Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

READ: JOHN 16:5-15; COLOSSIANS 1:3-14 The tennis team needed help. A lot of help. They desperately needed more players, and that’s why they asked me to join. I had never even held a tennis racquet before my first practice! Some of the rules of the game came pretty easy. Possessing what I would call an average amount of hand-eye coordination, I was able to pick up the general game play. I understoo...

READ: PSALMS 34:15-19; 139:1-12; 1 PETER 5:6-7 God hears when I talk to Him His ears are always open No matter what I have to say He hears God hears me when it is late at night When I can’t sleep No matter what is on my mind He listens God hears me in the early hours When no one is awake No matter if I talk out loud or silent He hears God hears what is going on He always cares for me No matter wha...

READ: ISAIAH 40:28-31; 41:9-14 We all want to be strong and able to get through the tough things in life without falling apart. You might be someone who prides yourself in your strength, or you might be someone who often feels weak. You might enjoy the challenge of doing hard things, or you might be afraid to face hard things because of how much it tires you out. No matter how strong or weak we ar...

READ: PSALM 46; MATTHEW 14:22-33; HEBREWS 13:8 One of my family’s favorite summer activities is going boating. The water sport we do most often is wake surfing, which is like surfing on the ocean, only behind a boat. The smoother the water, the easier it is. On a trip we took to the lake one day, the water was extremely choppy, making it incredibly difficult to stay on my board behind the boat. It...

READ: LUKE 22:19-20; ACTS 2:42-47; 1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-26 Jesus has a habit of taking something ordinary and making it incredible. Take bread and wine, for example. During Jesus’s life on earth, bread and wine were normal, everyday foods. They would be present at virtually every meal, and people of virtually any income level could afford them. And when Jesus was about to die, He took these ordinar...

READ: MARK 2:13-17; LUKE 19:1-10; ROMANS 3:9-26 “We’ve got churches of Christians. I’d like to see a church of all sinners!” my coworker joked. I stopped and looked at him. He and another coworker laughed. “But…but that’s what a church is,” I tried to say. “That’s…that’s the point.” Neither man is a church go-er. But they both grew up in church and stopped attending as they reached adulthood. Had...

READ: JUDGES 13:2-5, 16:26-30; LUKE 1:26-33; PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11 The story of Samson’s life is really fascinating, and it contains many parallels to the story of Jesus’s life. Let’s take a closer look. In Judges 13, we see God visiting Manoah’s wife through His angel to proclaim to her that she would have a child! The angel also told her what her child’s purpose would be. In this way, Samson’s birt...

READ: PSALM 42; ZEPHANIAH 3:17; HEBREWS 12:2; REVELATION 19:6-9 My twelfth-grade English teacher taught me to love Haiku, a form of poetry that originated in Japan. These short, three-line poems are traditionally drawn from nature, and they’re only seventeen syllables long. He described Haiku as transforming a visual image into a “word snapshot.” For example, after reading Psalm 42, I wrote this H...

READ: PSALMS 63:1-7; MATTHEW 6:19-34; GALATIANS 2:16-21; 2 TIMOTHY 3:10-17 Why are you reading this devotional? I remember being told that if I didn’t do my devotions I would have a bad day. “So, if you want a good day, do your devotions.” I gotta be honest; there were many days I didn’t do my devotions and that day was just fine. There were other days when I did my devotions and the day was terri...

READ: ACTS 1:7-11; 2 PETER 3:1-13 So…where is He? It’s been 2,000 years since Jesus ascended into heaven, promising to return the same way He ascended and to set the world to rights. The church has grown since then, spreading all across the globe, but there has been no sign of Christ. Some say He isn’t coming back, that we misunderstood. “The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom,” they say, “livi...

READ: PSALM 119:25-40; EPHESIANS 1:18-23; HEBREWS 12:1-3 Hebrews 12:1-2 holds some of my favorite words in the Bible: “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” I’ve always loved this idea of fixing our eyes on Jesus. But in our everyday lives, we probably don’t think too much about where we direct our focus. Maybe we sh...

READ: PSALM 34:1-8; MATTHEW 6:25-34; JOHN 14:1-7; PHILIPPIANS 4:4-9 Why do we worry when we know that God loves us? Why do we let our hearts become troubled when we know that Jesus warns us against that very thing? I wish I could say I never have a troubled heart. I wish I could say I easily and naturally surrender my worries to God. But I do worry—many of us do. Why do we deal with worry, fear, a...

