Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

I lived in a city of mirrors. As I attempted to amble surreptitiously down the street to my destination, I nervously adjusted my mirrored glasses. Everyone wore them in the city. In fact, removing your glasses bordered on appalling. . Figuring a mocha might jump-start my day, I squeezed in line at a local cafe. The girl in front of me turned, and our mirrored eyes met. The person I saw reflected b...

Sometimes, it’s easy to become intimidated or even jealous of other Christians. “Alondra is so good at teachingwould I be a better Christian if I could teach like she can? Blake always knows how to show mercy to peoplewhy is that so hard for me? Is it bad that I can’t lead people in worship like Jade?” . God has equipped His people in so many different ways, and that’s a good thing. We don’t need...

Until recently, I didn’t realize how often Paul had help writing his letters to the churches in the New Testament. I knew that God inspired and directed Paul to write these letters, but it never occurred to me that he had human help too. And Scripture spells it out clearly for us! . Skim through the first verses in 1 & 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and Philem...

Have you ever had to help a toddler learn a basic task, like putting on shoes or using a fork? While the process can be cute, it can also be long and frustrating. But no matter how challenging the journey might get, when we love little ones, we know that the time spent helping them learn and grow is worth iteven if the process takes lots of twists and turns. . In the Bible, Christians are often ca...

“Ninety-eight, ninety-nine and that makes one hundred, I counted aloud while another volunteer added the total to the app on my phone. My family and I had volunteered to pick up trash surrounding a lake in our community. One of our tasks involved tracking the number of various kinds of items we collected in our clean-up efforts. Even before the end of our shift, my team and I had retrieved over 10...

What are worms good for? Well, they help the earth breathe. As worms burrow through the ground, they let fresh air through the soil. The more they eat and digest the soil, the better it is for growing things. In little details like these, we can see glimpses of how amazing God is. The Creator has intricately woven His creation to work together, all of it bringing honor to Him. . Take the sun as an...

In those Dark Ages before smartphones, streaming, and DVDs, there was VHS, which is what I grew up with. Whenever I wanted to watch my favorite movies, I would pop the VHS (video home system) tape into the VCR (video cassette recorder). . While I may be nostalgic about VHS now, I would always dread when the tape would start to skip and the movie would blur into staticky incoherence. When that happ...

Have you ever prayed and prayed for something to happen, something that you know is good and right, something thatby all logicseems like it should happen and it doesn’t? What then? Well, John the Baptist was in a similar situation. He knew that Jesus was the Messiah. In fact, John was the one who baptized Jesus and saw the Spirit descend on Him like a dove (Matthew 3:13-17; John 1:29-36). But John...

When we see injustice in the world, what should motivate us to act? As Christians, we believe God loves every person. God revealed His love for us on the crossthe place where Jesus gave up His life. Jesus suffered more injustice than anyone, and His self-sacrificing love is what motivates us to show that same love to others. We love because we have been loved first by Jesus. . This is what motivat...

What does treasure mean to you? Is it money you save up? Is it valuables you hide in the rooms and closets of your home or put on display for others to admire? Is it good grades, or likes on a screen? There are lots of things we can treasure. But in Matthew 6:20, Jesus invites us to a different way. He says, Store your treasures in heaven. But what does that mean? . Jesus explains, Don’t store up...

Prayer has never been easy for me. It’s not that I don’t know how to pray, but it takes a lot of discipline for me to stick to praying even when I don’t feel like it. I’ve heard stories of people in the Bible and missionaries who had ground-shaking prayer lives but that’s never happened for me. However, as I pushed through my insecurity about prayer and just started doing it, I found out that I do...

“She must really want this job, I told my roommate. All throughout our dorm, posters promoted a candidate for dorm treasurer who I’ll call Millie. Each time we entered or exited the building we spotted these well-made campaign signs. . Other people were competing for positions on the leadership board of our dormitory, but nobody had plastered as many notices as Millie. I assumed she would serve we...

How could He just storm the gates like that? Do we have a plan? Is the war over? Hundreds of questions attacked from all sides as we stared at the broken gate. This was a fortressno one should have been able to break through. Today we were supposed to revel in our victory! Didn’t we all hear the Savior cry out for the last time? Didn’t we see Him take His last breath? He was dead. So, how could He...

