Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Proverbs 27:17

Posted on September 4, 2019

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion on Community

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

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

Teen Devotion - Growing in GodIf 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

Teen Devotion and Bible Verse on Generosity

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

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

Teen Devotion - Growing in GodIf 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?

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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

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

Teen Devotion - Growing in GodIf 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

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion mark 9:23

“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

Teen Devotion and Bible Verse on Psalm 91

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

Teen Devotion and Bible Verse on Faith

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.

 

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Romans 8:37

Posted on August 16, 2019

Teen Devotion and Bible Verse on Romans 8:37

Yet even in the midst of all these things, we triumph over them all, for God has made us to be more than conquerors, and his demonstrated love is our glorious victory over everything! – Romans 8:37 (TPT)

Can you remember the last time someone hurt you? Maybe someone really let you down, and it has effected you. It’s easy to allow the hurt from others to trickle down into other areas of your life. For example, if you’ve been betrayed, it’s easy to take it out at your mom at home. You allow hurt in one area to trickle down into other areas of your life. Responding like this, however, isn’t healthy. It could cause you to destroy the relationships in your life that could be the support you need to get through this difficult time.

So, instead of taking your hurt out on others, consider what today’s Bible verse says. It tells us that in the midst of all these things, we triumph. That means we’re winners. You might look in the mirror and see someone you think is unloveable. But that’s not what God sees. When He looks at you, He sees someone that has value.

Truth: I choose my response when I’ve been hurt.

So today, realize this truth: you choose your response when you’re hurt. You can grab onto that hurt and allow it to destroy you.  Thinking about the hurt can cause you to hurt others, but you can choose to go to God instead. You can let Him be your comfort in times of hurt. You can go to Him and let the truth in the Bible become what is real to you.

God’s truth says you’re valuable. His truth is that you’re loved. So regardless of what people say or do to you, you can live in freedom. Why? Because you know that God loves you and sees you as a winner in Him.

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Daily Devotion and Bible Verse – Proverbs 29:25

Posted on August 15, 2019

 

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion for teens

Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the lord means safety. – Proverbs 29:25

How many times have you been guilty of fearing people? Maybe you don’t talk to certain people during lunch because you’re afraid of what others might think. Maybe you wear certain types of clothes so that people like you better. These are just two simple examples of fearing people.

Fearing people is something that we all do from time to time. However, if we give into the fear of what others think it will trap us. We can become afraid to take a risk, or afraid to do the right thing because we don’t know what someone else might think of us.

Instead of fearing others, we should be focused on trusting in God. Trusting in God will keep us safe and keep us doing the right thing. Choose today, regardless of how hard it might seem, to set fear aside and trust in God.

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What Dodgeball Can Teach You About Reading the Bible

Posted on August 8, 2019

 

What Dodgeball Can Teach You About Reading the Bible

As a teenager, there is nothing more fun than taking a dodgeball and hurling it with all your might toward a player on the opposing team. Follow that up with the awesome feeling you get when that dodgeball produces that satisfying smack as it hits your target’s body. Playing dodgeball can be a lot of fun, but did you know that you can learn a lot about reading your Bible by playing dodgeball?

There’s A Goal

In Dodgeball, you have a goal. You have to hit as many of the other team’s players with a ball before they hit you and you’re out. We should approach reading the Bible that same way, with a focus and a goal. Reading the Bible shouldn’t be a boring aimless task, but it should have a purpose.

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. – Phil 3:14 (NIV)

For example, you could read the Bible with the idea in mind that you want to know what God says about your future and the plans He has for your life. You could find verses in the Bible on that topic. Having a goal and a focus like this when reading the Bible helps it from becoming dull and boring.

The Game Changes You

Another thing that can be learned from dodgeball games is that the game changes you. When you start the game, you smell good and your clothes are nice and clean. Usually, by the end of the game, the players are sweaty, and they definitely don’t smell good.

In the same way, that is how we should be after reading the Bible. There is great power available to you in the Bible. It has the power to change your life. The words in the Bible can encourage you when you’re having a bad day. The Bible can also challenge you to be more than you ever imagined you could be. Reading the Bible will change you because the Bible has the power to change your life!

Heb. 4:12 “For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective];” (AMP)

The Bible has power in it to change your life! Get into the habit of reading the Bible with a purpose and getting to know God through His word. If you do, it will change your life!

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Pray: God, I thank you for your word. I thank you that it is alive and full of power. I thank you that I can get to know you through your word. I purpose to make reading the Bible a priority in my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – 1 Timothy 2:4

Posted on August 1, 2019

 

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion

who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. – 1 Timothy 2:4

This verse shows us that God cares for us in a deep way. He first cares about our eternity. He wants every person to have the chance to accept Jesus and to be saved. Not everyone will choose to do that, but God’s heart is that everyone would accept Jesus as their Lord.

The end of this verse goes even deeper. God doesn’t want us to get saved and then He forgets all about us. God wants us to get saved and then to learn more about Him. To learn the truth of who He is.

Remember today that God wants a deep relationship with you. He wants you to understand the truth written in the Bible. He cares about you and He also cares about those who have yet to know Him. So spend time getting to know God better and also begin thinking about who you might tell about Jesus. Be willing to be used by God to tell someone else about the truth!