READ: 1 JOHN 4:7-12 Maybe you know someone who claimed to love God but hurt you or someone you care about. Maybe you watched in the news as a pastor got arrested for hurting someone or pulling off some big scheme. Maybe you know people who make Christians look really bad. Humans are fallen and sinful, and we don’t always represent God well. And when we see people who claim to know God acting in si...

READ: PHILIPPIANS 3:12-14 I just keep sinning even though I know Jesus—I’ll never get it! Have you ever been frustrated with yourself for sinning? Have you felt like you should be able to get it right, but you just can’t? Lots of us feel this way. Here’s the good news: as Christians, we don’t have to “get” anything. Jesus already did. He got everything right—He never sinned. He is the only One, an...

READ: PSALM 103:11-12; ISAIAH 43:25; MALACHI 3:16-17 Do you ever wonder what you were like when you were a baby? In addition to photos stored on computers, phones, and in albums, some families keep a remembrance book where they keep special details about their children, along with mementos from their growing-up years. A footprint from when they were a month old. A piece of their first baby blanket...

READ: LUKE 18:31-34; 23:26-49; MARK 16:1-8 If I were there Would I just stare As they bound my Savior? If I lived during that time Would I deny That I ever knew Him? If I witnessed all they did to Him  Would I have offered to take it on me  The carrying of the cross? If I watched Him die Would I have cried And been too heartbroken to carry on? If I had heard Him say He’d rise again in three days W...

READ: PSALM 107:1; ROMANS 8:31-39; 2 CORINTHIANS 5:7 I was out of ideas for where to look. Finally, I pulled out my journal, grabbed a pen, and wrote, “Lord, please help me find my grammar textbook.” About a week before, I’d misplaced a schoolbook. I had already been reprimanded about not having the textbook for English class and had borrowed a friend’s book once. I couldn’t keep that up indefinit...

READ: GENESIS 1:6-10, 14-19; PSALM 19:1-2 Have you ever been overwhelmed by the beauty of the sky? Whether it’s the rolling clouds on a summer day, a golden sunset, or the twinkling stars at night, the skies above our heads are beautiful. Artists and painters try to imitate the beauty of the sky, but even their artwork isn’t as awesome as the real thing. God is a master Artist. He has made the wor...

READ: ISAIAH 53:4-11; ROMANS 5:6-11; 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This verse is beautiful and important, but what does it mean? How was Jesus made to “be sin for us”— especially since we know that Jesus never sinned (Hebrews 4:15)? It might help to consider an illust...

READ: PSALMS 36:5; 148:7; EPHESIANS 3:14-21 The ocean makes me nervous. I really don’t like movies where people are lost at sea—especially if they’re stuck on some sort of tiny raft and no one knows how to find them. How awful would that be? The sky, huge above you, could release a storm at any moment. The waves stretch out in every direction, with no end in sight. And you know the water goes down...

READ: PSALM 23 As Ronan neared the end of his journey, he entered the Valley of the Shadow. It was so dark he could barely make out the path. The moon hid behind the clouds, casting weird shadows on the waving grass. Empty moans emanated from the trees that covered the cliffs and encroached on the valley’s winding path. Ronan’s heart thumped, and his knees felt weak. “Shadows can’t hurt anyone,” h...

READ: PSALM 36:7; MATTHEW 6:25-34; 23:37 Life can be so hard sometimes. Maybe you’re facing a challenging situation at school, or your parents are getting a divorce, or you got a scary medical diagnosis. In our world that’s broken by sin, we can quickly get discouraged because of all the messed-up stuff we face. But the good news is, as Christians, we have hope: Whatever we’re facing, Jesus is alw...

READ: GENESIS 3:1-9; ROMANS 8:14-17; 2 CORINTHIANS 6:16-18 Recently, as I was sitting on the porch enjoying the sunshine, I watched my dad start walking down the driveway. I instantly thought of running to catch up with him and join him as he walked. When I walk with my dad, I get to spend time talking with him and just enjoying his presence. In that moment, a thought hit me—this is what a believe...

READ: PSALM 27:10; 139:1-10; HEBREWS 13:5, 8 One thing I’ve learned is that the people who are in our lives at one point in time may not be around later on. As we go through life, we lose some of the people who mean the most to us. We also meet new people and let them into our lives. Sometimes, we bond with friends or family members or mentors who eventually leave our lives or even abandon us. Oth...

READ: ISAIAH 61:10; 1 CORINTHIANS 13:8-12; PHILIPPIANS 1:6 When Jesus comes back, He’s going to make all sin go away. But you might ask, “How is He going to do that exactly? If doing wrong things is the problem and Jesus fixes it, what if someone sins again after that? I mean, I still sin even though I’m a Christian.” If you’ve ever thought about these questions, you’re not alone. All Christians d...