Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

You have done it all, God You created the sky, the earth You saved me when I was still a sinner You have written my name in heaven You have done it all, God You created goats and pigs You made grass and trees You have made beauty on earth You have done it all, God You have fed the hungry You have healed the hurting and sick You have touched the earth You have done it all, God You do something new...

Psalm 23:1 says, The Lord is my shepherd. Did you know you can read this verse many times, and it can reflect something a bit different each time? This happens if you emphasize a different word each time you read the verse. When the word The is emphasized, it highlights how He is THE Lord. He is the One and the Only God. He is the Savior of the world. How amazing is that? When the word Lord is emp...

In the book of Esther, a Jew becomes queen of a gentile (or non-Jewish) nation that stretches from India to Cush (the upper Nile region). This kingdom is headed by King Xerxes. But Esther is not his first queen. The book begins when King Xerxes gives an enormous banquet for all his officials and the people of the land. At the end of the banquet, he commands his queen, Vashti, to come to him so he...

Years back, I shared a house with a friend. This friend had a niece who also lived with us. For some reason, this girl harbored a dislike for me. Whenever something went wrong in the house, she was quick to point out that I was the one responsible when, in fact, I was innocent. This behavior of hers irritated me a lot, and I in turn developed a dislike for her. But this state of affairs didn’t lea...

We live in a culture that’s full of divisiondivision that leads to differences in ideas, differences in politics, and even to war. We hear terms like cultural warfare, cancel culture, and cultural bias. These phrases are interlaced when it comes to decisions about education, voting rights, safety, and health. It can feel like there are more problems than there are solutions. It’s daunting. When I...

Jax! Celine pointed eagerly to her microscope. Come look at this. Jax put down the test tube he was holding and walked over to her. Thanks to the artificial gravity in the station, he could move quickly. Outside, where there were no magnetized floors tugging at the flecks of iron embedded in his uniform and boots, walking would have felt like hopping from one side of a swimming pool to the other....

As Celine peered through the window of her submersible, she could see the edge of Saturn’s rings looming through the gap in the ice above her. I’m approaching the fissure, Jax, she said into her headpiece. Ready to surface. Jax’s voice crackled in response. I see you, Tiger Three. Come on up, Celine. As the submersible emerged through the fissure in the ice, Celine had to shut her eyes tight again...

A big bowl of stew is a comforting food when you’re hungry on a cold day. It’s a great meal to share…unless you put poisonous ingredients in it! If you like strange stories, today’s reading is one of the strangest ones in the Bible. During a famine, a hungry guy finds gourds and throws them in a pot of stew at a meeting of prophets. Unfortunately, the gourds weren’t safe to eat, and the people pan...

It’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to admit that you don’t have the answers. It’s okay to struggle. Just know that God has your back. If you’ve put your trust in Jesus, nothing can separate you from God’s love (Romans 8:38-39). Through all the moments when you feel afraid, He is there. He knows your biggest fears, and He knows the challenges you will face. He has the answers to life’s biggest que...

Have you ever been on the brink of a major transition? New schools, new jobs, new homes, new friendsthese changes can be good, but they can also be painful. People might ask you how you’re feeling, but it can be hard to put those feelings into words. Transitions can be bitter and sweet, all at the same time. My family has a move coming up. We’re not moving far, and we’re moving back to the place I...

Have you ever felt like an outsider because of your faith? Maybe people judge you, or even avoid you, because you are a Christian. Sometimes, it feels like having faith is a burdenespecially when you’re striving to act the right way in the midst of temptations and distractions. It’s hard when others misunderstand you, and even harder when you lose friendships or feel ostracized by people who don’t...

At a young age, I was afraid of God. I grew up being taught that God is perfect and would be angry at me when I commit a sin or break His commandments. I had learned that God, in His anger toward me when I sin, would punish me. And it’s true that, in Scripture, God does sometimes get angry, especially when His people continue to go against His good laws and refuse to turn back to Him. Sin hurts pe...