“So, let me get this straight. Petronius glared at the two Roman soldiers sitting across from him. There was a bright light, and you were knocked to the ground, and when you got up, the seal was broken, the two-ton stone was rolled away, and the body was gone? . There was also a roaring sound, Justin added. He glanced over at Lucius, who was staring at the table in silence, still in shock. . A roa...

“Glad that business is over, Lucius said as he tapped the base of his spear against the huge stone in front of the tomb. . Justin nodded in agreement. I just hope it doesn’t cause a revolt or something, he said quietly so the other guards stationed nearby wouldn’t overhear. . Nah, Lucius replied. Did you see how many Jews were at the crucifixion? Yet only a handful of them wept. Most were screamin...

Christianity is based on faith in Jesus and the factual, historical events of His life, death, and resurrection. Because of eyewitness reports, we can know these things really happened in time and space. Without the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christianity would be nothing but fairy tales. It would be nothing more than humanity’s attempt to explain reality. . When Jesus died on the cr...

On Good Friday, many Christians remember how Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Then on Easter Sunday, we celebrate Jesus’s resurrectionhow He rose from the grave, defeating sin and death forever! On Monday, lots of people resume everyday lifegoing back to school, friends, homework, part-time jobs, sportsbut Easter is not the end of the story. . When Jesus died on the cross, His followers were...

Mary Magdalene pressed a hand against her aching heart. “How do I still have tears left in me?” She had been mourning for three days, along with others who were Jesus’s friends, followers, and family, but the realization was still sinking in: he was actually gone. It was dawn on the third day, and Mary couldn’t wrap her mind around ither heart was empty, and so was the tomb. She couldn’t even anoi...

Oh, day of awful darkness when I cried unending tears, the very thing I dreaded most now haunted all my fears. . Where could my lovely child be, my Savior and my Son? Who sought to wrench His life away; what foul thing had He done? . With Peter, James, and brother John, I hid myself away; as all around a cosmic roar defined the wretched day. . I did not know where He had gone; my world was torn ap...

Jesus suffered for us. His death on the cross wasn’t a quick death. He wasn’t alive and healthy and happy one moment and then dead the next. Jesus went through pain. Before He was arrested, He knew what was coming, and He had the power to stop it. But He chose to move forward anyway. In order to save us, He had to struggle. He did it all for us. . Some of us might have had someone in our life sacr...

When was the last time you were afraid? Maybe you’re afraid of bugs, heights, or needles. Maybe you have emotional fears, such as being afraid of loss, pain, or rejection. Everybody is afraid of something. Personally, I have a big fear of needlesI can’t even look at one without getting chills down my spine. Not only am I afraid of needles, but I also have other fears, like losing my family or frie...

Rising prices can be frightening. They make life feel uncertain, like we’re not sure what’s going to happen next. . Maybe your family can’t go on vacation like you always did. Maybe you’re not getting the car you always thought you would have or you’re not sure if you can afford to attend college. Maybe you don’t know if your family will be able to buy groceries or medication this month. . With al...

Daffodils lifted their creamy yellow faces toward the sun, the birds sang in the branches of the flowering magnolia tree, a breeze sent ripples cascading across the otherwise still pond. My friend and I were experiencing year three at our annual retreat, and this place reminded us to direct our focus back on God and be still before Him (Psalm 23:2). . On our second day at the retreat, my friend an...

I was saved at the age of sixteen by Jesus’s death and resurrection, but I remained un-discipled for a few years until I attended a Bible college. My faith grew immensely due to the solid Bible teaching and professors who loved Jesus. However, I felt out of place on campus. Other students would gushingly share stories of how they were saved at the young age of five or seven. I couldn’t relate to t...

Jesus came to this messed-up earth to save us. He wasn’t born to rich people or given a great beginning here on earth. When He was born, He was laid in a mangerwhere the animals eatfor a bed (Luke 2:7-16). . When Jesus was grown-up and started preaching and telling others all kinds of things about the kingdom of God and about who He was, some people respected Him and listened to Him in awe, while...