Daily Devotional

That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe. – 1 Timothy 4:10 (NIV)

Think for a minute what your hope is in? Is it getting a scholarship to a good college? Is it finding a relationship with someone? What thing in your life is stopping your happiness? What thing do you feel needs to change so that you can really begin enjoying life?

Your answers to questions like those are important. They show you where you’re basing your happiness. Often, we place our happiness in having a relationship or looking forward to something in the future. The problem with putting all our happiness in those things is that things can happen.

Circumstances could change and you might not get the scholarship you were working toward. You might not end up finding that right relationship. What then? If all your happiness is tied up in events or relationships at some point you’re going to be let down.

Instead, consider focusing your happiness on something that doesn’t change, Jesus. Let Jesus be the source of your joy on a daily basis. Choose to be happy each day regardless of the circumstances around you. You can’t always control your circumstances, but you can choose to be happy. So decide to place your hope in Jesus.

Today’s Truth: Put Your Hope in Jesus

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. – Luke 9:23 (NIV)

Hopefully, you’ve been having some fun this summer. From sporting events to spending some time in the sun, or at the pool, summer can be a fun time.

While you’re having fun, make sure you take some time this summer to develop your relationship with Jesus. Summer is a great time to do that. You have some more time while you’re not in your classes, and you can spend some of that extra time getting to know Jesus better.

It can be tempting to just enjoy a little more TV, or social media time, however, spending all our free time on those things can often keep you from spending time reading your Bible or in prayer.

Part of being a disciple of Jesus involves us denying ourselves by not watching that extra movie, and following Jesus by spending time in the Word. This summer, challenge yourself to not only relax and enjoy but to spend some time learning to become a disciple of Jesus and growing in your walk with God.

Today’s Truth: Choose to become a disciple this summer and challenge yourself to spend time in God’s Word.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. – Romans 3:23 (NLT)

We can often get caught up in the busyness of life that we don’t take time to recall all the good things Jesus has done for us. Being thankful and realizing the goodness of God is really important for us, and brings us joy and fulfillment.

Today’s Bible verse reminds us that we all have sinned. We’ve all lied. Each of us has done things that are not right and those sins cause us to fall short of God’s standard.

And as hard as we try to do good and be right, we can’t in our own strength. Continually we mess up and need God’s forgiveness.

That’s why knowing Jesus is so amazing. Because we couldn’t live good enough lives. We couldn’t do enough good to meet God’s standard. We deserved hell but got grace. That’s the goodness of God. It met us where we were when we least deserved it.

So today, take some time out of your busy life to thank God. Realize that you didn’t deserve what God gave you and thank Him today for His goodness in reaching out to you!

Today’s Truth: The goodness of God meets us where we least deserve it.

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ – Phil 3:8 (NIV)

As a teenager, you probably love the idea of being in charge. If you’re like most teens, you’re excited for the day when you’re an adult and you get to call all the shots in your life.

Even if you don’t get to call all the shots in your day-to-day life, in your relationship with God, you are in charge.

Today’s Truth: You are the only person who determines how well you know Jesus.

Your relationship with God isn’t based on your parent’s faith or relationship with God. Rather, you’ve got to choose to have a deep and meaningful relationship with Him.

And you’re in charge of that! You get to choose how well you know Jesus. The good news is that nothing is stopping you from getting to know Him more.

So don’t wait until you’re older. Instead, choose to follow Jesus today. Get into God’s word and learn how much He loves you and desires a relationship with you.

Who can hide in secret places
    so that I cannot see them?”
declares the Lord.
    “Do not I fill heaven and earth?”
declares the Lord. – Jeremiah 23:24 (NIV)

God is always there. There’s no place too far away from Him. There is No place where you can go that He doesn’t care and see you. God loves you, cares about you, and wants to help you through whatever it is that you face.

Right now, it might feel like you’re going through the most difficult thing you’ve ever faced. It might cause you to wonder if God is really there, or if He cares. The truth is, He’s there. He sees your pain, He sees you and loves you. He wants to sit with you in the middle of your storm.

