Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

READ: PSALM 27; ISAIAH 40:31; LAMENTATIONS 3:25 Waiting for things to work out can be exhausting, scary, frustrating, and stressful. Sometimes it feels like there won’t ever be an end. Sitting in the uncertainty can be the hardest because we don’t know which way things are going to go. We don’t know if they’re going to work out like we hoped—or if they’re going to work out in a way that makes our...

READ: PSALM 115:3; EPHESIANS 1:3-10; HEBREWS 12:2 For a long time, I’ve had this nagging thought that God just loves us because He has to. He’s God, so that means He’s obligated to love us, right? But the other day, I was struck by a new thought: Why would God feel obligated to love us? Who would He feel obligated to? He’s God! And that, to me, makes the good news even better. God really doesn’t h...

READ: PSALMS 68:4-6; 139:13-18; ISAIAH 49:15; 1 JOHN 3:1 Mother’s Day is not a simple holiday for everyone. Maybe your mom is kind and caring and you have a wonderful relationship with her. If so, that’s great! Praise God! But for some, Mother’s Day comes with a lot of hurt. Maybe you lost your mom when you were young, and you don’t celebrate Mother’s Day because you’re always reminded of your los...

READ: GALATIANS 3:13; COLOSSIANS 2:13-15; HEBREWS 12:1-3 Growing up, my siblings and I played a lot of baseball together. When I was batting, there was no better feeling than to have the bat connect with the ball. Whether the ball went flying or it was a ground ball going out in front of the plate, it just felt good to have the two connect. I remember my brothers telling me, “Keep your eye on the...

READ: ROMANS 8:1, 31-39; 1 JOHN 1:8–2:2 Have you ever felt like your sin could never be forgiven? Like what you did is surely too much for God to handle? Or, even if God could forgive you, it seems like it wouldn’t be fair or right, so you think you should sit in your guilt and shame a little longer to even the scales? I think we’ve all been there. Satan loves to push us into our sin and away from...

READ: 1 SAMUEL 17; 2 KINGS 6:8-23; EPHESIANS 6:12 One name for God found in the Old Testament is Yahweh Sabaoth, which means Lord of Hosts or Lord of Armies (sometimes translated “Lord Almighty”). This name shows us a side of God that I don’t always think about. This is the God who fights and wins for us. And this name of God reminds us that He has already won the battle. In 1 Samuel 17, when the...

READ: JOHN 15:1-8 A friend of mine trained as a physical therapist. So when my shoulders are tense and give me headaches, I’ll go sit on her living room floor in front of her couch while she massages my shoulders. And it HURTS. She feels my neck and back to locate the places that are tense or out of whack. Then she bears down, patiently coaxing the muscle back to its proper state, sometimes bendin...

READ: MATTHEW 11:28-30; LUKE 10:38-42 My stomach churned looking at my to-do list: Send out graduation announcements, study for final exams, review college prerequisite requirements, create an RSVP list for graduation parties... The list seemed to go on and on. I closed my eyes hoping that the pit in my stomach would go away, but the more I thought about the list, the worse I felt. I thought the d...

READ: JOHN 1:1-5; 8:12; COLOSSIANS 1:9-14 "Look for the light.” Marcos stumbled over a tree root in the path and wondered how his brother Thiago had made it seem so easy. Here in the forest, in the darkness of the cloudy night, there wasn’t any light to be had. But Thiago had said that even here it was possible to see, for the Master said the light was always available to His people. Marcos took a...

READ: PSALM 86:11-13; LUKE 9:20-25; 1 JOHN 2:15-17   Sometimes life feels Like an unending race And I’m being tugged So many places   You say You want All that I am My head and my heart My dreams and my plans   But friends, fun, and fortune Demand my attention I’m pulled two ways In a terrible tension   I want to follow You And I want the world too I can’t have both Oh, what do I do?   I know Your...

READ: 1 KINGS 17:8-24; LUKE 4:14-30; 7:11-17; JOHN 6:28-40 In a time of drought and famine, God sends the prophet Elijah to a non-Jewish area to look for a widow who would feed him. Surprisingly, when Elijah finds this widow, she tells him she cannot feed him because she has only enough for one last, meager meal before she and her son succumb to starvation. The woman is hopeless, resigned to a ble...

READ: MARK 10:46-52; 1 PETER 2:9 "Mom, look!” The whole drive home from the eye doctor, I kept pointing at the world outside the car window. For the very first time, I could read the billboards over the interstate and make out the vibrant green leaves on the trees. Everything that was once dull and blurry had become bright and detailed. But as the weeks and months went on, my glasses grew smudged...

