Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

The last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, can seem brutal, as if God has lost all his patience and love for Israel. Yet this book is very important, as it would be the last direct words the Israelites would hear from God for over four hundred years. The time of Malachi was grim: the Israelites felt abandoned by God. He had promised that His presence would return to Israel when they rebuilt the...

What makes you angry? Lots of things make me angry. Sometimes, I don’t even know why I feel angry, and I try to figure it out. Other times, I do know why, but I don’t think my anger is justified. Either way, I usually end up feeling frustrated and it becomes a whole huge angry mess. What are we supposed to do when we’re angry? One day I was going for a walk outside, and I noticed that I felt angry...

Music and laughter filled the air, but Jamesh’s heart was filled with darkness. He jabbed the shovel into the ground, vigorously ripping up the soil. He runs away for months, Jamesh growled, squandering his inheritance and acting like a pig, while I stay here and work. And when he comes home, Father throws a party! He looked up at the house and glared. Nobody ever threw a party for me. Jamesh grit...

I’m in my fifties, and one thing I wish I’d known about God when I was a teenager is that He understands perfectly what it is like to be popular and to be unpopular. Jesus experienced both during His ministry. When Jesus was feeding people and healing them, crowds hung on His words and followed Him from town to town. Everyone was talking about Jesus. He often had to take off on a boat or head into...

In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I’ve heard of people working on trying to be loving and joyful and faithful because they want to make sure others can see the fruit of the Spirit in them. But this can do more harm than good, because it’s easy to become more focused on how we look...

How do you show someone God loves them? One of the best ways is by serving them. As we look out for others and take care of some of their needs, we can point to the God who cares about them. If we’ve put our trust in Jesus, we’ve tasted God’s love for ourselves, and we know how good it is (1 Peter 2:3). Now we can help others see that they are loved too. When we take time to serve people who are s...

When my two sons were little, I biked all three of us around by pulling them in a small trailer attached to my bicycle. They rode in comfort, safe and shielded from the sun. One afternoon, I pedaled us to the store. After doing our shopping, we started home. But as we were leaving the shopping center, I ran into a curb and tipped my bike over. My children were unharmed, but I fell onto the concret...

Sometimes it feels like everything we do is focused on the future. Many of us spend years in school trying to get good grades, hoping that one day we can get into college. We easily make the mistake of thinking our present lives aren’t meaningful, that we just have to get to the next level in order to be happy or satisfied. Especially for high school students, college sometimes feels like the ulti...

When you were young, who did you go to for comfort? Who was strong enough to hold you and carry you? Who made you feel the safest? Who made every hurt go away? As we grow older, we lose some of the bonds we had when we were younger. We don’t sit on the laps of grandparents or snuggle with aunts and uncles. We might not get the same comfort from those people as we did when we were little. We might...

READ: PSALMS 34:18; 72:14; PROVERBS 11:9; 1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-6 ***Editor’s note: Today’s reading discusses abuse*** During our teenage years, many of us start dating. This is a big step, and while dating can be fun and wholesome, it can also be confusing and damaging. After I experienced several rejections as a teen, I was thrilled when a high school romance came my way. God created all things goo...

It is surprising how we can be so spiritually blind about certain matters. For a long time, there was an area of my life where I was spiritually blind. For years, I acted contrary to the truth of God’s word. As a teenager, I had bias against one particular tribe in my country. I disliked everything about the people of that tribe, their language and customs. Though their language was widely spoken...

Sin can be a scary thing. You don’t have to read the Bible for very long to come across passages where God condemns sin. Even as Christians, we fall into sin again and again, and this can make us feel isolated from God. Is God’s wrath upon us when we have sinned? As our loving Creator, God is the source of all goodness, and sin twists His good design. Sin hurts everything it touches, and God hates...

When darkness covers the sunshine When I start to feel anything but fine When I’m too worried to be still Be my peace If I fall down and struggle to stand again If I fear too much to begin If I am consumed with being like everyone else Be my peace When my life feels out of my control When the future is too difficult to behold When every step feels too hard to take Be my peace When I lie awake at n...

