Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

• What Are You Thinking?

  READ: 1 KINGS 3:5-12; ROMANS 12:2 God did an amazing job when He created humans. Our brains alone are made up of about 86 to 100 billion nerves that communicate in 100 trillion connections, controlling all of the systems in our bodies and allowing us to communicate, think, and reason. But, because our world has been broken by sin, sometimes our brains give us the farthest thing from wisdom. Especially when we get overwhelmed, our thoughts run wild, often telling us things that simply aren’t true—about who we are, who God is, and what’s going on around us. And these thoughts influence our feelings and actions. For example, let’s say you enter a room. Everyone looks at you, then goes back to what they were doing. Wild thoughts might sound like this: “They all just looked at me. Nobody came over to talk to me. They probably hate me. I should just go home.” Then you might go stand in the corner because you think you don’t belong. But if you can capture those negative thoughts, you might be able to see the situation differently: “They all looked at me, but nobody talked to me. They might be just as nervous as I am. But Jesus loves me, and He loves everyone in this room. That table only has two people. I’ll see if I can join them.” Instead of standing in the corner, you choose to engage by showing Jesus’s love to others. So how can we change our wild thoughts? We can’t. Not on our own. We need God’s strength and wisdom, found only in knowing Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:2-3). In 1 Kings 3, Solomon asked the Lord to give him wisdom, and God was pleased. He’s pleased to give us wisdom too (James 1:5). God will greatly increase our wisdom when we read His Word, the Bible, because it shows us who we are in relationship to Him, our Creator. It tells us the good news of how Jesus came to free us from sin and death—and how that wonderful truth affects every area of our lives. Capturing your thoughts to obey Christ can help you over and over as you go through life. Instead of letting your wild thoughts push you around, you can rely on Jesus—the one who died and rose again for you—and tell yourself the truth from God’s Word. • Robyn Mulder • Step 1: Take out a piece of paper and try writing all of your thoughts down for five minutes or so. Read over them and see which ones line up with God’s Word and which ones are just wild, untrue thoughts. • Step 2: In the space below, take each wild thought and rewrite it as a Christ-captured thought. For example, the wild thought, “No one could ever love me” would become, “God loves me more than I can imagine, and He proved that I am lovable when Jesus died on the cross for me.” • Step 3: Find Bible verses that back up each Christ-captured thought (and debunk the wild thoughts). If you get stuck, who is a trusted Christian in your life who could help you? We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NLT)

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• A Love God Delights In

  READ: MICAH 7:18-20; ROMANS 8:31-39 Have you ever wondered if your sin is more than God could forgive? You’re not alone. We’ve all had moments when we’ve felt and seen the darkness in our own hearts and minds and wondered, How could God still love me? Sometimes we might feel as though God only forgives us because Jesus paid for our sin at the cross—so, you know, He kind of has to. But maybe He doesn’t like it. Maybe our sin has made God weary. In the Old Testament, the biblical authors have a favorite Hebrew word to describe God’s love: hesed. Most of our Bible translations translate this word as either “steadfast love,” “mercy,” or “lovingkindness.” The word hesed conveys the idea that God’s love is unfailing. In Micah 7:18, the prophet Micah declares that God delights in steadfast love. Did you catch that? It doesn’t weary God to love us. It’s a source of delight and pleasure for God to love us with His unfailing love! A passage like this frees us to be completely honest with ourselves before God. It allows us to look unflinchingly at the depths of our sin and to go before God with all our wrongs to confess, repent, and cry out for mercy. It allows us to be filled with the sweet confidence that when we do, it brings God delight to respond with His never-failing, never-stopping, steadfast love! • Jonathon Fuller • How can Bible passages like today’s shape our understanding of who God is? • Consider taking a few moments to examine your own heart before the Lord. You don’t have to be afraid to be honest with yourself as you look at your sin. Are there any sins that you feel as though God may not forgive? You can confess all those sins to God, repent (or turn away) from them, and then rest in the knowledge that God delights in forgiving and loving you with His unfailing love! • If you want to dig deeper, read Psalm 18:19; Ephesians 1:5; 5:25; Hebrews 12:2. You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love. Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean! Micah 7:18-19 (NLT) 

