Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

READ: LUKE 22:52-62; JOHN 21:15-19 The man sitting across the table from me makes me uneasy. His failures bear resemblance to mine. Yet, even with his failures, he has been with Jesus. Jesus loved this man. I eye him suspiciously, wondering if he’s lying about knowing Jesus and being chosen by Him. “How can I know you’re telling the truth?” I blurt out before I can stop myself. I feel my face flus...

READ: MATTHEW 4:4; 1 PETER 1:22–2:3 Have you ever been hit by a sudden, bizarre craving? It might be in the middle of the night, when all the stores are closed and the pantry is empty, but there’s nothing in the world you want more than…potato chips. While cravings seem to be more or less random, our bodies feel and function their best when we take care in planning and preparing what we eat and fo...

READ: ISAIAH 43:1-13; JOHN 10:3-4, 27-30; HEBREWS 12:1-3 Have you ever been in the middle of competing in an intense sporting event, tired and discouraged, when someone called out your name to cheer you on? During my days playing high school soccer, I’d be racing toward the ball, exhausted and ready to quit, then I’d hear a familiar voice call out my name. I could hear it above all the noise of th...

READ: HEBREWS 11 Hebrews 11 is full of examples of people who trusted God even when it seemed foolish. Abel burned up some of his best livestock as a sacrifice to God (Genesis 4:1-11). If he hadn’t had faith, it would have seemed like a waste of food or income. Enoch’s deeds are not mentioned specifically, but his faith pleased God, and God “took him away” to be with Him without dying (Genesis 5:2...

READ: PSALM 23 Sometimes when I think about death and dying, it scares me. I know this is the case for a lot of people. I also know that, unless Jesus comes back during our lifetimes, we will all experience death one day. But personally, I don’t want to think about it. However, when I was reading Psalm 23 last night, I was struck by the hope it gives us regarding death, dying, and what comes after...

READ: MATTHEW 7:24-27; ROMANS 8:35-39 I’ll never forget the first time I saw it: the foreclosure notice tacked to the front door. At fifteen, I was old enough to understand its meaning. The bank was coming to take our house away. I’d experienced enough under its roof to know this outcome was inevitable. We were already living without heat or hot water. Our house was falling into disrepair. My fath...

READ: EPHESIANS 6:10-20; COLOSSIANS 1:9-14; 1 JOHN 1:1–2:2 Miles later, we reached a rocky cliff face. I pressed my back to the rock while tears cascaded down my cheeks. I almost took that fruit. How could I? When was the last time I was this exhausted? Snowdrop gave me a whiskery horse kiss and nudged my satchel. After wiping horse foam off my face, I took the hint and pulled my faded, dog-eared...

READ: JOHN 1:1-18; 1 CORINTHIANS 10:13; EPHESIANS 5:8-20 I am Ashva, knight of the Kingdom of Light! Although weak from my journey, I repeated the truth aloud to bolster my strength. The King had sent me to deliver a message to the bishop of the north. Then I was to travel on to the castle of the nearby rook and await further orders. But the mountain road was long and treacherous. My horse’s muscl...

READ: ISAIAH 30:15-18; MATTHEW 12:15-21; ROMANS 10:9-13 I was struggling and needed advice. I thought my camp counselor from summer youth group camp might be the person to ask. So I wrote to the counselor, who I’ll call Libby, and explained my dilemma. Years before, I had put my faith in Jesus for forgiveness, trusting Him to pay the price for my sins and make me pure before God. I believed Jesus...

READ: ACTS 12:1-17 Weeping believers gathered at the house of Mary, Mark’s mother. Only a few days ago, their beloved pastor had been martyred. And now, another of their pastors, Peter, had been arrested too. As Nicolas stood up, a hush fell over the group. “Brothers and sisters, shouldn’t we be praying for deliverance and boldness for Peter?” “But we prayed for James, and he was killed,” a discou...

READ: MATTHEW 11:28-30; 14:25-31   I don’t want to doubt, But sometimes the questions, They’re stronger than I want them to be. I don’t want to ignore, The many works, the many ways, You’ve proven yourself already. I want to be strong, But sometimes it’s all too heavy, I feel like I’m carrying a great load on my own. I don’t want to doubt, But sometimes I feel like Peter on the water, And everythi...

READ: PSALM 63; 1 CORINTHIANS 2:10-12; 1 PETER 2 Do you long to deepen your relationship with God? Does your soul hunger and thirst for Him as David described in Psalm 63? I don’t know about you, but since I trusted Jesus to be my Savior before age five, I’ve known I need to go deeper with God and continually mature in my faith. Although I’ve been a follower of Christ for over thirty years, I stil...

READ: PSALM 10:14; JOHN 1:12; ROMANS 8:14-23; HEBREWS 4:14-16; JAMES 1:5 What do marshmallows and missing dads have to do with each other? In one study in the 1970s, researchers asked a group of preschoolers if they wanted one marshmallow right then or two marshmallows a few minutes later. Some kids snatched one marshmallow right away, and others waited so they could have two. As they grew up, the...

