Browsing Tag

prayer

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Philippians 4:6

Posted on April 16, 2024

Phil 4:6

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. – Phil 4:6

Do you ever struggle to pray? Maybe you feel really awkward talking out loud to God. Perhaps you try to pray, but just don’t know what to say. There can be lots of reasons why prayer might feel unnatural to you.

However, today’s Bible verse says that we are to pray about everything. We aren’t to worry, stress out or fear the things we face in life, we are to pray about them instead. If we’re to pray about everything, how do we make prayer seem easier?

One of the best ways to make prayer easier is to remember that when you pray, it’s just like you’re speaking to a friend. You can be real with God, talk to Him and tell Him how you feel about things going on around you. You can be honest and say I’m hurting or I need help. The great thing about God is that He wants to hear from you.

Today’s Truth: God wants to hear from you, so take some time today to spend in prayer.

Today, take some time out of your busy day and spend it in prayer. Let God know your fears, worries, and let Him speak to you. You’ll never regret spending time in prayer with God.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – James 5:16

Posted on January 26, 2023

I want you to think for a moment about who your closest friends are. When you hang out, do you have trouble talking to them? Or is it easy? My guess is that you don’t really struggle that much to talk to your good friends. But if you’re honest, talking to God or praying can feel overwhelming at times. You may not feel like you know the right words to say or how to go about praying.

With that in mind, here are a few tips to help get you unstuck when praying.

  1. Anyone Can Pray – It’s good news to know that you don’t have to be a Bible scholar or have a ton of scriptures memorized. You can begin praying right now.

    James 5:16 – “Anyone who lives the way God wants can pray, and great things will happen” (ERV)

  2. Prayer Is Just Connecting With God – You can connect with God just like you would with friends. Connect with God by telling him your thoughts, feelings, fears and dreams.
  3. Pray The Word – This is freeing, when you realize that you don’t have to always come up with stuff to pray. Use your Bible to help you and pray scriptures out over your life and others.
  4. Pray with Authority – You can know that God hears you when you pray and great things will happen when you pray.

Realize that prayer is a lot like talking to a friend. There is no right way to do it, just like there is no one right way to pray. Take the pressure off yourself to pray the “right way” and begin simply spending time with God.

James 5:16

Similar Devotions For Teens

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – James 5:16

Posted on September 7, 2022

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. – James 5:16

Today’s Bible verse is an awesome encouragement. The last part of the verse talks about the prayers of a righteous person. We know from the Bible that if we’ve accepted Jesus then we’ve been made righteous, so this verse is talking to Christians.

This verse tells us that as Christians our prayers aren’t just some words that we hope that God hears and does something about. No, it shows us that our prayers produce wonderful results.

Today’s Truth: When you pray, God hears you, and your prayers produce good results!

That means when you pray, you can know that God hears you and that your prayers are producing something! Be encouraged today to keep praying and believing God because your prayers work!

Prayer

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – James 5:16

Posted on May 19, 2020

Teen Devotion and Bible Verse

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. – James 5:16 (NLT)

Praying can feel overwhelming at times. You may not feel like you know the right words to say or how to go about praying. Here are a few things to remember when praying.

  1. Anyone Can Pray – It’s good news to know that you don’t have to be a Bible scholar or have a ton of scriptures memorized. You can begin praying right now, where you’re at.
  2. Prayer Is Just Connecting With God – You can connect with God just like you would with friends through a text, Snapchat, or Twitter. Connect with God by telling him your thoughts, feelings, fears, and dreams. Also, let Him know that you love Him and you’re grateful for His help in your life.
  3. Pray The Word – This is freeing, when you realize that you don’t have to always come up with stuff to pray. Use your Bible to help you and pray scriptures out over your life and to help you pray for others too. If you don’t know where to start, use Google to search for Bible verses on the subject you’d like to pray about.
  4. Pray with Authority – You can know that God hears you when you pray and great things will happen when you pray. Today’s Bible verse tells us that when we pray it’s powerful and produces wonderful results.

[Tweet “When you pray the Bible you can expect powerful results – @studentdevos”]

Praying is an awesome way to connect with God, to thank Him for what He’s done in your life, and to also see results. If your prayers are based on the Bible, you can expect to see powerful results. So make prayer a part of your day today. Spend time reaching out to God and experience the power available to you as you pray.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Hebrews 4:16

Posted on January 3, 2020

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. – Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)

Have you ever felt like God was too busy to deal with your stuff? Or maybe that you just weren’t important enough for Him to really care about you? It’s easy to feel like God is so busy handling really big things that He might not have the time or energy to care about you.

