Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens
Unlocked is a daily teen devotional, centered on God’s Word. Each day’s devotion—whether fiction, poetry, or essay—asks the question: How does Jesus and what He did affect today’s topic? With daily devotions read by our hosts, Natalie and Dylan, and questions designed to encourage discussion and a deeper walk with Christ, Unlocked invites teens to both engage with the Bible and to write and submit their own devotional pieces.
Episodes
READ: 1 PETER 1:13–2:3
When I was little, I spent countless afternoons with my brother and cousins raking leaves into enormous piles—and then leaping through them! We always had a blast together—until somebody found the ever-dreaded “prize.” We’d be rolling around, tackling each other, diving in and out, getting lost under the colorfu...
READ: ISAIAH 30:1-22; EPHESIANS 2:8-9; 1 JOHN 1:1–2:2
When you find an area in your life that needs change, is your default reaction to try harder and do better? I’ve often been one to make resolutions—and then suffer from guilt or disappointment when I fall short. As Christians, we even have a tendency to look at the gospel this way. How have we taken...
READ: PSALM 55:22; MATTHEW 11:28-30; JOHN 1:19-20; 1 PETER 5:7
Monique was always considered the “responsible one.” The kind of friend who always checked in on everybody. At home, she was the one who kept the peace among siblings. And at school, she was that student who tried to get everything right. But lately, all that responsibility was starting to take i...
READ: PSALM 23; JOHN 13:35; EPHESIANS 3:14-21; 2 CORINTHIANS 1:1-10
From the moment I sat down across from the young woman on the train, I felt overwhelming waves of sorrow rolling off her. She was perhaps in her late twenties or early thirties, with large blue eyes and blonde hair half-heartedly swept up. Her significant other held her hand tenderly, speaking softly to...
READ: JOB 42; ROMANS 12:15
The book of Job wrestles with a question we’ve been asking for a long time: “Why do we suffer?” While we may rush to answers like “suffering makes us stronger” or “only bad people suffer,” these fall flat when we see a friend in heart-wrenching, life-sucking, can’t-get-out-of-bed anguish. And the...
READ: PSALM 66:19-20; MARK 5:21-43; JAMES 1:19
You know the feeling when you’re having a conversation with someone, and then you notice them looking at their phone while you’re talking? When this happens to me, I’m tempted to stop and ask, “Are you listening to me?” Because I wonder if my words actually matter to them.
READ: JEREMIAH 1:1-9; 11:1-5; 1 TIMOTHY 4:12; 2 TIMOTHY 2:23-26
Jeremiah was a young man when God called him to be a prophet—a messenger to speak to the people on God’s behalf. At that time in Judah, the religious leaders had abandoned God’s Word. As a result, widows, orphans, and immigrants were being taken advantage of—in clear violation of God...
READ: MATTHEW 6:19-21; JOHN 3:16-17; 14:1-4; REVELATION 19:6-9; 21:1-5
Do you like to host parties? Back when I worked in youth ministry, I used to host gatherings at my house frequently. I would spend a day or more preparing—picking my menu, cleaning the house, and writing a lesson with my co-leader. I would set out blankets and pillows. I would get the space hea...
READ: PSALM 139:1-4; ROMANS 5:6-8; 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17
We curate the caption and crop the distraction,
Chasing the applause of a virtual reaction.
We polish the exterior to hide the interior,
Afraid that our true selves are somehow inferior.
But in the quiet, when the screen goes black,
We feel the heavy weight of the perfection we lack.
See, Jesus didn’t come for your highlight reel,
He came for th...
READ: PSALM 77; ROMANS 8:35-39
Have you ever felt abandoned by God?
Psalm 77 records a fervent prayer of Asaph. At the beginning, Asaph searches for and calls out to God, so we’d think everything would turn out okay, right? But then Asaph groans! He remembers the ways God helped him in the past, but he feels agony that he is no lon...
READ: ISAIAH 53:3-4; EPHESIANS 1:3-7; 1 PETER 2:4
When my parents divorced, I moved to a brand-new town at the beginning of fourth grade. After feeling rejected by a parent and leaving my hometown where all my old friends were, it felt good when I made three friends at my new school. But suddenly, one day, none of them wanted to play with me anymore. They didn’t w...
READ: DEUTERONOMY 33:26-29; ISAIAH 40:1-11; JOHN 10:10-11, 27-30
When I was little, my dad had a friend who visited us, named Dennis. Once we took him on a walk through the woods on some family property. My parents probably suggested I change into more suitable shoes, but I wore sandals. Before long, I stepped into a pile of biting fire ants. As the insects swarmed my f...
READ: EXODUS 24:12; 34:6; ROMANS 7:1-22; GALATIANS 3
Kids under ten can be pretty blunt. While listening to the book of Leviticus, a freckled-faced girl commented, “I feel like the God of the Old Testament is so different from the New Testament. He’s sitting on a couch saying, ‘Bring me more grapes! Do this! Don’t do that, or you will be punished...
READ: PSALM 119:105; PROVERBS 6:23; JOHN 1:1-18; EPHESIANS 5:1-20
Once, when I was about fifteen, I was in the woods late at night with my scouting group. We turned our flashlights off to practice stealthy forest maneuvers—just to see if we could make it back to camp without a light. We decided that one of us would be the leader. The girl in front (she claimed to ...
READ: JOHN 4:24; GALATIANS 3:26-29; REVELATION 7:9-10
Richard Allen was born into slavery in 1760. As an adult, he put his trust in Jesus. He then asked his non-Christian slaveholder to invite preachers to come speak in their home, and he agreed. One of these sermons convicted Richard Allen’s slaveholder that slavery was wrong. So, he invited Allen to buy his free...
READ: MATTHEW 1:23; EPHESIANS 2:8-9; COLOSSIANS 1:12-22; HEBREWS 12:2
A few days ago, Keera had been told of the beautiful Golden City where there were no tears. So she had left her home, her family, everything, to seek it out. But when she arrived, she was dismayed to find it was at the top of a huge cliffside. She could just see a bit of light at the peak. Finally, af...
READ: PSALM 139:23-24; ROMANS 8:15, 28-39; PHILIPPIANS 4:4-9; HEBREWS 13:5-6
Exactly one month after receiving my driver’s license, I got into a car accident. Though I was thankful to walk away without serious injuries, this event shook me. I had never been in such a dangerous situation before, especially one in which I was at fault. It took six months to find the...
READ: PSALM 139:1-4, 23-24; JEREMIAH 23:23-24; 31:3; HEBREWS 4:12-13
As she related her story, my eyes widened. Our friends laughed. And she congratulated herself. This girl, who I’ll call Kelly, had just told us about a trip to the mall. It sounded like she was describing an adventure as she explained how she tried on a swimsuit in the dressing room of a store. O...
READ: PSALMS 92:1-2; 150:1-6; EPHESIANS 5:18-20; 1 THESSALONIANS 5:11
It’s easy to be thankful when we really like the gift. Maybe someone gave you just what you wanted, or maybe school is amazing this year—your friends are awesome, classes are great, and learning has been coming easily. In those times, it feels natural to be thankful. But when life hands us...
READ: 2 THESSALONIANS 1:1-3, 11-12
Do you share your friends with God? You’re probably wondering what that means. You might even think it’s a typo and should read, “Do you share God with your friends?”
While it is important to share Jesus with our friends by telling them about Him, it’s just as important to ...
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