first of the leaves beginning to change color. Even as they glow and look beautiful, the sight of them may fill some of us with a sense of dread. We know that as soon as the leaves fully change, they will begin to fall from the trees. Then the branches will be bare, the weather will turn chilly, an...

READ: PHILIPPIANS 4:4-13; COLOSSIANS 3:1-4; 1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18 No one understands! I’m a failure—useless. People would be better off without me. I didn’t want to feel like this, but the thoughts came anyway. Would anyone notice if I was gone? Have you ever felt like this—hopeless and discouraged? If you’re a child of God, Satan is going to want to stop you. What better way to stop you from se...

READ: 1 CORINTHIANS 12:12-27; GALATIANS 5:13 Whether we have known Jesus for a long time or a little while, we are part of His body—the church— because He saved us through His death and resurrection. But we may mistakenly think we can’t do important things in the church until we’re adults. Thankfully, I wasn’t even a teen yet when I learned that was not true. I grew up in a very small church, so s...

READ: GENESIS 1:26-30; PSALM 139:13-16; EPHESIANS 1:4-8; 5:1   I stare at my face in the lake below. I watch the ripples of the water grow. A precious human made by God above On whom He pours out His unending love.   Who am I to serve the powerful King, The creator God over everything? Why did He choose me? I don’t understand What He thought when He chose me with His hand.   But then, in my heart...