The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. – John 10:10 (NLT)
God wants you to have a rich and satisfying life. This doesn’t mean that your life will be problem free, but it does mean that Jesus will be there to walk with you through the problems.
This verse also shows us that trouble doesn’t come from God. Things that steal and destroy are from the devil. Jesus doesn’t send those types of things to you.
So today, if you’re in the middle of a difficult situation, be encouraged. Jesus came to give us a rich and satisfying life. He’s there to walk with you in the midst of difficulty and is to be where you go in tough times. So decide to get closer to God in tough times and let Him show you how rich and satisfying life in Him can be.
Have you ever been lost? I remember a time when I got lost on a missions trip with my youth group. Two of my friends and I got into a taxi. Our missionary tried to give our taxi driver the address where we were going, but the taxi driver didn’t want to listen. He insisted he would just follow the taxi in front of him that had the rest of our group. The taxi got going, but as we got to a busy intersection, our taxi driver began following the wrong taxi. He drove us all over town and followed the wrong taxi to a house.
When he stopped, he tried to tell us to get out. We didn’t speak the same language and we kept trying to tell him that we didn’t want to get out, that he had followed the wrong taxi. He just stared at us and looked confused. We kept trying to think of ideas to tell him to take us back to the train station where we had been picked up from. Finally, we all began making train noises, we honked and made choo-choo sounds until at last, he understood.
He took us back to the train station and we waited there until the rest of our youth group came back to find us.
Sometimes the idea of discovering God’s purpose for your life can make you feel lost, just like I was lost on my missions trip. You might feel like you don’t know where to go and you’re afraid to make the wrong turn or follow the wrong taxi. However, following God’s plan for your life doesn’t have to be difficult or confusing. God wants to show you your purpose.
Discovering Purpose Takes Time Alone With God
Proverbs 20:27 – The spirit of a man is the lamp of the lord searching all the inner depths of his heart
God wants to reveal things to you about your future. However, God isn’t going to show you those things using Snapchat, Musical.ly, Instagram or any other social media platform, but wouldn’t it be nice if he did? God reveals things to you in your spirit. And it’s not complicated: to hear God you’ve got to get quiet and listen. That’s hard sometimes, social media is way more fun than reading your Bible and prayer. However, God wants to talk to you and reveal things to you. You’ve just got to get quiet to listen to your spirit.
The key to discovering your divine destiny and purpose is simple: Realize God wants to speak to you about your future.
When you have that truth solidly in your heart it will make the process of discovery easier. God wants to show you His plans for your life. He wants to help you make good decisions about your future. God speaks those truths to your spirit. So if you’re quiet and willing to listen, God will show you the next step to take.
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)
God has plans for you. And he wants to show them to you. All you have to do is spend some time seeking God. If you started dating someone, you’d want to spend time with them to get to know them better. You’d want to know all their hobbies, their dislikes, likes, hopes, and dreams. Developing a relationship with God is no different. It’s all about spending time getting to know God. As you spend time in the Bible and in prayer you’ll get to know the things God likes and His hopes and dreams for you.
More than anything, God wants to help you make the right decisions – so involve Him in the decision-making process. Choose to spend time getting to know Him and letting Him speak to your spirit about your future.
We put a lot of weight on what we do for a career, so much that it often becomes our identity. You’ll see adults that introduce themselves by saying something like, “I’m Lydia and I’m a doctor”. In society, a lot of weight is placed on your career. It’s important to remember that our purpose or career is not our identity. Our identity is found in Jesus. We need to find out what Jesus says about us in the Bible. We need to let who we are in Christ become our identity.
[Tweet “Jesus is your identity, not your career – @studentdevos”]
What you do for God is never as important as for you to discover your identity in Christ. Your career isn’t your identity. Jesus is your identity.
Dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health physically just as you are spiritually. – 3 John 1:2 (Holman)
God wants you to prosper in every area of your life. He’s more concerned with you knowing who you are in Christ than He is about what you end up doing as a career. So take some time in the discovery process to focus on the things God says about you. Realize that God wants you to prosper in every way.
Have you ever discovered a new game? I remember when I was a kid my grandma taught me a new card game. The first few times I played, I wasn’t very good. It took me some time to learn the rules and discover strategies that would help me win. Once I had played the game a few times, I began to win. The more I played, the more I learned and the better I got.
