Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

READ: JOHN 10:27-30; ROMANS 8:31-39 My favorite baseball team made it to the playoffs one fall, and I was excited to watch the first playoff game with my brother and sister. We were preparing food ahead of time so we wouldn’t have to worry about it during the game, but as I was working in the kitchen my finger slipped—and before I knew it I had a bad cut. I went from excitedly preparing food to cr...

READ: MATTHEW 28:1-10; LUKE 24:1-12; JOHN 20:1-18 Elena didn’t have time to walk all the way around the quarry. She had dinner plans with friends. Ever since Rosa had said the mines would re-open, the town had been chaos. Finally, after weeks of debating whether Rosa had actually found the gold nugget, then a few more weeks of arguing if she had actually heard a voice, the mayor finally decided to...

READ: MATTHEW 1:18-25; LUKE 1:26-38 As Rosa walked toward town to meet up with her fiancé Antonio, she was passing by the old mines when something shiny caught her eye amidst the rocks and tumbleweeds. She was leaning down to look when suddenly a voice from above rumbled, “Go and take this gold. It is a gift for you and a promise of more to come. I will restore this town and bring it out of povert...

READ: MATTHEW 5:13-16; PHILIPPIANS 2:13; COLOSSIANS 4:2-6 You’re groggy this morning, and you walk barefoot to the kitchen in that foggy, sleepy state. Once you arrive in the kitchen, you mindlessly and wordlessly prepare your oatmeal. Soon you sit down at the table and have the first taste of your handiwork. Ugh. So bland. You add more sugar and try again. Still frown-worthy. You add still more s...

READ: PROVERBS 18:24; ISAIAH 43:1-2; JOHN 15:15 Do you have a younger sibling? Do they sometimes follow you everywhere and mimic your every move? This can get pretty annoying, but did you know Jesus is kind of like that? He doesn’t annoy you or mimic you, but He is with you wherever you go. Proverbs 18:24 says, “there is a friend who stays closer than a brother.” When Jesus came and lived among us...

READ: PSALM 139; ISAIAH 41:10, 13 My life has taken me Down twisting and turning paths Like a pretzel I have never had it easy My path has never been a straight line Through every question and every fear Through every change in my course I have felt You with me I have leaned on Your guidance I have known I am not alone My life has made me wonder And question where I’m going The rocky paths They’ve...

READ: LUKE 11:1-13; HEBREWS 4:14-16; JAMES 5:13-16 Have you ever wanted to help someone who was struggling, but you didn’t know what to do? There is always something you can do, even when you feel like you have nothing to give. When you have nothing else, you can still do the most important thing, and that is to pray. When a friend or family member is going through a difficult situation and you ar...

READ: JOSHUA 1:9; PSALM 96:11-12; ECCLESIASTES 3:1-8; 1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18 What’s your favorite season? I don’t know if I have one; I always have trouble answering that question. There are things to love—and not love—about every season. In winter I love the snow, the beauty of the world just being covered with a blanket of white. The cold certainly isn’t my favorite thing though. In spring watc...

READ: DEUTERONOMY 6:4-9; PSALM 1:1-2; MATTHEW 22:36-40 I recently accepted a job working in the office of my local fire department. This was something I never expected to do. I had very little knowledge about how fire departments even worked. But the fire chief knew this when he proposed the plan for me to take over some of his responsibilities. He knew it would be a long journey, but he offered t...

READ: GENESIS 2:1-3; EXODUS 20:8-11; MATTHEW 11:28–12:13; MARK 6:27-32 The other day, I heard someone say, “Rest is productive,” and I flinched a little. That can’t be, can it? Resting is the opposite of being productive, right? Sometimes I struggle with feeling guilty when I rest or take a break. Or I’ll remember how productive I was in the past and think I’ll never compare to that now with all t...

READ: PSALM 139:6-12; EPHESIANS 3:14-21 We try to comprehend a lot of things in life. And the fact is, God created us with the ability to learn. Knowledge and discovery are gifts from Him. He invites us to explore this vast universe He has made, and He calls us to dig deep into Scripture so that we can understand more and more about who Jesus is and what it means to live in relationship with Him....

READ: ROMANS 12:1-11; EPHESIANS 2:8-10; 1 JOHN 4:19 Have you ever found yourself playing the comparison game? When we look around us and see what everyone else can do, it’s easy to try to figure out if we’re better or worse at certain things than others. Maybe your friend Blake is better at soccer than you are, so you might try to make yourself feel better by comparing yourself to Skye, who is a w...

READ: JOHN 3:14-18; 14:5-10; ROMANS 3:21-27 I jumped when the solid oak door slammed behind me, its banging echoing through the empty chamber. The dust from the floor blew up into my nose, and I coughed, the nervous pit in my stomach growing even tighter. Just one shot…one shot… I repeated to myself as I looked up to see the fabled target, glaring down at me from its perch on the wall. One day eve...

