Devotions for Teenagers and Youth

What Ice Cream Can Teach Us About Peace

Posted on October 29, 2014

Ice cream has to be one of the best foods on the planet. It tastes so good. It doesn’t matter what flavor or what topping you put on it, ice cream just tastes amazing.

Ice cream is used a lot too as a comfort food. If you’ve had a bad day at school, you can rush home and find comfort by eating a bowl or two of ice cream. If you’ve just broken up with your boyfriend or girlfriend, a pint of ice cream is just what you need! Ice cream really comes in handy when you need a little bit of comfort during a difficult time.

Just like ice cream is an awesome comfort food, the Bible can bring us comfort when we are facing difficulty. The Bible tells us that Jesus gives us peace.

I leave you peace. It is my own peace I give you. I give you peace in a different way than the world does. So don’t be troubled. Don’t be afraid.” – John 14:27 (ERV)

Jesus gives us peace. Just like ice cream can bring us comfort when we’re upset, Jesus can bring us peace too. When tough times come, we can look to Jesus. He tells us we don’t have to be troubled or afraid. Jesus has not left us helpless and alone. We’ve got Him to walk life together with us.

So in the midst of tough times remember that you can look to Jesus for peace. Remember that He told you that He left us peace. We don’t have to live our lives afraid of what might happen. We can look to Jesus for peace and find comfort in Him!

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Help! I Lost a Loved One

Posted on October 27, 2014

Losing a person you love is never easy. When someone you love passes away, it is a very tough thing. You’re hit with so many emotions. Some people get angry, while others feel sad. Some feel guilty or blame themselves when something bad happens. There are tons of emotions that come when you are faced with the loss of someone you love.

So how do you channel those feelings of sadness, loss or even anger? Here are a few things I learned when I was faced with the loss of a loved one a few years ago.

Don’t let it affect your relationship with God. This was the biggest mistake I made in my time of loss. I had lots of questions about why the person I loved died. I didn’t understand. I was mad and let my unanswered questions hurt my relationship with God.
When a loved one passes away, you’re bound to have questions. You may even want to blame God for what happened. However, no matter how many questions you have or how mixed up you feel inside, God is not to blame. Don’t allow your questions to keep you from going to God for help and healing in this tough time.
Recovering from loss takes time. Losing a loved one is not something you just ‘get over’. It takes time. It will take time for you to feel okay. You might experience tons of difficult emotions, that’s okay. You might be faced with your family or life just not feeling right or normal anymore. That is okay too. It will take time for you to heal. Don’t be upset if you’re not feeling like yourself for awhile.
Losing someone you love is a big deal and it takes time for you to recover.
Get help if you need it. Sometimes you need to talk to someone about your loss. You might have a lot of emotions that you need to work through. Its okay to get some help. Go to a pastor or a counselor at your school. These people are trained to help you process your grief in healthy ways. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it.

Losing a loved one is a big deal. However, you can take comfort in the fact that God is always there for you. He’s there to help you heal. You can put your trust in Him. He will be your strength and anchor when things get tough. Look to him to be what grounds you when dealing with the loss of someone you love.

We have this hope as an anchor for our lives, safe and secure. – Hebrews 6:19 (Holman)

Why, God, Why?: What to Do When Life Doesn’t Make Sense
This is a powerful book that will help you deal with the questions you face when dealing with the loss of a loved one.

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Youth Ministry Tip #1 – The Power of Showing Up

Posted on October 24, 2014

I can think of tons of times that I’d rather not show up to lead youth group. I can’t count the Wednesdays I’ve gotten off work late, driven 10 over the speed limit barely getting to church in time to catch my breath to lead youth group. Some weeks, between family and work, I’ve had no time to prepare a lesson. So I’m standing up in front of the youth group, just hoping I can think of something to talk to them about.

Sometimes, youth group can feel more like a burden than ministry. Especially when you haven’t had time to prepare a talk, sermon or discussion questions to really inspire teens.

So what do you do in these times? In the times that have felt way less than inspired? I encourage you to do this simple thing….show up.

Yes that’s it. Showing up is one of the most important things you can do for teenagers. This means more than the awesome talk you spent all night preparing. It will mean more than all of the awesome game nights you put together or the time you made the head cheerleader drink mustard with a straw.

If you want to be a success in youth ministry…show up. Its just that simple. If you show up every week, and love teenagers, then you are a success in youth ministry. By showing up, you make yourself available to teenagers to talk, share their hearts, and for you to encourage them. And in all reality, isn’t that the goal of youth ministry? Just forming relationships with teens that point them to Christ?

