Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

READ: LUKE 1:26-56 At the time of Jesus’s birth, most Jews would have known the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, including a young virgin from the town of Nazareth named Mary. Then one day, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her that God was going to bring the Messiah into the world…through her. He said, “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus” (Lu...

READ: GENESIS 2:2-3; EXODUS 10:8-10; DEUTERONOMY 5:12-15; HEBREWS 4:9-11 Have you ever felt guilty for resting? I know I have. When my body tells me I need to take a break and slow down, I always try to fight it. This world is fast-paced, and I always feel like I can’t keep up—rest isn’t going to help that, right? Our society values hustle and non-stop work. We’ve all but forgotten rest. But God h...

READ: NUMBERS 24:17, 19; ISAIAH 42:1-4; MICAH 5:2 The world-famous superhero, the Black Panther, was played by Chadwick Boseman. Every day while filming was in progress, I imagine he would get up, eat breakfast, suit up, and step in front of a camera to thrill us as an action hero. Gal Gadot did the same thing as Wonder Woman. And decades before, Christopher Reeve did likewise before he stepped up...

READ: MATTHEW 1:18-25; 28:16-20 Recently, I was looking up verses about Jesus being with us, and I noticed something really cool. In Matthew’s Gospel—his account of Jesus’s life— Matthew includes two pointed statements about how Jesus is with us, and he places one of these right at the beginning of his account and the other right at the end. It seems like Matthew did this on purpose to sort of boo...

READ: JOHN 14:15-31; GALATIANS 5:22-26; PHILIPPIANS 4:4-9 Advent takes place during the four weeks before Christmas, and it’s a time when some Christians prepare to celebrate Jesus’s first coming and look forward to His return. During Advent, many Christians reflect on different themes each week, and one theme is God’s peace. Peace isn’t something we earn. It’s not something we can work to receive...

READ: ROMANS 8:12-17; PHILIPPIANS 2:1-11; COLOSSIANS 1:15-20 Do you have any siblings? And if so, are you the oldest, youngest, or somewhere in the middle? In biblical times, birth order mattered a lot. If you were a firstborn son (sorry daughters) you would inherit the birthright from your father. This could be anything from sheep and property to a kingdom if your father was a king. But even thou...

READ: PSALM 86; 2 CORINTHIANS 1:3-9 Have you had a very bad day recently? The kind of day when you’re late to school or work, forgot your lunch at home, and realized you didn’t turn in an important assignment? Or worse, the kind of day when you get really bad news, and all the sudden your world is turned upside down? Sadly, very bad days are so very common in our broken world. But God sees all the...

READ: PSALM 1:1-3; JEREMIAH 17:7-8; JOHN 7:37-39; 15:4-17 Minutes before sunset was my favorite time of day. I sat on an outcropping of rock, dangling my bare feet above a crystalline spring of water. My home, this floating island in the sky, was level with the setting sun precisely at this time. Golden light skimmed the surface of the water as I splashed my feet in, smiling. Overhead, the wind ru...

READ: EXODUS 29:38-45; MATTHEW 27:45-53; JOHN 19:30 When I’d hear the bell go off in school, I knew that class was done. Because we heard the bell every day, we were conditioned to react to this particular sound. Something similar happened in ancient Israel. Twice a day, a priest would kill a one-year-old lamb. Some scholars say this sacrifice was marked by the blowing of a ram’s horn, or shofar....

READ: PSALMS 32:6-8; 86:1-7; 120:1 Lifeguards are pretty amazing. Even when they’re stationed at a crowded beach or a noisy pool, their eyes and ears are trained to see people in trouble. Before anyone can work as a lifeguard, they have to take a lifesaving course where they learn how to rescue struggling swimmers from the water and perform critical first aid like CPR. When lifeguards are on duty,...

READ: PSALM 116:1-7; MATTHEW 11:28-30 Lord, I need Your help Come I don’t know where else to go Come to me I’m so tired All who are weary This burden is more than I can handle All who are burdened Can You help me? And I will give you rest I want to believe You can I will give you rest I trust You now, take this burden from me I will give you rest I lean on You, my Savior I will give you rest. • El...

READ: PSALM 19:1-6; JOHN 1:1-14; COLOSSIANS 1:15-20 Have you ever gone to an art gallery? For a graphic design class I took this year, I went on a field trip to a large art gallery, and it got me thinking. Art can be difficult to understand at times, especially abstract art! However, as I learned more about art, I began to recognize the works of different artists. It wasn’t just from their names o...