READ: ISAIAH 61:1-3; 64:6-8; 2 CORINTHIANS 4:6-10 Have you ever heard of the Japanese artform called Kintsugi? The word means “golden joinery” or “golden repair.” The art is created when a treasured ceramic, like a clay bowl, is broken. Instead of throwing away the old pieces and making a new ceramic altogether, the artist takes the broken pieces and mends them together by mixing lacquer with powd...

READ: PSALM 119:34; PROVERBS 1:1-7; ACTS 17:10-12; EPHESIANS 1:15-23 As we grow in our faith, it’s good to ask questions. Questions help us dive deeper into the Bible and learn more about God and how He reveals Himself in Jesus. God loves it when we bring our questions to Him. And it’s rewarding to pursue answers that help us live out our faith with wisdom and share the gospel (or good news) with...

READ: 2 CORINTHIANS 1:18-22; GALATIANS 6:2-5; HEBREWS 10:19-25 On the way home from a road trip, I peered out the window of our minivan and noticed a slogan that said, “Helping the World Keep Promises.” This bold statement emblazoned on the side of a truck advertised the company’s reliability.* I assumed they wanted customers to know they would deliver their cargo on time, every time. We DO need h...

READ: DEUTERONOMY 8:2-18; PSALM 13; MATTHEW 11:28-30 What are deserts? Many people think of places like the Sahara—rolling dunes of hot sand with no signs of life. Some consider parts of the Arctic to be a desert. It makes sense—rolling dunes of snow with no signs of life. In either case, deserts are big, empty, and hostile. Do you ever feel like you’re living in a desert? I do. Sometimes the seas...

READ: JOHN 17 How amazing is it to think that Jesus took time to pray for His followers, including us? In John 17, we read Jesus’s prayer—a conversation between Jesus, who is God the Son, and His Father in heaven. Jesus knew that He was going to the cross in a matter of hours, that He would die, rise again, and then ascend into heaven while His followers stayed on earth. He knew they would have st...

READ: PSALM 34:1-8; JOHN 1:35-51 John 1 is one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. Twice in this single passage, we hear the words, “Come and see.” First, the words are spoken by Jesus Himself. John the Baptist is with two of his disciples, and when Jesus passes by, John can’t keep the excitement to himself. “Look!” he tells them. “There is the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36). The two disciples immedi...

READ: MATTHEW 5:38-42; MARK 15:33-37; PHILIPPIANS 2:1-11 I was reading about different ways Christians have prayed throughout history, and I came across something that struck me. Christians in the early church used several different poses to pray, and each pose was connected to a different type of prayer: lying face-down on the ground was often connected with repentance, standing was associated wi...

READ: MATTHEW 13:44-45; PHILIPPIANS 3:7-21 The luxury car went first. Then the jeep. Then the convertible was sold too. Neighbors scratched their heads, and whispers started running through the neighborhood. Lawsuits? Debts? Drugs? No one knew. All the designer clothes went next. And the shoes. Instead of high-end heels, she was seen walking around town in dirty old sneakers, and her shirts and je...

READ: JOB 2:11-13; 2 CORINTHIANS 1:3-7; 1 PETER 1:3-9 Have you ever tried to cheer someone up, only to accidentally make them more upset? I’ve had times when I wanted to help someone who wasn’t doing well mentally or physically, but when I tried to say something, I felt like I only made the situation worse. Proverbs 27:14 says, “If anyone loudly blesses their neighbor early in the morning, it will...

READ: ACTS 9:1-31; COLOSSIANS 1:9-14 That person will never change. I just know they won’t. Have you ever had this thought? Sometimes, there are certain people in our lives who seem unchangeable, like they’ve just always been the way they are. They might be angry, mean, or just apathetic. We may long for them to be different, but it can be hard to believe that there’s actually any chance they’ll c...

READ: PSALMS 9:7-10; 33:4-5; MICAH 6:8 He almost made it. My friend Cliff had almost sat all the way down in his desk when the tardy bell rang. But still, our ninth-grade civics teacher counted my friend late, and this carried a punishment: a 1000-word essay due the next day. Like most of us in the class, Cliff had arrived well before the late bell rang. He’d sat in his desk and pulled out his boo...

READ: 1 CORINTHIANS 3:5-9; 2 PETER 3:9; 1 JOHN 4:19 Have you ever worked behind the scenes in a theater production? Much of the work that goes into making a show great—designing the set, moving set pieces during the performance, timing special effects, running the sound systems, doing cast members’ makeup and hair, etc.—is not seen or noticed by the audience. All the audience sees is the successfu...