The same is true with our giftings. We don’t always know what we’re gifted at right away. You’ve got to learn and discover the things you’re good at. You might try out for band and realize you hate music. You might go out for volleyball to discover you’re not athletic. That’s ok. Part of discovering what you’re good at requires learning what you’re not good at. Keep at it, keep trying to learn and discover your giftings.
[Tweet “Part of discoving your giftings requires learning what you’re not good at – @studentdevos”]
You might realize that you really like helping with the children’s ministry at your church, but you hate working with the media team. That’s ok. You’re in the process of discovery. You’re learning more and more all the time about what your giftings are. Get involved at your local church. Begin to serve and you’ll start to see the things you’re good at and the things you’re not that good at. It’s all part of the learning process. The more you learn the better you’ll get!
Discovering purpose takes some effort. It requires spending time with God, and learning about yourself and your giftings. The good news is that God wants to show you your purpose. If you choose to spend time with Him and listen, He’ll speak to your spirit and show you the next steps to take.
If you’re a youth leader, you can download discussion questions to go with this devotion in our youth leader resource area.
Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. – Psalms 55:22 (NIV)
The best thing we can do to stay in peace, is to cast our cares on to the Lord. God will sustain us and take care of us. When we place all our cares on Him, He can keep our hearts and minds at ease and in peace.
Also, when our minds are focused on God, and in the fact that He will take care of us, we are more able to hear His voice. During these times, God can speak wisdom to us to even avoid danger. That is amazing. God wants to speak to us in real time.
Today, cast all your cares on the Lord. God cares for you and He will never let you be shaken. Why? Because you have believed on Jesus. You are now righteous in His sight.
If you’ve never made Jesus the Lord of your life you can. Here’s a devotion to show you how.
I remember playing dominoes as a kid. I hated playing the game by the rules. Instead, I loved setting up all the dominos in a row in all sorts of fun patterns. Once I had the dominos set up, I’d knock the first one over and watch as the first one knocked over the second, the second knocked over the third. On and on the knocking over happened until all the dominos fell down. Knocking over dominos is really fun. Playing with dominos reminds me of Romans 10.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! – Romans 10:13-15
Each part of this scripture is like a domino. You’ve got to have one to knock down two, to knock down the third and so on. So what are these dominos?
Domino One – To get saved you have to call on the name of the Lord.
This domino makes a lot of sense. If you want to get saved, you’ve got to ask Jesus to do it. You can’t rely on your works, good deeds or anything else. The Bible clearly states that it is Jesus who does the saving.
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it – Eph 2:8-9 (NLT)
Salvation is a gift of grace. It’s not about what you’ve done, its all about who Jesus is. It’s all about asking Jesus to save you. The great thing about this is that Jesus doesn’t make calling on him complicated. It’s simple, it’s just reaching out to Him by faith or belief. That’s where the next domino comes into play.
Domino Two – To call on Jesus you have to believe.
You have to believe in Jesus to call on Him for salvation. If you think that you’re saved by your works or any other way, there’s no need to call on Jesus. To call on Jesus, you’ve got to humble yourself and realize that without Jesus you can’t do enough good to get into heaven. You’ve got to firmly believe that Jesus is God’s son, and his sacrifice on the cross was the payment for your sin. Once you believe that, you’re able to call on Jesus to save you.
But that statement makes you wonder: How do you begin believing?
Domino Three – To believe in Jesus, you have to hear about Him.
If you haven’t heard about Jesus, how would you know that you should call on him, or believe in Him? You wouldn’t. You’ve got to build belief in Jesus by hearing about Him. Think about it, the more you hear about a great movie, the more you want to go see it. When you hear about something good it makes you want to try it. The same is true about Jesus to develop the faith to believe Him, you’ve got to hear about Him. You’ve got to learn that He’s good, that’s He is the only way to God.
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. – Romans 10:17 (KJV)
So how do you begin to hear about Jesus?
Domino Four – To hear about Jesus, someone has to tell you about Him.
This about a new restaurant you’ve tried recently. What made you decide to try the new restaurant? Most likely, someone told you about it. Maybe a friend told you the new restaurant was really good and their review made you want to try it for yourself. The same is true with Jesus. If someone hadn’t told you about Jesus, you couldn’t have called on Him for salvation.
