Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

We fancied ourselves clever, witty explorers roaming the galaxy in search of its most priceless treasures. Our current location was trying our perceptions of ourselves. This planet’s underground network of tunnels was dark, steep, and narrow. Sometimes we had to crawl on our bellies; sometimes ropes around our waists were the only threads dangling us over a plunge into the darkness. We were tired,...

Have you ever wanted to share the good news of Jesus Christ with one of your friends who is hurting? What stops you from doing it? It’s okay to be nervous to share the gospel with someone. But you don’t have to let fear stop you. Jesus is always with you (Matthew 28:19-20). Even though you might be nervous, remember, you have the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you (1 Corinthians 3:16). Y...

Johnson Oatman Jr. admired his father. Johnson Oatman Sr. was a gifted singer at church and an intelligent businessperson. In many ways, Johnson Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps, even working at the family business. But he didn’t have all the same gifts as his father. While he loved music, Johnson Jr. wasn’t quite as good of a singer as his father. But, after several years, Johnson Jr. disco...

Galatians is a letter written by Paul to the churches in Galatia, which was in present-day Turkey. These churches had both Jewish and Gentile (non-Jewish) Christians. Paul, an apostlesomeone sent out by Jesus Christ Himselfwas a messenger to the Gentiles. When Paul found out some Jewish Christians were forcing the Gentile Christians to follow the law of Moses, particularly male circumcision, he wr...

All of us were created for community. God has wired humans to live in godly relationship with one another (Genesis 2:18; Matthew 22:37-40). As believers, having a reliable group of people around us as we grow is very important for our spiritual journeys. When Christ followers come together to grow in God’s Word, encourage one another in their walks with God, and pray for each other as they resist...

Because God physically judges people in the Old Testament, people assume He was angrier back then. But that’s not true. God doesn’t change (James 1:17). Psalm 7:11 says, God is an honest judge. He is angry with the wicked every day. In truth, God rarely did physical judgments in the Old Testament. And people in the Old Testament knew this and decided they were okay with God, even though they kept...

In the 300s, a controversy erupted throughout the church over the doctrine of the Trinity. The Arian sect claimed Jesus was a lesser deitysince He was begotten of God the Father, there must have been a time when He was not in existence. About that time, a young man named Athanasius entered service to Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria. Alexander was a righteous man who combatted Arianism all the...

In Christ, we have a God who offers each day anew, bright with the promise of His love and faithfulness. His mercies never end. They are new every morning, says Jeremiah in the book of Lamentations (chapter 3, verses 22 and 23). In this book, Jeremiah, who is known as the weeping prophet, laments over the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. The kingdom of Judah has gone into exile, and God has u...

“Lord, why? Through sobs, I’ve asked this question many times. I asked it while looking at a baby in her casket. I asked it when a vibrant seventeen-year-old girl from our church died the night after she and my sister graduated from high school. I asked it when an always-healthy childhood friend died of skin cancer at age thirty-three. Again and again, I asked it after my father, a minister, died...

We all know relationships can be tricky. Even we as Christians can struggle to get along. The early church was no different. Paul wrote the book of Philippians to the church at Philippi, who had some people who could not agree with each other. Instead of opening with an in-your-face confrontation about the issue, Paul spends much of his letter encouraging the church. Throughout the letter, Paul ex...

We’ve all seen it: a discussion going quickly from friendly to heated in the comments section. Even other Christians on social media can be rude, quick to argue, and mean-spirited. When someone insults you, is your initial desire to offer a worse insult? Mine frequently is. The world encourages us to lean into selfishness and pride. It encourages us to always put ourselves firstto put down others...

Maybe you’ve heard, You’re so talented in sports, or music, or school, or fill-in- the-blank. We all have our own unique gifts: some may be very obvious, and others may be harder to spot. For example, I am writing this devotion. I never thought that I was any good at writing or that anyone would even want to read what I wrote. Yet I had teachers, friends, and family all saying that I was good at w...

“Breathe.” Emotions shake my entire bodyanger, grief, pain. How could it have ended this way? “Breathe in, breathe out.” He was my everything. My past, present, and future. He was my hope. “Breathe in, breathe out.” It is my fault. I turned my back on Him. I ran away. Now, it hurts to gulp in air. It’s like I’m drowning. This is what I wanted, once upon a time. I wanted to be allowed to do what I...

