Devotions for Teenagers and Youth

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Proverbs 18:21

Posted on September 10, 2019

What you say can mean life or death. Those who speak with care will be rewarded. – Proverbs 18:21 (NCV)

We want your school year to go great. So with that in mind, we created some tips to help you be a success at school this year. Today’s tip is about speaking life over yourself.

Maybe you have trouble in math. Or perhaps you struggle making new friends. Whatever you are weak in becomes an area where you can begin to speak death over your situation.

For example, if math is hard, you might begin to say things like, “I’m no good at math. I’ll never understand it.” speaking words like that won’t produce good results in your life. Instead, choose to speak life over your situation.

Tip #2 – Speak Life

Speak words like, “I believe I understand things.” “I’m improving at math”.

Speaking positive things in your life will bring good results. As you speak God’s word over your life and situation, things will change in your life for good.

So today, choose to put this tip into practice. Choose to speak life today.

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Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Proverbs 28:1

Posted on September 9, 2019

The wicked run away when no one is chasing them, but the godly are as bold as lions. – Proverbs 28:1 (NLT)

School is back in session. There can be times when school simply feels overwhelming. The tests, the drama, and the busyness of it all can make you want to miss the bus some days. This week, we’re looking at some tips to help you become a success at school.

Tip #1 – Be Bold

It can be really easy to let the drama and the opinions of others influence you. Your history teacher might be speaking against Christianity and it seems like all the other students in your class agree with them. It might feel scary to voice your opinion.

There might be a student being bullied during band and it might really bother you. And you’re stuck trying to decide if you should stick up for them and say something in their defense.

In today’s Bible verse, it tells us that the godly are bold as lions. As a Christian, that means that you are bold. Even if you don’t feel like it.

God’s word is the truth. If God says you are bold then you are.

So today, if you’ve sat back and not stood up for your faith or others, challenge yourself to be bold. Don’t let the fear of others stop you from doing the right thing. Be bold!

As you step out and be bold, you’ll feel proud of yourself. You’ll probably also be surprised that there are other students who feel the same way as you. They were probably too scared to stand up for what was right. As you are bold others will follow your lead.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – 1 Corinthians 6:17

Posted on September 6, 2019

But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. – 1 Cor 6:17 (NIV)

Imagine for a moment that someone stole your library card. That person is checking out books in your name and racking up some huge library fines. What would you do?

If you’re like most people, you’d tell someone. You’d let the Library know, get a new card, and try to track down the person who was stealing from you.

None of us like being stolen from. But often, in our lives we let the devil steal from us. He tries to get us to question our identity. Often, we allow him to lie to us and tell us we’re not worthy, that we don’t have what it takes, or that we’re unloveable.

The truth is, if we let them, those lies will keep us from doing what God wants for our lives.

Today’s Challenge: Practice Identity

Today’s Bible verse tells you that you have an identity in Christ. Your worth and value come when you identify yourself in Christ.

You might look in the mirror and see all the imperfections and the ways you might not measure up. However, that’s not what God sees when He looks at you. He sees someone valuable. He sees someone worth dying for.

So today, practice identifying yourself with Jesus. Choose to see who you are through Jesus, not what you are on your own. As you do, you can begin to stop believing the lies the devil tries to tell you. You begin to see that you’re worth it and your life matters.

Read the Other Challenges

Day 1 – Challenge: Practice Quiet
Day 2 – Challenge: Practice Generosity
Day 3 – Challenge: Practice Community
Day 4 – Challenge: Practice Thankfulness
Day 5 – Challenge: Practice Identity

If you’d like a PDF copy of this 5-day challenge as well as some bonus content for further study, feel free to download Every Teenager’s Guide to Growing in God.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Psalm 69:30

Posted on September 5, 2019

I will praise God’s name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving. – Psalm 69:30 (NIV)

When you’re stressed out, it’s hard to be thankful. Maybe the pressures from your parents or friends seem overwhelming and it makes you want to give up. When you start to feel like that, one of the best things you can do is to start being thankful.

Thankfulness has a strange way of helping you. When you begin to be thankful, it makes you feel better. You begin to realize that even though you’re going through some tough things, there are still things to thank God for.

Today’s Challenge: Practice Thankfulness

What can you do today to be thankful? Could you take a moment and journal a list of things that are good in your life?