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• The Most Diverse Kingdom of All Time

  READ: DEUTERONOMY 10:18-19; 27:19; GALATIANS 3:28; REVELATION 7:9-10 At various times throughout US history, my nation has been shamelessly racist: enslaving African Americans, killing and relegating Native Americans to reservations, interning Asian Americans, etc. And while America has worked to put an end to these horrible practices, today we live in a time that continues those abuses with more subtle prejudices: off-color jokes, fear mongering, and hatred toward immigrants. Sadly, many Christians all around the world fall into these kinds of racial and ethnic stereotypes as well, treating people of different ethnicities with suspicion and cruelty. This behavior is not of God. And it’s nothing new. Ever since the first humans chose sin, we’ve all been struggling with racism in every nation in history. But God loves diversity. He created it! God loves us so much, and He wants to be with us. In fact, Jesus died and rose again to forgive all the sins of those who put their trust in Him, including the sin of racism. He made the way for people of all ethnicities to be saved from sin and death and live with Him forever. At the end of time, the kingdom of God will be the most diverse kingdom ever imagined. Revelation describes it as a group of people who represent every nation, every language, and every people group—from all time— worshipping God together as one. So, no matter what country we live in or came from, we are called to be welcoming to all people. Jesus Himself calls us to share our hope and our faith with “all nations” (Matthew 28:19). In Deuteronomy, arguably one of the stricter Old Testament books, God gave instructions about treating immigrants well, reminding the Israelites that they were refugees once too (how many of our ancestors were as well?). We are commanded by God to love our neighbors as ourselves, which certainly includes those whose ethnicities aren’t the same as ours. And Jesus is always with us, empowering us to see and love others like He does, and offering forgiveness when we fail. So, as we attend school, discuss politics, and ask for prayers in our churches, may we not fall into unseemly jokes, prejudiced behaviors or thought patterns, or fearful talk about those who were born somewhere else. Instead, let’s seek to welcome everyone into a kingdom as diverse as God’s heart. • Abigail Aswegen • Why do you think God created diversity? What can this tell us about what God is like? After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Revelation 7:9 (NIV) 