Perhaps you feel like you’re not worthy enough or that you’ve made too many mistakes to really matter to God. However, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. God loves you. He cares about even the smallest detail of your life.

So when it comes to prayer and talking to God, know this truth: you matter to Him. You’re His child and there is no one He’d rather hear from.

Tip #5 – Praying is easy when you know you can come to God…no matter what

You have every right to come to God. Jesus made it possible for you to come to God with no sin held against you. There’s nothing that’s stopping you from having a relationship with God. So today, choose to believe this truth. Let it become part of who you are. Then spend time developing your relationship with God. God is excited to hear from you!

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Hebrews 11:6

Posted on January 2, 2020

Teen Devotion on How To Make Prayer Easier

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. – Hebrews 11:6 (NLT)

Have you ever had a hard time praying? Maybe you felt like you didn’t know what to say or where to get started. Perhaps you even felt like you shouldn’t be bothering God about your troubles in math class when God has to deal with really big stuff like wars, famine, hunger, and people dying.

The truth is, we can let our excuses and fears stop us from having an exciting relationship with God.

That’s not what God really wants. God wants more than anything to have a relationship with you. He is excited and ready to hear what you have to say.

Tip #4- Praying Becomes easier when you know God is excited to hear from you

God isn’t too busy to hear you out. He wants to help you, lead you and guide you into all truth. God desires to know you and to reveal himself to you. You’ve just got to simply believe that He wants to hear from you.

[Tweet “God is excited to hear from you! – @studentdevos”]

So today, don’t believe the lie that God is too busy for you. The truth is He is excited to hear from you!

 

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – James 5:16

Posted on December 31, 2019

Teen New Years Resolution - Prayer

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. – James 5:16 (NLT)

In yesterday’s devotion, we talked about how to make Bible reading easy for the new year. Today, let’s talk about prayer. It’s easy to feel weird when you’re about to pray. Sometimes you don’t know what to say or how to really get started doing it. So today, we’re going to show a few easy ways to make prayer part of your routine in 2020.

Tip #2 – Spend 5 Minutes in Prayer Each Day

When you’re starting off, it can be really exciting wanting to pray and you think, I’ll spend 30 minutes a day praying and it will be so easy and wonderful. Then three days later, you begin dreading the idea of praying in the first place. So instead of a huge and lofty goal of prayer, consider doing something sustainable.

Choose to spend 5 minutes a day in prayer. It might be while you take a shower. It could be waiting for the bus each morning. Find a place that works for you and commit to 5 minutes each day. Set a timer on your phone and when it goes off, you’re done. Setting a timer might make it feel a little less spiritual, but sometimes knowing you’re not spending hours on end helps you push in for a few minutes. If the 5 minutes is over and you’re still enjoying your time with God, don’t feel like you have to stop. Just let the five minutes be your starting point and commit to doing it each day.

Try Praying Like This:

Lots of times it can be hard to know where to start when you pray. One easy thing to do is to start by finding a couple of things you can thank God for. Find two or three things and spend a minute or two thanking God for the good things in your life.

After that, talk to God a bit. Tell Him areas where you struggle. Be honest and open with Him. Ask God for help and wisdom for the tough things you’re facing.

Finish up praying by telling God how much you love Him.

A simple format like this takes only a few minutes, but you’ll be surprised how much you’ll grow in your walk with God as a result of spending 5 minutes a day praying.

 

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Romans 8:26

Posted on October 3, 2018

Prayer Devotion for Teens

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. – Romans 8:26 (MSG)

Have you ever been really tired? I remember one time after a missions trip, I stayed awake for almost 30 hours because I wanted to spend every last minute with my friends from the trip. When I got home, I was exhausted.

When you get really tired, it’s hard to accomplish much. And prayer is no different. It’s easy to get tired of waiting for the answer that you prayed for. Or maybe you get tired just praying for much more than three minutes at a time.

The good news is that even if prayer seems hard, tiring or boring, you don’t have to be tired and do it alone. You have the Holy Spirit to help us pray. The Holy Spirit will help you pray for things you don’t know how to pray for. He’ll bring things to your memory so that you pray for them. You aren’t doing it alone. The holy spirit is there to help you, lead you and guide you.

It’s so awesome knowing we can depend on the Holy Spirit! He’s there to help us, encourage us when we’re tired or weak and even help us when we don’t know what or how to pray. We don’t have to do it on our own! The Holy Spirit is there to help.

Take some time today to thank God for giving us the Holy Spirit. He helps us in our time need!