So be encouraged. No matter what your role in youth ministry is, you are important by simply showing up!

Are You a Halloweenie? – A Devo on Fear – Take Three

Posted on October 20, 2014

Fear. Its something we all deal with at different times in our lives and in different ways. For one person, fear might come in the form of math tests. Another might fear speaking in front of large groups of people. Whatever it is that scares you, its good to know that fear is something that you can overcome.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. – Eleanor Roosevelt

Its really easy to fall into the trap of fear. Fear can creep into your life without you knowing it. It can come into your life by watching the news. Perhaps you hear all the talk of ebola on TV and are afraid that you might get it. Maybe you watch scary movies on TV for Halloween and you’re now not able to sleep. If you’re not on guard against fear, it will creep into your life before you even realize it.

Don’t worry—I am with you. Don’t be afraid—I am your God. I will make you strong and help you. I will support you with my right hand that brings victory. – Isaiah 41:10 (ERV)

The good news is that you don’t have to be afraid of anything. God has the answer to everything you face that scares you. If you’re afraid of disease, God says in Psalm 91 that he will protect you. Whatever it is that you’re afraid of, God has the answer to that fear. Its just up to you to get into God’s word and find that answer. Dig into the word and find out what God has to say about being afraid.

God’s word is one of the best ways to combat fear. By getting into His word, by thinking about it, by speaking it out over your life, you’ll find that fear will leave. What once was a huge fear in your life will become small once you see it in the light of the Bible.

So challenge yourself this Halloween to not be a Halloweenie. Challenge yourself to find out what God’s word says about your fear. Find a great scripture that deals with what you’re afraid of. Speak it and think about it. You’ll find that when you do, fear will leave your life!

Here’s a great resource to combat fear in your life!

Straight Talk on Fear: Overcoming Emotional Battles with the Power of God’s Word!
Awesome book to help you win the battle over fear in your life!

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Are You A Halloweenie? – A Devo on Fear – Take Two

Posted on October 15, 2014

Halloween season is in full swing this year. The stores are packed with costumes and decorations. If you flip on the TV, you see lots of movies and TV shows that focus on haunted houses, ghosts, and lots of super creepy things. So with all the scary stuff on TV it can be really easy to become afraid.

Its a lot like someone who forgets to log out of their Twitter or Facebook account. The person gets up from a public computer, but totally forgets about logging out. Then the next person who sits down can see all of their stuff and if they wanted post things as them. You’ve probably seen the nicer posts when a friend or brother finds the computer logged in to Facebook and posts, “My brother is the greatest person I know”. Leaving a computer but forgetting to log out of your Facebook can be bad. When you do that, you are leaving the door wide open for anyone to come in and post whatever they want on you Facebook and read any private messages or conversations you had.

Forgetting to log out of Facebook is a lot like what can happen with fear during the Halloween season. There are lots of movies on TV that will try to freak the living snot out of you. If you spend lots of time watching them and thinking about them, its like you’re leaving the door wide open for fear to come and post whatever it wants in your life.

By thinking about scary things all the time, it makes them more real to you. It could make you be afraid to go to bed at night. Or make you afraid to go into dark places alone. Fear can really begin to torment you, if you let it.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise – Philippians 4:8 (NLT)

So this Halloween, challenge yourself to not leave the door open to fear. Don’t spent lots of time watching scary movies, going to cemeteries, or haunted houses. While those things can be fun, if you spend too much time thinking about them, it can leave the door open to fear in your life. Choose to not let fear rule in your life this Halloween. Choose to think good thoughts and not be a Halloweenie this Halloween.

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What Your Phone Can Teach You About Words

Posted on October 13, 2014

I have a friend who uses a passcode to lock her phone. She does this because her younger sisters always try to use her phone without her permission. They want to play the games on her phone and think its so much fun to read her text messages. Many times in the process they’d mess something up on her phone. They’d delete a photo she liked or mess up her settings. As you can imagine, my friend got really tired of her sisters messing things up on her phone. She decided to set up a passcode on her phone. Now, her sisters can’t access her phone since they don’t know the code.

Setting a passcode on your phone is a lot like what we should do with the words that we speak everyday. The words we speak can make or break us in life. The words we speak steer our lives. If we speak positive words, our lives get steered in good directions. Negative words can steer us off course quickly. Words have a lot of power in our lives. We should be choosing to put a passcode on our mouths just like we would on our phone. We should choose to be careful to guard our mouths and the words we speak. Proverbs puts it this way:

People who are careful about what they say will save their lives, but those who speak without thinking will be destroyed. – Proverbs 13:3

So how good are you about guarding your mouth? When you get angry do let your mouth run wild? Do you say things you regret? Or maybe you don’t feel good about yourself, so you constantly put yourself or others down. Challenge yourself to begin setting a passcode over your mouth. Don’t just say whatever you feel in the moment, but really guard the words that come out of your mouth.