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• A Great Feast

  READ: PROVERBS 17:1; PHILIPPIANS 4:10-13; 1 TIMOTHY 6:6-19; JAMES 3:13-18 Cheerful colored cloths hung from candlelit windowsills and plump pumpkins crouched like friendly gnomes near doorways. The courtly procession was traveling through a village on the way to the autumnal feast. Around Crispin were other people wearing fine silks walking along to the lilting music of minstrels. Yet he felt anything but joyful. Glancing at his companions, dressed in rich attire but wearing no smiles, Crispin knew they felt the same. They quarreled constantly in court. And when they did get along, it was only because the members pretended to be friends to appease the king. As they would tonight. Sighing, Crispin glanced around at the simple surroundings of the village. Families laughed among makeshift tables spread with harvest dishes as children played with colorful streamers. But what caught his eye was an old man alone on a bench. He held a plate of meager vegetables, yet contentment was evident on his face. Crispin paused, allowing the procession to move ahead. “Excuse me sir, but how can you be glad when such a meal sits on your lap?” The man looked up from his plate and smiled. “Sit down, friend.” Crispin joined him. “Is all this not worth giving thanks for? But even if I was out in the wild, I would still rejoice—because I know the King.” Shifting in his seat, Crispin said, “I know the king and his court, yet our banquet will not be as joyous as yours.” “I am talking of the King of the stars and mountains. The one whose kingdom never ends. Where He is, love and joy overflow, and there is enough to go around whether I am eating vegetables or sitting as a guest at the great autumnal feast.” The man handed Crispin some roasted potato and began telling him the ancient tales about the King with nail-scarred hands and feet. As Crispin ate and listened, he slowly began to smile. “Love,” murmured Crispin. “That is what we are missing, the love of this King…but not for long.” Crispin jumped up and started to leave. Then he stopped and called back to the man. “I must tell the others—thank you for the feast!” • Sophia Bricker • Today’s allegorical story points to Jesus’s kingdom. Because God in flesh let His hands and feet be nailed to a cross, because He bled and died for us, then rose again from the dead, we can be part of that kingdom. Even when we don’t have much, we have everything—because we get to experience the overflowing love and joy that come from knowing Him! And we get to look forward to the day when Jesus will return to raise us to eternal life. Then we will join Him in the greatest feast of all, and we’ll never experience lack again. If you want to dig deeper, read Psalms 34:8; 63:3-5; Mark 10:17-31; John 4:4-14; 10:10; Romans 8:31-39; 2 Corinthians 6:10; Ephesians 1:3–2:10; Hebrews 13:5; 1 Peter 2:1-3; Revelation 19:6-9; 21:1-5. • James 3 says there are two kinds of wisdom. Earthly wisdom is characterized by bitter envy, selfish ambition, disorder, and evil (verse 14-16). Can you think of a time you were in a group of people that felt this way, perhaps like Crispin described the royal court? Can you think of a time you lived according to earthly wisdom? • How does James describe heavenly wisdom in verses 17-18? How does knowing Jesus make it possible for us to live this way? (Hint: read 1 John 4:19) • It was the old man’s contentment that caught Crispin’s attention. And it was through his hospitality— sharing what he had—that Crispin was able to hear the gospel, or good news. How can contentment be a testimony of God’s love? What are simple ways we can offer hospitality using what we have?<...

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• Brothers and Sisters

  READ: NUMBERS 12; MICAH 6:4; HEBREWS 2:10-18 If we’ve put our trust in Jesus, we can know that God is always at work in our lives, forming us to become more and more like Jesus through our relationships and experiences. This is not always an easy process, especially when it comes to family relationships. Your sister can feel like a best friend and ally on Monday, but by Friday you could be at odds. Your brother can have you in a headlock during an argument, but then work seamlessly with you on an important project later that same day. Moses led the people out of slavery in Egypt and gave them God’s word, but he didn’t do it alone. His sister Miriam’s care and cleverness in approaching Pharaoh’s daughter saved Moses’s life as a baby. And his brother Aaron’s willingness to speak to the Israelites on Moses’s behalf made it possible for Moses to participate in God’s magnificent plan to rescue His people. God called Moses to something great, and He gave him siblings to help him carry it out. But much like our relationships with our siblings, these siblings experienced anger, disappointment, and disunity. One of these times is described in Numbers 12, when Aaron and Miriam doubted and complained against Moses. The Lord Himself corrected the two of them and struck Miriam with leprosy as a result. At this point, Moses was faced with a choice: to let Miriam sit in her punishment, and possibly die, or to show love and mercy. Moses chose mercy. He cried out to God on Miriam’s behalf, letting his love for his sister eclipse any desire for revenge he may have felt. This points forward to another Israelite who would love God and show mercy, even when His brothers and sisters betrayed Him unto death. Jesus made the way for us to be spared from the just punishment we deserve by taking our punishment for us. Instead of a death sentence, we receive a welcome into God’s family and a promise that we will live forever with Jesus and our heavenly Father. In God’s family we have a vast array of siblings—all the people who have trusted in Jesus around the world and throughout history. As we rest in Jesus’s merciful love for us, we can extend that same love to our brothers and sisters. • Amber Vanderhoof • How is the love Jesus has for us similar to the love between siblings? How is it different? • If you want to dig deeper, read Exodus 2:1-10, Exodus 4, and Exodus 15:19-21. So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. Hebrews 2:11 (NLT) 

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