I was recently helping at a Christian camp for younger girls. One morning, we took a hike along a creek until we ended up at a rope bridge. As I was helping the kids across the bridge, one girl asked me how she could get to the other side of the creek. I motioned to the rope bridge, telling her she just had to walk across. The girl said she didn’t want to cross the bridge. When I explained that th...

Faith. That’s a word I’ve heard a lot lately. I’ve talked about it with my friends in a Bible study. I’ve talked about it in the Sunday school lessons I’ve taught. I’ve thought about it a lot. Faith. What is it? And do I have it? The first thing that comes to my mind when someone asks me, What is faith? is Hebrews 11:1, which says, Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about wh...

Have you ever had a challenging decision to make? In those moments, don’t you wish God would just tell you what He wants you to do? If you have ever felt that way, what you really desire is to know God’s wisdomto know what God wants you to do so you can live your life in a way that honors Him. That is a good desire! In the book of Proverbs, Solomon explains how to seek wisdom. He compares the purs...

How can you share the good news of Jesus in a good way? How can you share your beliefs without sounding too pushy or judgmental? If you struggle with this, think about Jesus and the way He shared His good news. Jesus healed the sick, caring for peoples’ earthly needs to show them He had come (1) to bring forgiveness for sin and (2) to one day destroy sin’s terrible effects, including illness. His...

Noah was a man whose hope was in God. Noah’s neighbors must have thought he’d lost his mind. In the middle of nowhere, he built a huge arka giant boat. They probably laughed at him and called him crazy. After God shut the doors on the ark and the rain fell for many days, Noah needed patience rooted in hope to be cooped up on the ark with his family and to deal with the animals onboard. Even though...

***Today’s devotion tells the story of Acts 3-4 through the eyes of Tobiah, a fictionalized character of the man who was healed.*** Tobiah sat at the temple gate, his legs curled to the side as he begged. He’d prayed for years, yet he still couldn’t walk. Why was God silent? Tobiah ached for an answer. Anything to assure him God cared. Then, he heard about Jesus. They said He could heal those who...

***Jesus came to earth to save us, dwelling with us even while we were His enemies in sin (John 1:1-14; Romans 5:8-10). As Christians, we remember this when we interact with those we disagree with. Today’s devotion shares the story of Roger Williams, a Christian who advocated for religious freedomeven for those he disagreed with.*** “Forced worship stinks in God’s nose. Roger Williams wrote these...

The ring of clashing swords echoed throughout the hall, only to be cut short by the ominous sound of shattering steel. I could see my enemy’s mocking sneer from beneath his helmet. I turned away to retrieve a new sword, my cheeks flushed with shame. It wasn’t the first time this had happened. Over and over, we had fought. And now, just like every other time, just when I thought I might prevail, my...

If you’ve ever been to a funeral, the possibility that the deceased person will suddenly pop up to life again seems ridiculous. And yet that’s what Christians believe about Jesus. It takes a great leap of faith to believe that someone physically diedas dead as could be and then burst the chains of death to live again. But did you know God has given us examples of just that in His creation? The mos...

I get super nervous whenever I talk about politics. My whole body feels like I’m preparing for battle. But Jesus has been helping me view these discussions differently: to see these conversations as opportunities to love my neighbor by practicing empathy, humility, and compassion. He’s shown me there are people who love Him and His Wordpeople who are my brothers and sisters in Christwho fall all o...

What is peace? Is it something to do with Christmas? Is it the end of a war or the lack of fighting? Is it having no worries? Is it the world being happy and working together? Is it an absence of noise and distractions? All of those things could be defined as peace, because there are different kinds of peace. Peace, at its simplest, is being at rEsther The first and most important kind of peace is...

As far as we would like to think we’ve come, injustice still takes place in every corner of our world. We hear the cries of a black man begging to breathe under the knee of a white officer who is supposed to uphold justice, and it breaks our hearts. We read of people being sold into the sex trade, of people dying of hunger, of people being abused by corrupt governments where is the justice for all...