Have you had friends that didn’t understand you due to your faith in Jesus? Maybe they didn’t get why you wouldn’t give into peer pressure and do the things they were doing. Perhaps they simply didn’t understand why your faith was so important to you.

It’s easy when you feel misunderstood to want to give up. You might wonder if standing up for what’s right is really worth it. However, regardless of how others treat you and regardless of whether you feel understood, we’re encouraged in the Bible to stand strong.

A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. – Ephesians 6:10 (NLT)

Life isn’t going to be easy. People aren’t always going to be nice to you and understand where you’re coming from. However, you’re called to stand strong in the Lord. No matter what the battle is. And that takes guts. In a world that doesn’t understand Jesus or even really seem to care about Him.

Today be encouraged. No matter how lonely you feel in your stand for Jesus, you’re never alone. There are others who are standing up for God. They might not live near you or be at your church, but they are out there. So stand up boldy for what’s right. Stand firm in your faith, and don’t give up!

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:30 (NIV)

Do you ever feel like if you choose to follow after God it will make things more difficult? Maybe you think that your friends will stop liking you. Or that you’ll have to stand up for God when He’s being made fun of at your school. And you don’t really want to do that, so you choose to live your life on the fence.

Now God didn’t promise in His word that He’d keep you from persecution. However, knowing God and standing up for Him is rewarding. It’s not easy, but it is worth it.

Today’s Truth: Standing Up For God Isn’t Always Easy, BUT it is Always Worth it.

God’s burdens are lighter than doing life by yourself in your own strength. When you try to do things in your own strength and your own ability, you’re often left feeling disappointed and upset. If you want true contentment, it’s found in chasing after God.

Taking God’s burden and yoke isn’t always fun, but it is more fulfilling and easier than doing things alone in your own strength. So today, choose to chase after God. Get to know Him and realize that His burden is easy and His yoke is light!

And if anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom and he will give it! He won’t see your lack of wisdom as an opportunity to scold you over your failures but he will overwhelm your failures with his generous grace. – James 1:5 (TPT)

You could be in the midst of the end-of-year testing and schoolwork. And that might be leaving you stressed with feeling like you don’t have enough time to study or prepare. Maybe you stayed up late cramming for a test and now are really tired because you haven’t been getting enough sleep. Whether it’s finals or something else that is stressing you out, it can be easy to let the stress and pressure of life get you down.

Today’s Bible verse gives us encouragement when you’re in situations where you’re under pressure and you don’t feel like you know what to do. The verse tells us to ask God for wisdom. That might sound simple, but it’s really helpful.

Today’s Truth: If you ask God, He will give you wisdom!

God wants to help you. He wants to lead and guide you. All you have to do is ask Him for help. So today, if you haven’t, ask God for help. Ask Him to show you ways you can make your life less stressful. God wants to lead you and guide you. So take some time and find out what God would say to you today.

So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! – Hebrews 10:35 (NLT)

Have you ever accidentally thrown something important away? Maybe you had some history homework that you’d completed and were ready to turn it into school the next day. As you were getting ready for school in the morning, you realized it wasn’t in your backpack like you thought it was.

After a lot of hunting, you found it….IN THE TRASH! You realized that you had accidentally put it in there with a bunch of other things you were throwing away.

Today’s Truth: Confidence in God Has Great Reward

It’s easy to accidentally throw something away. However, we want to make sure that we don’t do that to our confidence in God. When bad things happen to you in life you can want to throw away your confidence in God. When you get busy focusing on friends and relationships it’s easy to throw away your confidence in God.

So today, determine that you’re going to make God a priority in your life. Don’t let circumstances and things stop you from putting your confidence in God. As you do, you’ll realize that confidence in God has great rewards!

As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us. – Hebrews 12:1

Have you ever wanted to do big things for God but were always held back? Sometimes, we let sin, fear, or wounds stop us from doing the things God has called us to do. In today’s Bible verse, we are encouraged to let go of the wounds and sin and to run the race God has set before us.

Many of the heroes in the Bible had to do this. They had to lay aside their fears, sins, and wounds to do the things God had called them to do. This doesn’t mean that they were perfect, but rather that they believed what God said about them.

Today’s Truth: What Do I Need to Let Go Of to Trust God?

In the areas where they felt weak and like they fell short, those Bible heroes trusted God. They knew God was the one to make up the difference. If you’re going to do big things for God, you’re going to have to lay some things aside. Once you stop looking at things other people have said or done to you, it frees you up to run your race for God.

A patient person shows great understanding, but a quick-tempered one promotes foolishness. – Proverbs 14:29 (HCSB)

Maybe you’re counting down the days until your summer vacation from school. Or perhaps you’re looking forward to going to college and leaving all the drama of high school behind. Many times, we’re really excited about the future, so much so that we forget to enjoy the present.

Being present and enjoying the present can be a really difficult skill to master. It’s easy to become impatient when things get boring and take longer than you expected. The secret to true happiness is learning to be content regardless of whether you’re having fun or where you’d like to be in life. Being patient can be difficult.

The good news is that you don’t have to be patient alone. Patience is a fruit of the spirit. That means that if you’ve accepted Jesus into your heart, you’ve got patience in you. You’ve just got to choose to let patience work in your life.

Developing patience isn’t fun or easy. However, the rewards of developing patience are good. You’ll find that you’re much happier. Choose today to enjoy where you are right now, even if it’s not where you want to be. Choose to be happy regardless of what is going on around you.

Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, “Life is not pleasant anymore.” – Ecclesiastes 12:1 (NLT)

The day I turned 16 and got my driver’s license was a great day! I was so excited to finally be driving. I remember sitting alone behind the steering wheel of my vehicle feeling both a little scared and also really excited. Learning how to drive, like many experiences you have as a teenager can be really exciting.

However, today’s Bible verse tells us in the middle of those exciting experiences to not forget God. That means we’re to draw close to God at all times, in the good, bad, and even normal times of your life.

It’s easy to forget about God as you’re going about your daily life. Remembering God takes work. However, putting God first in your decisions and experiences will pay off in the end. When you put God first, you will avoid a lot of heartbreak and failure. So even though it takes some effort, including God in your daily life is worth it in the long run.

Today choose to put God first in your decisions, relationships, and experiences. Choose to step out of what is easy and do what is right. Determine to pursue God in all you do.

and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’”  – Joshua 4:3 (ESV)

Throughout the Bible, God would have people do certain things to help them remember something He did for them. In today’s verse, we see God encouraging Israel to set up stones to help them remember how God helped them cross the river. God did this so they wouldn’t easily forget what He had done in their lives.

For us, it’s easy to forget the goodness of God too. We face a new problem, and it makes us forget the good things God has done for us in the past. In the Old Testament, they often would build a memorial. Today, your mom might not be too happy with you building a huge tower in your backyard. However, there are things we can do to remember without building something.

One easy thing to do is to put it on your phone. Maybe you got saved and know the date you made that decision. Put it in your phone and set your phone to alert you every year on that date. When the reminder goes off on your phone, you get a chance to remember what God did for you.

If you don’t have a phone, start a journal. Write down the things God is speaking to you. Then take some time every once in a while to go back and read what you wrote previously. You’ll be amazed at all the things you can see that God has done in your life up to this point.

Whatever you do, make sure that you’re marking the things God has done for you. It’s so easy to get busy and forget that God has been moving in your life. Make a habit of marking down what God has done in your life and then spending time thanking Him for His goodness to you.