Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

READ: PSALMS 36:7; 94:18; 143:8-12; ISAIAH 54:10 Unfailing love… We sin and sin again. We mess up and try to put the blame on someone or something other than ourselves. We fail to help the hurting. We fail to take our eyes off our own needs and see the needs around us. We don’t do what God calls us to do, but… Unfailing love… Our sin separated us from God, but He wanted to draw us near. Our God ga...

READ: MATTHEW 4:1-11; 1 CORINTHIANS 10:13; HEBREWS 4:14-16 How can we resist temptation? As Christians, when we encounter something we know Jesus wouldn’t want us to do, we have a choice. Will we give in to the temptation? Or will we trust Jesus to empower us to do the right thing? Sometimes, trusting Jesus is easier said than done. But it can help to remember why Jesus can be trusted. Jesus is fu...

READ: ROMANS 8:28; 1 CORINTHIANS 13:12; REVELATION 21:1-5 It might seem odd, but I often think of kittens when I consider a very hard question: “Where is God with all the hurt going on?” It’s a question I ask a lot, especially since my husband is a news reporter, so I often get a front-row seat to the heartbreaking and scary things happening in the world. But that’s where kittens come in. When the...

READ: JOHN 1:14; 3:16-17; COLOSSIANS 1:12-14 I think being a professional kitten rescuer might be one of the cutest jobs in existence. But the practical realities of the job are anything but cute.  When a rescuer receives foster kittens into their home, these tiny rescue kittens need lots of attention, and the care they need is often pretty gross, including special flea baths. Even after the fleas...

READ: EPHESIANS 1:3-14 We don’t always fully agree with everyone who shares our faith in Jesus Christ. Some people might judge us, and we might fall into judging them too. The decisions that we make don’t always line up with what others think is right, and we are going to see other Christians doing things that we would never do. However, no matter what our differences are, our belief in the death...

READ: 1 CORINTHIANS 9:19-23; PHILIPPIANS 2:5-8 I sat down at a table lavishly spread with traditional Romanian foods. And that was the day I began eating meat again. Years ago, at age sixteen, my best friend and I ordered steak sandwiches while on a school trip. Our meals arrived undercooked. Even though the staff remedied the problem, we decided afterwards to try being vegetarians for a week. We...

READ: PSALMS 9:10; 63:1-8; ACTS 17:27 When I search for You  You’re not hard to find  When I need a friend You are always kind When I ask for help You are always there Whenever I’m in a mess You still show me You care When others do me harm You hold and comfort me In the times I feel alone By my side, You’ll be When I need my Savior I simply call to You You always come to me And help me with all I...

READ: JOHN 14:18; REVELATION 21:1-5; 22:20 One semester, while my friend was taking a seminary class on Tuesday mornings, I’d watch her two-year-old daughter. These mornings were typically filled with coloring, reading books, eating snacks, and other fun things my friend’s daughter and I enjoyed doing together. One morning though, this dear little toddler was really missing her mom. As we played a...

READ: MATTHEW 20:1-16; 2 CORINTHIANS 9:6-15 Veena had to hold herself back from running to the fruit stand. She’d finished her first week on the job—pulling weeds from the pine-melon fields—and now after a long week, she’d saved enough money to buy one of her own. The deep green melons shone in the morning sun, each one perfectly ripe. It would make the perfect breakfast. Veena carefully looked ov...

READ: JOHN 1:18; ROMANS 12:19; REVELATION 21:3-4 Do you have a favorite place to think or pray? I do. Most mornings I grab my coffee and head to the back porch. There, I meet with God in prayer, asking to be led by His Spirit and asking for grace to face the day. This is one way He brings me comfort. Along with prayer, Scripture reveals other ways we can know Christ’s comfort. First, we have God’s...

READ: JOHN 16:33; ROMANS 8:17-39; 1 PETER 1:6-7 I once saw a bowling team that called themselves, “It’s All Good.” Wouldn’t it be awesome if the saying “it’s all good” were true? Sadly, troubles abound on earth. But even as we acknowledge these troubles, let’s also explore a promise that offers real hope for truly good endings. In Romans 8:28, Paul plainly states that “God causes everything to wor...

READ: PSALMS 73:28; 119:67-71; 2 CORINTHIANS 1:4-7; HEBREWS 12:5-12 Let’s continue our study on suffering. Suffering exists because God’s good world has been broken by sin. Today, we’ll talk about how, for believers, suffering has significance—or meaning—for our lives, both in the present and for eternity. Scripture reveals this in a couple of ways. First, the apostles (people who walked with Jesu...