When we exercise regularly, our muscles grow stronger and our whole body becomes healthier. On the other hand, lack of exercise leads to muscle weakness and poor health. It’s like the old saying goes: use it or lose it. In 1 Timothy 4, Paul says that bodily exercise is beneficial, but training in godliness is even more important. Paul cautions Timothy about false teachings and urges him to share t...

Tears fall freely down my face as I stoop to gaze into this hole of death. I came early in the morning because this tomb holds the body of my Lord or did. I let my knees hit the ground at the entrance of the hollowed-out rock, let sobs shake my body. Suddenly, a burning light strikes my swollen eyes. My heart races, and I see two angels standing in front of me. Dear woman, why are you weeping? one...

She was tormented by demons. Mary, a woman of Magdalene or so she had once been called. Now she knew herself by a different name: possessed, enslaved, hopeless. She tried to fight the darkness. Countless times she ran from its grip, but the demons were always faster. “Weak,” they cackled at her efforts. You’re ours now. She was an outcast. Cursed and broken beyond repair. Until He came. “Mary.” He...

The comm link buzzed. Osaka Karaoke? Command Center’s usual check-in code. Sara gave the expected response in a choked whisper, Apple Osaka Karaoke (A-OK). What else could she say? They only checked to make sure she was alive and in her right mind. And if she wasn’twell, there wasn’t much they could do. The buzz sounded again. Grey Falcon, repeat. She cleared her throat and said it louder this tim...

Golden sunsets, late-night campfires, cozy flannel blankets, apple picking, pumpkin spice an excited thrill rushes through my veins when that first gust of autumn sweeps over the prairie, leaving gold and crimson in its wake. I always wonder if artists like me observe creation differently than most. Rather than simply marveling at a job well done, I look at God’s masterpiece and want to know how H...

Lord, my head is full of Your beautiful truths. Knowledge about the gospel, Scriptures, the trinity, the sacraments, salvation, and more are packed into my brain, lovingly placed there by pastors and professors and parents and authors and friends. I marvel at these amazing things. And yet, when these truths make the long trek down from my head to my heart, they too often find the door bolted shut....

Change happens rapidly, in the blink of an eye. Spring, summer, fall, and winter all seem to go so quickly, as time flies by. Nothing seems to stay the same in this world consumed with sin and woe. And life can grow weary to the one who has had to let dreams, plans, and loved ones go. Amid the falling autumn leaves, melting white snow, and fading flowers which wither in time, there is One who rema...

Milestones in our lives, like graduations or birthdays, can stir up wishes for our futures. Excited about a fresh start, we dream about opportunities and make plans. On the other hand, change can also stir up fear. We might feel overwhelmed by what lies ahead. While dreaming about our future and reflecting on our past can be good, they can also make us feel discouraged. Sometimes dwelling on regre...

When I am afraid, the truths of Scripture demonstrate again and again that I can put my trust in God. In the Bible, God gives us many reassurances of His love and faithfulness. When we are stressed and uncertain about where life is going, we can find peace in God. Even when we don’t feel God’s presence, even when our fears are getting the best of us and we feel paralyzed, we can tell God about it....

Why did Jesus have to die? That’s a big question for us today, and I bet it was an even bigger question for Jesus’ disciples when He started talking about His upcoming death and resurrection. They were Jesus’ closest friends, and they didn’t understand what He was saying. Peter really didn’t like to hear Jesus talking about His own death, so he pulled Jesus aside and rebuked Him. But Jesus wouldn’...

READ: MATTHEW 10:17-20; 26-31; HEBREWS 12:2-3 Reading today’s verses, I wonder how I would respond if I were arrested and put on trial for my faith. I hope I would respond like Polycarp—a believer from the second century church. According to church historians, Polycarp was a “second generation” Christian who heard the gospel from the apostle John. He became a leader in the church of Smyrna, which...

Have you ever cleaned up something really grimy? My parents own a used car lot, and when I was growing up, sometimes I would do some cleaning around the shop to earn extra money. The office was never too bad, but the garage? You couldn’t even see the countertop! All you could see was oil, grease, and other gunk that piles up when you’re working on cars. It was so satisfying to wipe away all of tha...