Taking time to practice thankfulness helps you. It makes you aware that God is working in your life. It keeps your attitude good too. You begin to realize that you have so many things to thank God for.

So today, if you’ve been guilty of being unhappy or stressed out about something, take some time to practice thankfulness. Choose to see the good things in your life and take time to thank God for them. Know that God loves you and is working mightily on your behalf.

Read the Other Challenges

Day 1 – Challenge: Practice Quiet
Day 2 – Challenge: Practice Generosity
Day 3 – Challenge: Practice Community
Day 4 – Challenge: Practice Thankfulness
Day 5 – Challenge: Practice Identity

If you’d like a PDF copy of this 5-day challenge as well as some bonus content for further study, feel free to download Every Teenager’s Guide to Growing in God.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Proverbs 27:17

Posted on September 4, 2019

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. – Proverbs 27:17 (NIV)

Take a minute and think about your closest friends. Who are they? What do they believe?

The Bible challenges us to hang out with people of like faith. Why? Because they challenge us. They keep us sharp and growing in our walk with God.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t hang out with people that aren’t Christians. You need to do that too. However, you need to make times to be with people of faith like you. This will challenge you and keep you sharp in your walk with God.

Today’s Challenge: Practice Community

Do you have a community? That is a group of people who are challenging you in your walk with God. A group of people who will come along with you when things are tough and help you grow and know God.

A good way to find this is to get plugged into a youth group. Find a youth group if you don’t have one and get involved. Go each week to services and meetings. Let the friendships you develop there challenge you to do more for God.

When you’re there, take time to listen to others and don’t be afraid to talk about your struggles. A community of Christian friends will help you through when things are tough.

Read the Other Challenges

Day 1 – Challenge: Practice Quiet
Day 2 – Challenge: Practice Generosity
Day 3 – Challenge: Practice Community
Day 4 – Challenge: Practice Thankfulness
Day 5 – Challenge: Practice Identity

If you’d like a PDF copy of this 5-day challenge as well as some bonus content for further study, feel free to download Every Teenager’s Guide to Growing in God.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Luke 6:38

Posted on September 3, 2019

Give generously and generous gifts will be given back to you, shaken down to make room for more. Abundant gifts will pour out upon you with such an overflowing measure that it will run over the top! Your measurement of generosity becomes the measurement of your return.” – Luke 6:38 (TPT)

As a teenager, God wants you blessed. God’s desire is that you’re blessed because He knows that if your needs are met, you’ll be able to look out for the needs of others.

God wants you to be able to buy a friend that is down Starbucks to encourage them. He wants you to be able to give to support the missionary that visits your church. God wants you blessed so that you can go out and be a blessing to those hurting around you.

Today’s Challenge: Practice Generosity

So today’s challenge is for you to practice generosity. Spend some time today thinking about what you could do to help someone else. Could you hang out with your grandpa who is lonely? Maybe you could give some time and volunteer at your church.

You could bake cookies and sell them to raise money for a missionary. There are so many opportunities to practice generosity if you’ll begin to look for them.

If you’ll begin to look, God will show you ways to be generous and to help others.

Many times it’s easy to become so internally focused that we forget to help others around us. We focus on our problems and it blinds us to the needs around us. So today challenge yourself to not be only internally focused. Look around you and see what needs God would want you to meet today.

Read the Other Challenges

Day 1 – Challenge: Practice Quiet
Day 2 – Challenge: Practice Generosity
Day 3 – Challenge: Practice Community
Day 4 – Challenge: Practice Thankfulness
Day 5 – Challenge: Practice Identity

If you’d like a PDF copy of this 5-day challenge as well as some bonus content for further study, feel free to download Every Teenager’s Guide to Growing in God.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Luke 5:16

Posted on September 2, 2019

But Jesus often slipped away from them and went into the wilderness to pray. – Luke 5:16 (TPT)

What do you do when you’re bored? Do you run to YouTube for something to do? Maybe you like to open Snapchat or fill boredom with TV. And don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of a funny or interesting YouTube video. However, it’s easy to often fill every moment of our lives with something so that we never get a chance to hear God speak. I believe, if we’re being really honest, we simply don’t like being bored.

