Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

READ: RUTH 2:12; PSALMS 46:1; 57:1

In the summer, she knew God.

Basking under burning sunrises, she knew His warmth. Dreaming in fields of wildflowers, she knew His freedom. Walking through forests while sunlight danced around her, she knew His joy.

She reveled in her God of summer, who breathed life from His lungs and bled beauty from His veins.

But autumn came, and she coul...

READ: 1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-9

When I was in middle school, I made friends with a girl name Mackenzie. We were complete opposites—I was pretty reserved and she was super outgoing—but we were immediate friends. We were in most of the same classes and extracurriculars together, and we hung out a lot. We were besties.

But there was one thing that bothered me in our friendship: Mackenzie wa...

READ: PSALMS 19:1-14; 119:11-16

How many times have you been told to read the Bible? Imagine sitting down in church and hearing the pastor say, “Don’t you dare read the Bible! Unless you’re a church leader, you are unworthy to study God’s Word.” And what if, on top of that, the only copies of the Bible you could find were written in a language you didn’t understand?

That was the wo...

READ: COLOSSIANS 3:1-3, 16-17

Few Christians throughout history have taken Jesus’s call to drop everything and follow Him as literally as St. Francis of Assisi. His faithful service to God was so influential that his way of living is still followed by one order of monks, the Franciscans, almost 800 years after his death.

St. Francis was born in Italy around 1181 AD. The son of a we...

READ: GENESIS 1; MATTHEW 6:26-33

As the trees start to change colors each year, I am in awe of all that God has created. Why did He choose to make the leaves turn different shades of orange, yellow, and red? Why didn’t He just make all of them turn a single color? Why did He choose to make maple trees, oaks, and palm? Why not just make a single type of tree? I think of old-school vide...

READ: LUKE 11:1-13; ROMANS 8:26-27; EPHESIANS 3:14-21

Have you ever tried to pray, but couldn’t seem to find the right words? Perhaps a friend was hurting, or you were going through a difficult season, or maybe you wanted to thank God—but for some reason, you couldn’t figure out how to express what you wanted to say.

Prayer is essential in our walk with God. He calls us to pray at ...

READ: PSALM 139:1-12; MATTHEW 1:23; 28:20

Ava sat in her room all alone. She tried to ignore the voices from the party downstairs.

No one had sent Ava to her room, but the room called to her. She felt too worn out to deal with everyone tonight. Then her dad opened her bedroom door. “Aren’t you going to come downstairs? Your grandpa’s asking about you.”

“I’m tired,” Ava said. “I ...

READ: PSALM 46:10; MATTHEW 11:28-29; PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7

 

Anxiety

A tidal wave

Pain showing through the cracks of my heart

Can’t think, can’t breathe yet breathing too much

Can’t speak, yet speaking incessantly

Grasping for sanity, for peace, for air

My heart pounding like a bass drum

Can’t catch my breath, fix myself, calm these nerves

Yet through the chaos, tears, torrential fear,

He wh...

READ: PSALM 139; MATTHEW 28:20; COLOSSIANS 1:22-23

Every Christian has a different testimony, or story of how they came to put their trust in Jesus. For some people, it could be really dramatic. For others, it may be really simple. Yet God works in each and every person’s life. This is the personal story of how God worked in my life.

My parents were missionaries in Japan, so I grew...

READ: MATTHEW 9:9-13; LUKE 7:34-50; 1 PETER 3:15-16

Have you ever noticed how Jesus often spent time with people who were doing some pretty bad stuff? You may have wondered, “If that’s how Jesus acted, what should I do—especially if I’m supposed to avoid sin?” Sometimes Christians even ask, “Can I be friends with non-Christians?” The answer is, “Of course!” In fact, one of the ways pe...

READ: JOHN 15:9-17; ROMANS 5:6-11; 1 JOHN 4:11

Relationships of any kind—with family or friends—are important to God. From the beginning, God made us to live in community. Shortly after He created Adam, the first human, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him” (Genesis 2:18). So God made Eve, Adam’s wife and the first human fri...

READ: LUKE 22:52-62; JOHN 21:15-19

The man sitting across the table from me makes me uneasy. His failures bear resemblance to mine. Yet, even with his failures, he has been with Jesus. Jesus loved this man.

I eye him suspiciously, wondering if he’s lying about knowing Jesus and being chosen by Him.

“How can I know you’re telling the truth?” I blurt out before I can stop myself. ...

READ: MATTHEW 4:4; 1 PETER 1:22–2:3

Have you ever been hit by a sudden, bizarre craving? It might be in the middle of the night, when all the stores are closed and the pantry is empty, but there’s nothing in the world you want more than…potato chips.

While cravings seem to be more or less random, our bodies feel and function their best when we take care in planning and preparing wh...

READ: ISAIAH 43:1-13; JOHN 10:3-4, 27-30; HEBREWS 12:1-3

Have you ever been in the middle of competing in an intense sporting event, tired and discouraged, when someone called out your name to cheer you on? During my days playing high school soccer, I’d be racing toward the ball, exhausted and ready to quit, then I’d hear a familiar voice call out my name. I could hear it above all th...

READ: HEBREWS 11

Hebrews 11 is full of examples of people who trusted God even when it seemed foolish. Abel burned up some of his best livestock as a sacrifice to God (Genesis 4:1-11). If he hadn’t had faith, it would have seemed like a waste of food or income. Enoch’s deeds are not mentioned specifically, but his faith pleased God, and God “took him away” to be with Him without dying...

READ: PSALM 23

Sometimes when I think about death and dying, it scares me. I know this is the case for a lot of people. I also know that, unless Jesus comes back during our lifetimes, we will all experience death one day. But personally, I don’t want to think about it. However, when I was reading Psalm 23 last night, I was struck by the hope it gives us regarding death, dying, and wha...

READ: MATTHEW 7:24-27; ROMANS 8:35-39

I’ll never forget the first time I saw it: the foreclosure notice tacked to the front door. At fifteen, I was old enough to understand its meaning. The bank was coming to take our house away. I’d experienced enough under its roof to know this outcome was inevitable. We were already living without heat or hot water. Our house was falling into disre...

READ: EPHESIANS 6:10-20; COLOSSIANS 1:9-14; 1 JOHN 1:1–2:2

Miles later, we reached a rocky cliff face. I pressed my back to the rock while tears cascaded down my cheeks. I almost took that fruit. How could I? When was the last time I was this exhausted? Snowdrop gave me a whiskery horse kiss and nudged my satchel.

After wiping horse foam off my face, I took the hint and pulled my f...

READ: JOHN 1:1-18; 1 CORINTHIANS 10:13; EPHESIANS 5:8-20

I am Ashva, knight of the Kingdom of Light! Although weak from my journey, I repeated the truth aloud to bolster my strength. The King had sent me to deliver a message to the bishop of the north. Then I was to travel on to the castle of the nearby rook and await further orders. But the mountain road was long and treacherous. My ...