The tongue can speak words that bring life or death. Those who love to talk must be ready to accept what it brings. – Proverbs 18:21

Just like you wouldn’t let just anyone use your phone to send text messages or take pictures, you should guard your mouth too. A great way to start guarding your mouth is to spend more time in God’s word. Its what you get into your heart that will ultimately come out of your mouth. If you spend time getting God’s word into your heart, then God’s word will be what is coming out of your mouth.

… What people say with their mouths comes from what fills their hearts – Matthew 12:34

Choose to put a passcode over your mouth. Speak words of life that steer your life in a good direction!

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What Rollercoasters Can Show You About Taking a Stand For God

Posted on October 8, 2014

Riding on a rollercoaster can be a lot of fun. The twists and turns during a rollercoaster ride can get your blood pumping and heart pounding. And there’s nothing scarier than riding a rollercoaster without a floor. The first time I went on a floorless rollercoaster, I was scared out of my mind. My feet were dangling, and I was concerned I might not make it. In a coaster without a floor, you’ve got to put all your trust in the ride’s restraints. You have to believe that the restraints will keep you safe during the ride.

A lot of the time, taking a stand for God can feel just as scary as riding a floorless rollercoaster. Taking a stand for God can be really scary. You can wonder if it will be worth it, or if God will really come through for you. There’s a story in the Bible about Elijah that shows what can happen if you take a stand for God. Elijah challenged a bunch of people who didn’t believe in God to a contest to prove that Elijah’s God was real.

Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the lord. The god who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!” And all the people agreed. – 1 Kings 18:24 (NLT)

Elijah went out of his way to take a stand for God. He poured tons of water on his wood. His goal was to really make it obvious that when God lit his wood on fire that God was real. Elijah trusted in God. He trusted that God was going to come through for him and not leave him hanging.

Just like when you ride a rollercoaster you have to trust the restraints to keep you safe, when you take a stand for God, you have to trust that God will come through for you. Elijah did just that. He trusted that God had his back. He trusted God so much that he poured water on his wood just to prove that God was big enough to light wet wood on fire. And God did it. God came through for Elijah. God lit the wood on fire, water and all.

What God did for Elijah, he’ll do for you. This isn’t to say that you should prove to your friends at school that God is real by praying to God to light a bonfire for you. But it does show us that when you take a stand for God, God will come through for you. Taking a stand for God takes faith. It takes you trusting God and relying on Him to keep you safe.

So challenge yourself today to trust God. Just like you have to trust the restraints on a rollercoaster, trust God that he will come through for you and keep you safe. Trust that God will have your back when you take a stand for Him.

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What Baseball Can Show Us About Sharing Our Faith

Posted on October 6, 2014

Sharing your faith with others isn’t always the most popular topic. If you’re like most teenagers, you’re probably not all that excited about sharing your faith. You may feel that if you share your faith people at school will think you’re stupid. You might be afraid that the guy you like in 4th period might not like you if he finds out you’re a Christian. So you do what many Christians do, you stay quiet about your faith. You don’t speak up when someone challenges what you believe. You know that praying with your friend who’s parents are going through a divorce would really help, but you’re afraid of what your friend might think. The list of excuses we make for not sharing our faith can be pretty long. However, let’s take a look at what baseball can teach us about sharing our faith with others.

I know a guy who is a huge baseball fan. He watches baseball all the time on TV. If he’s traveling, he will try to catch a game in whatever town he’s in, if he can. Baseball is something he’s really excited about. Lately, his favorite team has been doing really well. They’ve been winning a ton of games, and of course he’s really excited about it. Every conversation this guy brings up baseball and his favorite team. He talks and talks and talks about it. Why? Because he’s so excited about how well they’re doing.

My friend is not that weird. We are all like that. When we are really excited about something, we like to talk about it. If we have discovered something new, we tell others. If we find a good deal on something at the mall, we tell others. So why is it that when it comes to something as exciting as finding Jesus do we shut up? Shouldn’t something that has changed our lives, something that affects how we live our lives everyday be something we share with others?

Why is it that we talk about our favorite baseball team winning with everyone we know, but when it comes to sharing our faith, many times we tell no one. We have something way more exciting than a winning team, we have a winning God. We have a God who loved us, and gave his son so that we could experience life change and a relationship with Him. Why aren’t we filling our Twitter feed with that news?