READ: EXODUS 16:4-16; JOHN 6:1-15, 25-59 Where I live, making homemade bread was more of a trend during the earlier days of the pandemic, but I’m a little late to the trend. I’ve started making my own bread more recently, and even though I’m new to the hobby I’m growing to love it more each time I do it. Now, it’s difficult to find store-bought bread I like better than homemade. Sometimes as I mak...

READ: MATTHEW 6:19-34; 22:36-40 What’s your greatest treasure on earth? Maybe it’s a prized collection of vintage postcards, or a beautiful and rare electric guitar, or maybe it’s a sizable bank account. None of these things are wrong or bad—things like these can help us enjoy life and take care of ourselves and our loved ones, which are good pursuits. However, it is wrong to make any earthly trea...

READ: PSALM 104; COLOSSIANS 1:15-23 I love seeing the fall colors as the trees turn in autumn, the white snow that falls to the ground in winter, the new sprouts and flowers that come in spring, and how beautiful the lakes look in summer. All the seasons make it easy to see God’s amazingness in creation. But what about our other senses? We can admire His creation through more than just what we see...

READ: PSALM 102:25-28; HEBREWS 13:5-8 It can be comforting to have something in your life that always stays the same. You might have dinner with your grandparents every weekend, or you might have a pet who meets you at the door every day when you get home from school. No matter what goes on in your life or what causes you stress, knowing that one part of your life is going to be the same no matter...

READ: DEUTERONOMY 30:1-10; JEREMIAH 29:4-19; MATTHEW 28:18-20 Imagine being exiled from your home where you’ve lived all your life and forced to move to a faraway land…for seventy years. Would you panic? Complain? Would you keep your bags packed just in case you’re allowed to go home earlier? In the Bible, God warned His people, the Israelites, that if they turned away from Him by putting their ho...

READ: PSALMS 13:1-6; 23:4 Feeling sad is the worst. It makes me feel helpless, small, and weak. So I try to avoid it. I distract myself, tell myself everything is fine, find something to be angry about instead, or simply ignore it. But one way or another, sadness always comes back—usually stronger than before. So how do we avoid avoiding our sadness? As they say, “The only way out is through.” We...

READ: JOHN 11:1-44; 15:15 As a child, John 11 was one of my favorite Bible passages. I loved listening to the story of Lazarus. Part of it may have been because the town where Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary lived shared my name: Bethany. But the more I heard this story, the more I loved it for other reasons as well. I loved hearing how Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the grave. I loved how...

READ: HEBREWS 10:14-18; JAMES 1:2-7; 1 PETER 1:13-16 Sometimes, we feel like we should be perfect, having no faults and never doing anything wrong. We might read James 1:4, which says, “For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing,” and then throw up our hands in frustration and say, “But I’ve tried lots of times before, and I just can’t do it. I gi...

READ: 1 SAMUEL 16:1-13; LUKE 10:25-37 Just above the sea’s drop off into the cold depths lay the city of Aquis. Turrets of shell and pearl sparkled under the liquid bubble that encased the city, allowing its inhabitants protection and breathable air. Most of the Colo colony had come from above the sea, before the war and fires had burned and destroyed everything they once held dear. The Colo were...

READ: PSALM 139:1-6; ROMANS 8:26-28 Have you ever had to interpret for a toddler? As little ones learn their words, it can be hard for them to get the pronunciations right. Water might become “wawa.” Dog might become “dah.” Potato might become “bay-yo.” And yellow balloon might become “wahyo boon.” Often, a little one needs an interpreter from their household to explain what they’re saying to any...

READ: PSALMS 33:12-22; 78:1-8 You may know that the Wright Brothers invented the first functional airplane, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, and Louis Pasteur developed a process that makes milk safe to drink. A lot of people also know Pasteur developed a vaccine for rabies in humans. But few people know that modern physical therapy was introduced by Sister Elizabeth Kenny, a nurse in...

READ: PSALM 94:17-19; MATTHEW 6:25-34; 11:28-30 There are a lot of anxious and worried people in the world today, but that’s nothing new. People have been worrying for a long time, otherwise the Bible wouldn’t address worry like it does. We’re not the first people to have days when we feel anxious or nights when we lose sleep because we’re worried about what the future might hold. Moses worried th...

READ: PSALMS 32:5; 103:8-14; EPHESIANS 6:10-18; 1 PETER 5:6-11 Are you ever reminded of something bad you did, and just the memory of it makes you feel like you just did it again seconds ago? Sometimes all I remember is the bad stuff. It pops into my mind and hangs out there. I’ve asked God’s forgiveness, and I know I’ve been forgiven, yet I can’t get this stuff out of my mind. I’m reminded of how...