READ: PSALMS 25:16-20; 28:6-9; 38:1-8; 138:1-8 One of my favorite Bible verses is Psalm 138:8. It says, “Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me. Your loving kindness, Yahweh, endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of your own hands.” This verse is incredibly comforting to me, and it genuinely applies to every aspect of my life. In the psalms David wrote—including Psalm 138—he alludes to God,...

READ: ROMANS 8:18-39; REVELATION 21:1-5 Think of your favorite T-shirt. How long have you had it? How much have you worn it? Is it the same now as it was on the day it was first made? Probably not. Why? Because of something scientists call entropy. Entropy is something we’re all familiar with, even if not by that name. It’s one of the laws of physics that states how, over time, order gives way to...

READ: PSALMS 55:16-18; 57:1-11 I’ve had days when I’ve cried out to God again and again because I cannot face all that is going on in my life without Him. It takes humility to admit that I need Him to get through my life, and that I especially need Him to step in when things aren’t going well. I have had days when I’m at my computer, and I close my eyes and cry out to God. On those same days, I mi...

READ: MATTHEW 6:25-34; 18:1-4; 19:13-15 When I was a young child, I didn’t worry about the future or what I was going to do next. I was focused solely on the present, and I relied completely on my parents to guide me. They prepared my meals, drove me places, and bought me clothes and toys. My complete dependence on my parents created an unavoidable humility within me. I relied on their help and su...

READ: JUDGES 6:1–7:25; ROMANS 5:6; 2 CORINTHIANS 12:8-10 Have you ever made excuses to God? Blamed God when bad things happened? Feared what others would think if you obeyed God’s voice? I have. But so did Gideon, and God worked through Gideon to rescue an entire nation. When the Israelites were oppressed by the Midianites, the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon and called him a “mighty warrior”...

READ: PSALM 139:1-18; 2 CORINTHIANS 5:16-17 Who am I? What is my purpose? Do I matter? If you’ve asked these questions, you’re not alone. When describing ourselves, we often list physical attributes such as age, height, hair color, and ethnicity. Or we may list hobbies, accomplishments, or skills that we are proud of. Perhaps we discuss our family heritage, or other relationships that we look to f...

READ: PSALMS 1:1-3; 92:12-15; ROMANS 4 Arbor Day has come around again, prompting us to take notice of an important part of God’s creation—trees! It’s good to appreciate all the good things trees provide us with, like clean air, food, wood, beauty, and shade. On a trip I took to southern California, I noticed that even in the desert, palm trees can flourish. As their spindly trunks stretch upward,...

READ: PSALM 18:1-2; MATTHEW 7:24-27; 1 JOHN 4:9-10 When my high school sweetheart broke up with me in college, my whole world turned upside down. He had been my everything: my best friend, my anchor, my fortress, my rock. And suddenly it was all gone. I was devastated, lost, and alone. I kept pursuing him in the hopes that we might get back together. I even followed him to a Christian organization...

READ: PSALM 139:1-12; ROMANS 8:26-39; HEBREWS 13:5 My heart beats quickly in my chest, and I feel a bit nauseous. Everything feels out of my control again, and I don’t like it. Moments like this come and drag me to a dark place. I feel uncertain. I feel alone. But as my head starts to clear, as I slowly release the anxiety inside of me, I see that it’s all lies. I am not alone now, and in fact, I...

READ: PSALM 19:1-6; MATTHEW 27:45-54 The sky is one of the most varied and beautiful parts of God’s creation. In the morning you can see soft pinks and yellows amid golden sunlight as the sun rises up. In the afternoon you can see fluffy white clouds sailing. In the first part of the evening there are bold reds, oranges, purples, pinks, and blues while the sun is going down. After the sun has set...

READ: MATTHEW 28:16-20; JOHN 20:19-31; 1 PETER 1:5-9 Doubt can be so sneaky. It could be that our whole lives we feel like we’ve had rock solid faith, and then one day we find ourselves asking, “Is God real?” For anyone experiencing doubt today, this week, or even years from now, I have some great news. God is big enough for you to explore your doubts and questions. If He wasn’t, He wouldn’t be Go...

READ: LUKE 23:50–24:12, 36-48; JOHN 20 The resurrection is vital to the Christian faith. It proves that Jesus is both fully God and fully human. But did Jesus really come back from the dead? Or did someone steal His body? Let’s look at some facts. The Roman soldiers guarded the tomb day and night. Nobody could get past them. Even if they had fallen asleep, a huge rock that took several men to move...

READ: MATTHEW 20:17-19, 28; 27:27-54; JOHN 19:16-37 One of the questions people often ask about Jesus is, “Did He really die? Or did He just pass out and revive later on? Did He fake it so He could get everyone’s attention…and then pretend to rise from the dead?” All good questions. What evidence is there for Jesus’s death? Let’s take a look at what the Bible says. First, Jesus went through extrem...