Its easy to get afraid to share our faith with others. Its easier to not say anything so that we don’t look weird to others. However, we are called to be salt and light to our world.

Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. – Matthew 5:14 (Message)

This verse shows us that we are to be showing God to others. We are not to keep God a secret from the people in our lives. Just like when our favorite baseball team is winning and we tell everyone we know, we should be telling everyone we know about God. We should be letting others know that God has changed our lives, and to let them know that He can change theirs too. If God has done something in your life, you should believe that He will do the same for others. So choose to put your fears aside and to step up and tell others about God.
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How God’s Word Can Change Your Life

Posted on September 29, 2014

Have you ever wondered why you should read God’s word? Or have you ever heard someone say that God’s word changed their life? Did you ever wonder what that meant? How could reading written words on a page change someone’s life? It can be really easy to not put much importance in God’s word and reading the Bible. However, God’s word is an awesome tool that does have the power to shape and change our attitudes, actions and desires.

Let’s take a look at what God has to say about His word.

Ephesians 6:7 – “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
This verse shows us how powerful God’s words really are. They are referred to as a sword. That shows us that His words have power. God’s words can literally change our heart, thoughts, and actions if we allow them access into our lives.

Matthew 4:4 – “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”
This verse really paints a picture of the importance of God’s word. We shouldn’t just rely on the bread or food we eat each day, but we should also be living by putting God’s words into our hearts. God’s words are life to us.

So if God’s words are powerful and they have the ability to change our life, how do we get them into us? Think about it like food. Food is something that you make time for everyday. You usually eat roughly three times a day. You eat in the morning, you eat at noon and you eat at night. So there’s a set time each day that you eat. If you go to school, there’s probably a time when you are assigned to have lunch. So you know each day at 12:15, you should be heading to the cafeteria at school to get some food. It might not be the most delicious food, but its food none the less.

The same is true with God’s words. There should be a set time each day that you take to spend time in God’s word. It may be at night before bed. It could be in the early morning before you take a shower, or maybe during fourth period study hall. Find a time that you can be consistent about getting into God’s word. King David in the Bible took time to spend with God.

O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. – Psalms 63:1

David spent time in the early morning with God. He had a set time that he spent with God. Getting into God’s word works best when you have a set time each day that you spend in God’s word. When you make the choice to spend time each day in God’s word, you’ll find that your thoughts, actions, and desires line up with God’s. God’s word really does have the power to change your life!

The Trap of Anger

Posted on September 22, 2014

We’ve all done it! We’ve gotten angry. There are a lot of reasons to get angry. You may have not gotten a good grade on your math test and you’re angry at yourself for not studying more. You could be angry because you see someone at your school getting bullied, and you wish that people treated others with more respect. Or perhaps you’ve gotten angry because someone auditioned for the school play and got the part you knew you deserved. Anger can come to us from many different sources.

Anger in itself isn’t necessarily bad. Its your response to anger that can make or break you in life. For example, if you got angry that you didn’t get a good grade on your math test. And let’s say you used that anger to motivate you to study harder for the next test. That response to anger would be good. You channeled your anger into something productive, like studying harder for a test.

Sometimes though, your response to anger can be bad. If you allow your anger to consume you you can do things you regret. The story of Cain in Genesis four is a good example of this. Cain got angry with his brother Abel and that anger drove him to ultimately kill Abel.

The Lord asked Cain, “Why are you angry? Why does your face look sad? You know that if you do what is right, I will accept you. But if you don’t, sin is ready to attack you. That sin will want to control you, but you must control it.”

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” So they went to the field. Then Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. – Genesis 4:6-8 (ERV)

Cain made a bad decision out of anger. He chose to kill his brother Abel. Now, we know that killing someone is wrong, and most of us aren’t tempted to kill someone, but what do you do when someone gets something you feel is unfair? Do you talk about them behind their back? Give them the silent treatment? Or maybe try to get even with them?

Doing these types of things will not help you in the long run. It might make you feel better in the moment, but trying to get even or not treating someone nice isn’t the right way to respond to anger. When you get angry, you have a choice to make. Will you sin when you get angry and do something you may later regret, or will you channel that anger into something positive in your life. Ephesians 4:26 says it like this:

“When you are angry, don’t let that anger make you sin,” and don’t stay angry all day. – Ephesians 4:26

When you get angry, choose to not get even or hurt someone else. Choose instead to channel your anger into something positive.

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