When you hear about the goodness of God, it makes you believe in Him and want to invite Him into your life.
So finally, how does someone tell others about Jesus?
Domino Five – Those who tell others about Jesus are sent.
The Bible tells us in Mark 16:15 that we are to go into our world and tell others about Jesus. As believers, we are called by God to tell others about who Jesus is.
And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. – Mark 16:15 (NLT)
So take some time this week to think about this scripture. You’ve been called by God to tell others about Jesus. You are called to preach to people the message of salvation.
[Tweet “You’ve been called by God to tell others about Jesus – @studentdevos”]
As you tell others, they will hear the message, then they have the option to believe and finally call on Jesus to be saved. But the process starts with you telling people about Jesus. If you don’t open your mouth, then other people won’t have the opportunity to hear the gospel. It’s up to you to share with those around you. You sharing salvation with those around you can cause a great domino effect. You could cause someone you know and care for to get saved and to spend eternity with Jesus.
So what are you waiting for? Begin sharing Jesus with others today!
Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce. – Proverbs 3:9 (ESV)
A timeless way to see God’s blessing on your finances, is to give a portion of what you make away. There is something amazing that happens when you honor God with your finances. You end up having more than if you would have kept back all of it for yourself.
This miracle is called the tithe. It’s God’s formula for success. It’s taking all that you make and giving God the first 10%. If you make $10, then you would give God $1 and you’d keep $9.
Why does God tell us to tithe in the first place? Does He need our money? No. God has streets of gold in heaven. He doesn’t need our tithe. However, we need to place our trust in God, especially when it comes to our finances. Tithing works great to help us trust God with our finances.
You may ask, “How do I give God money? The primary way that you give God 10% (tithe) is to give in the offering at your church. If you have never done it, it’s pretty simple. Most churches make it pretty simple to give.
Often tithing is like a seed. If planted, it does take some time before harvest so don’t expect immediate results. If you tithed yesterday, it’s unlikely you’ll see benefits the next day. It may be a month or even longer. That’s OK. Just know that God’s Word is true and you can count on it working.
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. – John 14:6 (NLT)
People make the mistake of thinking there are many ways to get to God. They say that all religions will point you to the same God. They say it doesn’t really matter how you get there, just do what way seems like the right way for you. However, this is not what Jesus says. In this verse, Jesus says that He is the only way to God. He says that He is the truth and the life and that no one can come to the Father (God) except through Him.
If Jesus is the only way to God the Father, then anyone who is trying to come to God without going through Him are missing it. It may seem harsh but it is the truth. No one can reach God without Jesus. In reality, we all are in a hopeless situation without Jesus. We are unclean and sin without even knowing it. We desperately needed Jesus. God loved the world so much that He sent Jesus to be the answer for all mankind.
So how do we get to God then if Jesus is the only way? We must humble ourselves and stop relying on other ways to get to God. We cannot get to God through trying to be good enough, trying to do religious acts or even trying not to sin. We have to stop all of that and simply believe completely on Jesus. Even if you’re already born again, the same way you receive Jesus is the same way you continue on this journey with God… completely through Jesus.
If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.” – Ephesians 6:3 (NLT)
I used to think that honoring my parents meant I had to agree with everything they did or said. There were times when I would get so mad because I felt that my parents didn’t understand me, and I couldn’t understand their actions. However, one day I was reading this Bible verse and it dawned on me that this verse wasn’t talking about agreement. It didn’t say that I had to agree or even see eye to eye with my parents on every decision. Instead I was supposed to honor them.
Honor isn’t really a term used all that often, but it’s sort of like respect. I realized that I was supposed to respect my parents. I didn’t have to agree with everything they did or said, but I was to still respect them. From that day on, I stopped complaining to my friends about how bad my parents were and stopped talking about them behind their back.
I chose rather, to give them some respect. I might not agree with every decision they made or how they handled things, but I needed to give them room to speak into my life and hear them out. I really feel like my relationship with my parents changed from that point on. Instead of me always being frustrated, I was more at peace. I stopped being angry at my parents and began to respect them. I challenge you to do the same if you’re not already. Decide today to stop bad mouthing your parents and being angry at them. Choose instead to respect them and treat them well.