If you want to grow in your relationship with God, however, you’ve got to learn to practice being quiet. If you’re always filling up the silence in your life with other things, how will you hear God speak? In order to know God better, you’ve got to listen to what He says.

Today’s Challenge: Practice Quiet

This week, we’re making five challenges to help you grow in your relationship with God. Today’s challenge is for you to practice being quiet. What do you think would happen in your life if you spent a few minutes each day this week practicing being quiet with God?

What if you unplugged for five minutes a day, turned off your iPod or phone and just spent time listening to God speak into your life?

What would that look like? How might your life be different?

[Tweet “To hear from God, you’ve got to practice being quiet – @studentdevos”]

For you to grow in your relationship with God, you’re going to have to give God times to speak to you. So today, find a place you can be quiet. It might be in the bathroom when you wake up. Maybe in your bed right before sleeping. Wherever it is, choose today to take some time to unplug and let God speak to you.

Read the Other Challenges

Day 2 – Challenge: Practice Generosity
Day 3 – Challenge: Practice Community
Day 4 – Challenge: Practice Thankfulness
Day 5 – Challenge: Practice Identity

If you’d like a PDF copy of this 5-day challenge as well as some bonus content for further study, feel free to download Every Teenager’s Guide to Growing in God.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Mark 9:23

Posted on August 22, 2019

“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” – Mark 9:23

In this verse, Jesus is talking to a dad who is needing a miracle for his son. The dad was struggling with doubt and unbelief concerning whether Jesus could heal his son. Jesus responded to his doubt by saying that anything is possible if a person believes.

What a great statement! Jesus told this man in this verse that anything is possible if we’ll just believe. Jesus did the hard part. He provided the miracle, all the dad had to do was believe Jesus.

Today’s Truth: All things are possible if we will believe Jesus!

The same is true for you. You may need a miracle in your life. You might need something that seems impossible. This verse tells us that we just need to believe. Jesus provided the answer to all of our impossibilities, it’s just up to us to believe that it is true. When we do, we find that all things are possible if we believe Jesus.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Psalm 91:2

Posted on August 21, 2019

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” – Psalm 91:2

I remember one time I went camping. Our shelter for the camping trip was a small tent. When we put it up, it was late at night, and I’m sure we missed a few steps during assembly. A few hours after we went to bed, we were awakened to loud thunder and heavy rain. Before we knew it, our bed, tent, sleeping bags, and clothing were soaked.

I sat there in the middle of the night wishing for a refuge or shelter. It was so cold and wet. I wanted nothing more for the night to be over and to be safe and dry. In life sometimes we face storms. Perhaps your parents split up, leaving you feeling confused and alone. Or maybe you feel that no one really gets you and you’re angry and hurt. Regardless of what difficulty you’re facing, the good news is that you’re not alone.

God is there to be your shelter and refuge in the storms of life. He wants to keep you safe and protect you from harm. So no matter how hard what you’re facing might seem you can be confident in God’s protection and love for you.

Daily Devotion and Bible Verse – Hebrews 11:1

Posted on August 20, 2019

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. – Hebrews 11:1

Faith can sometimes seem like a confusing subject. You can wonder what is faith? Or maybe how do I know if I have faith? This Bible verse helps sort out some of the confusion by defining what faith is.

According to this verse, faith is the evidence of things not seen. Simply put, faith is a lot like your TV. Many times, TV shows will tell you about other countries that are far away from where you live, places that you have never been to and have not seen for yourself. You simply have to believe or have faith that the places your TV shows you exist. You’ve haven’t seen them, yet you believe they exist based on what you see on TV.

That’s exactly what this Bible verse is showing us. There are promises in the Bible that we can’t always see with our physical eyes. Even though we can’t see them, we have to choose to believe that those promises are true. It’s just like how we have to believe the places we see on TV are real.

Faith isn’t complicated, it is just believing the things you read in the Bible are true.

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Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Proverbs 18:21

What you say can mean life or death. Those who speak with care will be rewarded. – Proverbs 18:21 (NCV)

Tip #2 – Speak Life

Read More Success at School Tips

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Proverbs 28:1

The wicked run away when no one is chasing them, but the godly are as bold as lions. – Proverbs 28:1 (NLT)

Tip #1 – Be Bold

Read More Success at School Tips

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – 1 Corinthians 6:17