READ: MATTHEW 11:28-30; JOHN 16:33; PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7 Fall is a season of change. You may notice the leaves changing from crisp green to brilliant red to crunchy brown. You might observe café menu boards switching from fruit smoothies to pumpkin spice lattes. But the biggest mark of change is often the start of the school year. Every first day of school, I remember walking into the building with a...

READ: LUKE 23:32-34; EPHESIANS 4:26; PHILIPPIANS 1:6 Anger flowed through me as I pinned my friend against a tree, her feet dangling two inches above the ground. My older brother, a football player, could barely pull me off Cathy. I don’t remember what I was angry about, but I do remember how anger controlled me. I read the Bible and prayed daily, and I loved Jesus, but anger was a part of me as w...

READ: ECCLESIASTES 7:10; JOHN 10:10; ROMANS 8:28-39; EPHESIANS 2:7-10 It was my junior year of high school, and I was miserable. The I-don’t-want-to-be-here leave-me-alone kind of miserable. I was supposed to be back at school with my friends in Kenya, where my parents were missionaries. Then the difficult decision was made not to return. I was devastated. So, I shut down. Like a robot, I would ge...

READ: GENESIS 1:26-27; 1 CORINTHIANS 1:26-31; 2 CORINTHIANS 4:7; 5:17 My first day in Psychology 101, the instructor said, “There is no such thing as normal.” That really took me by surprise, but I was glad to hear it because I had never considered myself normal. I saw myself as a high strung, mixed-up teenager who grew into a high-strung, mixed-up adult. Go figure. But the truth is, God created m...

READ: GENESIS 1:26-27; 1 CORINTHIANS 6:19; 2 CORINTHIANS 5:20; 1 PETER 2:9 As I brushed my teeth, I examined the reflection of my nametag in the bathroom mirror. By now, the words were so familiar I could even read them backwards: “CHILD OF GOD.” I smiled as my other names echoed through my head: “Image-bearer.” “Chosen People.” “Ambassador.” “Temple of the Holy Spirit.” They each flashed onto my...

READ: PROVERBS 3:5-6; MATTHEW 6:25-33; PHILIPPIANS 4:4-20 Have you ever been so busy that you felt like you didn’t have time for God? I know I have. From school to work to extracurriculars, not to mention family and friends, sometimes it seems like my to-do list is ten miles long. In busy times, I’m easily tempted to believe I don’t have the time or energy to read my Bible, memorize Scripture, or...

READ: ROMANS 5:6-11; 8:1, 38-39; 1 JOHN 4:15 Recently I started taking voice lessons. When I first met my voice teacher, we talked for a long time, and she told me about how she studied contemporary Christian music in college. She also told me that when she was my age, she felt that God was calling her to sing for people on death row. She said that sometimes people wouldn’t receive it well, but ot...

READ: MATTHEW 11:28-30; 18:21-35; COLOSSIANS 3:12-14   "How many times should I forgive?” I asked. “My friend has hurt me far too many times. Would seven times forgiving be enough, so pain would disappear and peace be mine?” But then I heard Him say, “No, not enough.” And then He named a number far too high— I could not fathom how that could be done until I looked into His gentle eyes. He seemed t...

READ: PSALM 145:18-19; EPHESIANS 5:18; 1 JOHN 5:14 5/30/25 God, please help my family. I don’t like it when my stepmom, Anna, drinks. I want to love her, but it’s hard when she’s drinking. She turns into a completely different person. I’ve avoided coming to my dad’s house because her drinking is pulling our family apart. Please help. 6/15/25 Today was Father’s Day. While I’m grateful for my dad an...

READ: ROMANS 2:11; 5:8; JAMES 3:13-18 At age eight, I collected bottle caps with no idea of what I’d do with them. I kept those colorful items in our backyard where my brother, who I’ll call “Randall,” and I played. After a while, I forgot about them. Then one day, I joined Randall and our mom in the kitchen and spotted something on the table. It was a small wooden board with lots of colorful bott...

READ: PSALMS 84:3; 139:1-18; MATTHEW 10:29-31; LUKE 12:6-7 I love bird watching. Birds are amazing creatures, and their design showcases God’s ingenuity and creative power. In my yard I see mostly sparrows, not the most exotic of the bird kind, yet as I watch them many truths reverberate in me. The sparrow is a common bird, found on nearly every continent, yet it is mentioned in the Bible on more...

READ: 1 KINGS 19:1-18; MATTHEW 17:1-8; JOHN 10:27-28 Listen. It calls in the treetops. Be still. It roars on the waves. Shh. It croons in the meadow. Listen. It whispers in the wind. For as long as Aylen could remember, she had heard it. The Voice. It was one of her earliest memories. The Voice crooning to her—just as the nursery rhyme said—as she lay in a meadow of flowers. Whenever she thought a...