When life starts to get crazy, sometimes we dart between one task and the next. When you get toward the end of the school year and there is a lot you need to accomplish, or when you’re at work and your shift is about to be done but you haven’t finished everything you need to, you might get stressed and start running around. In trying to complete things more quickly than you usually do, sometimes y...

If you’ve been dating someone for a while and you really like them, you may start asking yourself, Is this love? How do I know? The Bible has tons to say about loves of all kinds, including romantic, friendship, and familial. The Bible also says, God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). Jesus demonstrated God’s amazing love for us by dying on the cross for our sins and rising again so that we can be saved an...

What does it mean when Jesus called Himself the vine? He gave His disciples this picture on the night before He went to the cross, saying, I am the vine; you are the branches (John 15:5). Jesus as the vine is a great metaphor for our relationship to our Savior. Jesus being our vine means that we can draw love and strength from Him, like a branch that is connected to a vine can draw water and nutri...

God knows why things are happening the way they are in our lives and in this world. We can look at everything going on around us and wonder how it’s all going to make sense in the end. We can see bad things taking place and wonder if God might be surprised or if those bad things might mess up His plans. But God is not surprised by anything that happens. Not in your personal life, the country you a...

To be in the shadow of God is everything. This world is a scary place; there are so many rules, expectations, and dangers waiting for us around every bend. It’s more than scaryit’s paralyzing. Like a deer in oncoming headlights, instead of escaping to safety, we might freeze and feel the full impact of the world crashing in. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If you have committed your life to Ch...

I like to feed hummingbirds. As I was researching how to feed them well, I found that many websites say to watch for stragglers at the end of the warm season. This year, we’ve had a couple stragglers. It’s November when I write this, and I am still putting out food and it’s still disappearing. I keep thinking these hummingbirds are lost and one day they’ll wish they were someplace warmer. In Luke...

God created the changing seasons Colored leaves, sunny skies So much autumn beauty I look at it and wonder, how small am I? But God sees me in the beauty I’m not too small for Him He created each unique leaf And in me, a light that will not dim God knows what is best Each season comes and goes He’s with me when it feels fast And I want the spinning of the world to slow His plans are all laid out H...

I’m in my forties, and one thing I wish I’d known when I was a teenager is that it really is true when people say God loves us just as we are. We don’t have to earn His approval. In the book of Isaiah, God was speaking to the Israelites, but He is also speaking to us today through these same words. Isaiah 43:4 says that we are precious and honored in God’s sight, and He loves us. Thankfully, God’s...

READ: JOHN 10:10; ROMANS 15:13; 1 JOHN 5:19 I’m twenty-six years old, and I wish I had known sooner that God wasn’t the maker of my depression. When ninth grade rolled around, I faced depression like I never had before. I didn’t think I could experience such strong and unsettling emotions while being a follower of Jesus. The part that confused me most was where the extreme sadness came from. Not a...

If you ever feel left out or mistreated, if people talk about you instead of talking to you, you are not alone. It can be hard to deal with the pain of rejection or getting less than what is fair, but it can be comforting to know that you have a God who designed you, created you in a special way, and loves you. God knew what He was doing when He made you. He gave you the hair color and texture you...

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved stained glass windows. When sunbeams reach through colored glass and paint the room with rainbows, something inside me stirs. These mosaics of color awaken my heart to wonder. I think beauty draws us closer to the heart of God. Something inside us craves beauty, and if we listen closely enough, we’ll discover a longing for God deep within us. It seems so f...

One of the most enduring tales of all time is the story of a wish granted. Whether it’s the three wishes of a genie’s lamp in “Aladdin,” the ironic twists of “The Monkey’s Paw,” or just a discussion among friends, we love the possibility of getting something we want, a chance to make life better. Money? Fame? A particular skill? Healing? There are too many options to list, which is probably why pe...

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to make an important decision, but you weren’t sure how to go about it? Do you sometimes fear that taking a wrong path would cost youmaybe jeopardizing your happiness or your relationshipsand yet you’re not sure of the right path to take? Often times, we find ourselves in situations where our knowledge and understanding is limited, and we don’t kn...