READ: PHILIPPIANS 4:6-8, HEBREWS 4:14-16; 1 PETER 5:7 When I was thirteen, I attended my first church camp. I experienced life-changing things, like when I encountered 1 Peter 5:7, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” I’d never noticed this verse before, but that week 1 Peter 5:7 sank into my soul. Because, like most teens, I had worries and cares! Problem was—exactly...

READ: ISAIAH 53:2-6; ROMANS 8:17-39; REVELATION 21:3-4 At age seventeen, Joni Eareckson Tada awoke after a diving accident—paralyzed from the shoulders down. Thus began her new life—from a wheelchair. Over time, Joni became known for her contagious joy and her compassionate ministry to others. As a teen, Joni’s story made me think hard about suffering. Should tragedy strike, how would I react? Whe...

Why do we do kind things for other people? If we really examine our motives,/is it so we’ll win points with them and make them like us? Or do we think doing good deeds will win us points with God?.In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul is writing to the Christians in Corinth, and he says: no matter how much good we do, if we don’t have love in our hearts, our good deeds just sound like an annoying, ever-clangi...

When you start worrying about things happening in your life or in the world around you, look at the stars..If it isn’t dark out and you can’t see the stars,/then look at the wildflowers..If it’s too cold for wildflowers, then look at the snowflakes that fall from the sky..There are endless stars in the sky, too many to count. The wildflowers are so vibrant and vast; you could never pick them all....

When you were little, did you ever dress up as royaltymaking paper crowns, walking around in old fancy clothes from a dress-upbin, or sitting on imaginary thrones and bossing around the people of your pretend kingdom?.While the imaginary kingdoms of our youth weren’t real, as Christians, we can know that we belong to God’s very real kingdom. When we trust in Jesus as our Savior, we can know that G...

Wind colder than the day before swarmed into the shallow mountain cavern/and bit at the exposed skin on the back of Mior’s neck that she hadn’t been/able to cover with her cloak. She shivered, readjusted the cloak, then clasped her/hands together to finish her prayer..Footsteps scratched the rock at the entrance. The stench of a Karith swelled into/the cavern. Mior froze, cold sweat dripping down...

Do you know the story of Paul? He was not a good guy when he was young, and he went by the name Saul. He had Christians arrested. In Acts 7:548:2, we see how Saul stood by in support while Stephen was being stoned to death. Saul had plans to do all kinds of bad things to the Christian people of his day. But God had other plans for him..When Saul was on the road to Damascus, a bright light shone al...

One of my favorite parts of our family vacations at the beach was boogieboarding. My sister and I picked out boogieboards with colorful designs at the store, packing them into the car loaded with our luggage. Every summer, we looked forward to bringing those boards with us on our ocean getaways, the promise of another exciting adventure on the horizon..Upon arriving at the beach, however, the tal...

I struggle with making decisions. I have some perfectionistic tendencies, so I spend too much time thinking about choices that don’t matter much in the long run. And in the past, I’ve let myself sit in these decisions for far too long, going back and forth and seeking out every expert, trying to pick the absolute right thing.  .But one thing God has been teaching me lately is that when we make th...

Let my life, here, nowBe about You, let me follow. Let my future, each step, decision Be about You, not my own opinion. Let the air I breathe, filling me Be air from You, fresh and free. Let my heart, my plansBe about You, in Your hands. Let my goals, my dreams, my reason Be what You want for this season. Let my hurt, my misery, my pain Be healed by You as You sustain. Let my contacts, my family,...

We’ve all been hurt by others. Sometimes, it’s a family member or a friend. Sometimes, it’s a stranger. When we are hurt, it can be hard to know how to react. As we deal with our pain, there are some things that can be helpful to do and some that can cause more harm. Avoid lashing out in response. Try not to do something in anger that you will regret later. It’s normal to want to repay someone by...

I am writing this from La Presa, a small town in Atenas, Costa Rica. There are mangos, star fruits, and bananas scattered across the lawn. Toucans are perched in the trees, and iguanas are sunbathing on the roof. It rains every daya beautiful, cooling rain. We’re surrounded by mountains and tropical rainforests. There’s no air-conditioning and no hot water, but somehow everything feels incredibly...

What school subject do you like the least? Even though I love to write, I always loathed English classespecially grammar. Diagraming sentences, parts of speech, verb tenses it wasn’t my thing. So imagine my surprise when I realized that what I had learned about grammar could help me study the Bible. . Take Ephesians 5:18 for example: be filled with the Holy Spirit. This verse is telling us to subm...