Need help talking to your parents? Check out this devo with helpful tips for communicating with your parents.
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. – John 13:35 (NIV)
We often find it hard to love others. It can be especially difficult to do this when people are mean to us or hurt us in some way. So whether we’ve been treated bad or good, the Bible tells us to love others. This love for others shouldn’t be based on what others do to you. So regardless of how others treat you, you should always respond to them in love.
This kind of love can seem a bit crazy. We’re used to people getting revenge, payback, or teaching other people a lesson. So why would Jesus ask us to do something so radically different? It’s because Jesus knew there was a better way. He knew that loving others was the best way because it frees us from carrying around hurt, revenge and bitterness.
So how do we begin to love others in this radical way? We have to begin to realize that the love for others doesn’t come from us. We can love others because Jesus loved us first. He loved us when we had nothing to offer Him. Because of this love, we can do the same and love others.
“Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! ” – Romans 5:18
It’s amazing to think that it wasn’t your sin that got you in trouble with God. It was the very first person to do that… Adam. He and Eve sinned and got us all in trouble with sin and death. Their sin was now being passed down to every single person that would ever be born because they were all born of other sinful humans. It was in our blood and we could do nothing about it.
Then Jesus came. He was of a different bloodline; God’s bloodline. He was born of God and perfect, yet was also fully a human like us. God supernaturally broke the curse that we were in through Jesus being born and then becoming our way back to God. Jesus did it right; life, no sin and a perfect bloodline of God. Then Jesus died for all sin at one time and God raised Him back to life. He completely made things right between us and God.
So how does one receive this work of God? It doesn’t just happen because you’re alive. No, you have to reach out and receive it. You have to confess it with your mouth and believe it in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. If you do this, you receive what Jesus did and you partake in all that He’s provided.
If you’ve never received Jesus, here’s how. If you have, then reminding yourself of this truth is still very helpful. One person had made it all wrong (Adam), but one person (Jesus) made it all right.
How many times do you struggle to love someone who is difficult to you? I remember I used to ride the bus to school and one girl always seemed to go out of her way to be mean to others. No matter what I did or said, she always seemed to have it out for me. From calling me mean names to making comments about my clothing she was one of meanest people I had ever met.
Loving someone like this girl can be really difficult. People who are unkind are hard to love. So how do we do it? How do we handle all the difficult people and difficult personalities?
Step One – Realize Their Value to God
Regardless of how that person treats you, they have value to God. They were created for a purpose, and even if they’re far from God, God loves them and wants to have a relationship with them.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous–how well I know it. – Psalm 139:14 (NLT)
God loves difficult people. He might not approve their actions but He loves them and wants a relationship with them. When you realize that they’re important to God it helps you be able to love them better.
Step Two – Realize Your Value To God
Just like the difficult person has value to God, you have value to him too. Never let another person and how they treat you determine your value. If you place your worth in how others treat you or what they think of you, you’ll always come up short.
Your value should be firmly planted in what God says about you. Just because someone isn’t kind to you doesn’t mean that you’re not important. You have value to God and His opinion is the one that counts.
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! – Psalm 139:17
God is thinking about you. That shows your value to God. You’re important to Him. He loves you and knows you and wants the best for you. Choose to believe the value God places on your life.
[Tweet “You’re important to God. He knows you and wants the best for you – @studentdevos”]
Step Three – Choose to Love
Regardless of how the mean person is treating you, you can choose to love them. They might not be right in how they treat you, but you can choose to love them. Ask God to show you ways to get along with them better. And choose to treat them with respect even when they aren’t doing the right thing to you.
Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. – John 13:35
Choose to love others. Show the world the love of Jesus by loving others. This doesn’t mean that you’ll be best friends with people who are mean, but you don’t have to return their meanness with meanness. You can love them, pray for them, and do good to them.
If you’re a youth leader, here are some discussion questions you can use with your youth group.
Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. – Psalms 55:22 (NIV)
Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce. – Proverbs 3:9 (ESV)
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
How many times do you struggle to love someone who is difficult to you? I remember I used to ride the bus to school and one girl always seemed to go out of her way to be mean to others. No matter what I did or said, she always seemed to have it out for me. From calling me mean names to making comments about my clothing she was one of meanest people I had ever met.