That’s the God we serve. He’s not a God who is far away from us and hoping that one day we figure it all out on our own. No, He’s right there, ready to lead the way, show us what to do, give us wisdom on how to make our situation better and comfort us in the midst of whatever we go through.

Today’s Truth: No matter where you are, God is right there.

So today, encourage yourself that God sees you where you are. He loves you and wants nothing more than to be your help through to the other side.

We’d like to give a big thanks to Lucas Beron for creating the image for today’s devotion. If you like his designs, you can see more of his work by following him at @yosigonmd. He’s also written several devotions for us in the past: How to Live Fear-Free During Coronavirus and Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Psalm 4:8.

Have you ever known someone who tried to make salvation a really difficult thing? Maybe they thought they had to be really good to get saved, so they worked really hard for salvation. Perhaps you know someone who doesn’t even realize that heaven and hell are real, so the idea of salvation doesn’t make much sense to them either.

Here’s the thing, the Bible tells us that it’s faith in Jesus that saves us. When we believe in Him, believe that He was raised from the dead, and His life was the payment in full for our sin, and speak it out, that’s when we’re saved.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. – Romans 10:9 (NIV)

Salvation isn’t difficult to obtain, but it can feel difficult because it’s so easy. It’s easier to not think about eternity and never make a decision for Jesus. It’s easier to try to do lots of good work to earn your salvation.

The Bible shows us, however, that we can’t do enough good to earn heaven. We needed Jesus. And that’s why Jesus came to the earth. To help us in our weaknesses. He did what we couldn’t do.

Today’s Truth: Jesus Did What We Couldn’t Do – He Made us Right With God.

So today, first make sure that you have made a personal decision to follow Jesus. Next, believe that His sacrifice on the cross was sufficient payment for your sin. Then determine to make sure that the people you come into contact with know that too. There are people all around you that might not know that Jesus paid the price so they don’t have to spend eternity separated from Him.

This summer, we’ve been going through some scriptures that show us our need for Jesus. It’s easy in our world to think that as long as we’re pretty good, there’s nothing to worry about. However, that’s not what the Bible teaches us. We see in today’s verse that the wages or payment for sin is death.

Death is what we deserve as sinners. However, I’m so thankful that God doesn’t give me what I deserve or what I’ve earned. Instead, He extends His grace and His mercy. God chose to give us eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 6:23 (NLT)

We don’t deserve it, but God saw fit to give us eternal life in Jesus. That’s good news. The gospel isn’t about following rules or doing enough. It’s about how we could never do enough, and instead, we need to fall at the feet of Jesus and accept His love and mercy. It’s through Jesus only that we find eternal life.

Today’s Truth: The Gospel isn’t about following rules, it’s about falling at the feet of Jesus and accepting His love and mercy.

No other religion can offer what Jesus can. Only Jesus can make you truly free and allow you to experience eternal life in Him.

So today, spend some time thinking about this verse. Take a moment to thank God for not giving you what you deserved (death) but instead extending mercy to you, and giving you eternal life in Jesus.

Have you ever met someone that said they were a good person? Maybe they try to do good things, and would probably say they’re a good person. But will that be enough? Will that person spend eternity in heaven? And the answer is no. No matter how hard you or they try, there isn’t enough good that you can do to earn God’s love or salvation.

We all have sinned. Even the best of us.

since all have sinned and continually fall short of the glory of God, – Romans 3:23 (AMP)

The good news about all this is that God knew this about us. He knew we’d continually mess up. That we’d never be able to do enough good on our own. And that’s why He planned from the beginning of the world a solution.

Today’s Truth: God loved you enough to do whatever it took to bring you back to Him.

The solution would be something that cost Him everything. And yet, it was worth it to God. Because He loved you and me. He had such a passion to bring us back into right standing with Him that He was ready to pay whatever the cost.

Knowing this helps you see your value. You can begin to realize that even if you’ve missed it and messed up, to God, you’re worth everything. He loves you and gave all He had to help you out of your sin!