3 Practical Steps to Help You Accomplish Your Dreams

Posted on January 16, 2017

 

Youth and Teen Devotion - 3 Practical Steps to Reach Your Dreams

If you’re like most teenagers, you want to do something big with your life. You don’t want to be ordinary, but you do want to accomplish something meaningful. You desire to live your life to help others.

These desires are God breathed into your life. They’re exciting and fun and for some of you, they will be world changing. As fun as dreams are, success doesn’t happen automatically. To help your dreams become successful in the long term, we’ve come up with three practical steps to help you accomplish your dreams.

Step One – Prayer.

When you’re in the midst of doing something big for God prayer is vital. You’ve got to get God’s vision for your dream. God will show you how to do something when you don’t know how. He’ll show you the people you need to do the things that God is calling you to do, and He’ll give you the grace to do it. Be quick to go to God for His help.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

God sees the big picture. He has the benefit of knowing the future, so it’s important to get His input on your dreams and goals. Sometimes God will tell you to wait because the timing isn’t right to accomplish your dream. Other times, He might show you that you need some help or training to do what you feel in your heart to do. Be open to hearing from God about your dream. Follow His leading on the timing, and whether the dream is really what you’re to be doing right now.

Often God will put things in your heart, but they won’t come to pass all at once. Be patient and let God lead you in the development and discovery of your dream.

[Tweet “Be patient and let God lead you in discovering your dream – @studentdevos”]

Step Two – Discovery.

Discovery should always be a step in reaching your dreams. Discovery is simply getting to know yourself. During this phase, you’ll want to identify what types of things you excel at, and discover potential weaknesses. Its also helpful to get to know about jobs or careers that could potentially interest you. Learning about both of these areas is what dream discovery is all about.

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. – 1 Peter 4:10 (NLT)

You have a God given gift that you can use to help others. Spend the time to find out what that is for you. Ask God to show you what things He’s put inside you and how you can begin to use them to make a difference.

Another part of discovery is to begin looking for others who have done something similar to what you want to do. Maybe you dream of a music career. Seek out others who have careers in music. Find out what education they needed for what they do. Find out what they do on a daily basis and see if it seems like this is something that would be a good fit for your strengths.

Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe. – Proverbs 28:26 (NLT)

It’s always worth it to invest the time to discover if your dream is a good fit for your gifts, personality and strengths.

Step Three – Reality Check.

After exploring the other two steps above, it’s good to do a little reality check. After you’ve spent some time discovering some of your gifts and talents, does your dream fit within your gifts? Do you believe that you could realistically accomplish your dream?

Also after praying and spending time with God, how do you feel about your dream? Is the timing right for you to pursue your dream? Do you feel like this dream is inspired by God? In answering these questions, choose to put God’s leading ahead of your own excitement if it’s needed. Be open to adjusting your goal or dream if God is pushing you that way. Choose to put God first in the pursuit of your dreams and goals.

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. – Matthew 6:33 (NLT)

[Tweet “Choose to put God first in the pursuit of your dreams and goals – @studentdevos”]

God has given you a dream to do something exciting with your life. He’s gifted you in a unique way to accomplish the things that He has put on your heart. Don’t be afraid to dream big and get involved with your dreams. With God’s help you can accomplish big things!

If you’ve got a Bible study or a youth group and would like to use this devotion for discussion, we’ve got some easy to use discussion questions based on this devotion.

 

Who Should I Pray To?

Posted on January 8, 2014

Devotion For Teens On PrayerHave you ever wondered who to pray to? Or who you should address when you pray? Should you start out your prayer by saying, “Our Father”? Or should you be directing your prayers to Mary? There are so many questions about what is the “right” way to pray. How do you decide who you should pray to and what you should call that person?

The best place to start with questions on prayer is in the Bible. The Bible talks a lot about prayer. One place that talks about prayer is when Jesus was with his disciples in Luke 11. His disciples started asking Jesus questions about prayer. One of the first things they asked Jesus was to teach them how to pray. Jesus responded like this:

[quote align=”center” color=”#999999″] 2 Jesus said, “This is how you should pray: “Father, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. 3Give us each day the food we need, 4and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation.” [/quote]

In this verse, Jesus shows us who we should be praying to, God the Father. He addresses God as Father and since he was giving the disciples a model for prayer in these verses, we can use the same format when we are praying. We can talk to God as our father in prayer! That’s exciting news. God isn’t some far off God that has nothing to do with our lives, but he’s a real God that we can pray to as father.

So remember, that when you pray, you are praying to God the father. He’s the one that you’re talking to and spending time with.