Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

Easter Pie

READ: ISAIAH 53:1-5; 2 CORINTHIANS 4:8-18; 1 PETER 5:6-11 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ISAIAH%2053%3A1-5%3B%202%20CORINTHIANS%204%3A8-18%3B%201%20PETER%205%3A6-11&version=NLT] The pastor spoke through the laptop sitting on a TV tray in my living room. It wasn’t the typical way I spent Easter Sunday. I took a few steps and opened the blinds, mimicking how the shades opened during service at my home church. My mom laughed, and I returned to the couch to listen to the Easter message. Several days earlier, I had an ovarian cyst the size of a grapefruit removed from my abdomen. The sixty days before the surgery had been filled with confusion, anguish, and debilitating pain. Unsure of the root cause at first, I spent weeks scheduling tests with doctors until the cyst was finally found. Even after the doctors found the cyst, I had to wait another month for the surgery. That month was one of the hardest months of my life. Chronic pain and fatigue, while trying to teach a class full of rambunctious first graders, made me question why God was allowing this in my life. Those sixty days were hard, but through them, I came to feel closer to God. The nights when I had pain so severe I thought it might burst through my body, I called out to God, and He sustained me. When I wasn’t sure how I would endure, I clung to His promises, and He came through. That Easter was different than any other Easter, but it was also the rawest example of the Easter message in my life. My body had felt dead, consumed in pain and anguish, but through the hands of skilled doctors, God had raised my body back to life. Later that day, my mom drove us to a nearby restaurant. It was a huge accomplishment to get dressed, climb into a car, and sit in a booth. My broken body was being restored. Easter pie never tasted so sweet. • Jenna Brooke Carlson • On Easter Sunday, we celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead! Through His death and resurrection, He made the way for us to be restored to relationship with God—and for all of creation to be made new one day when Jesus returns. As we wait for this glorious day, we have the incredible blessings of Jesus’s presence with us every moment, and the many ways He shows us His care and healing. Yet we also long for renewal that isn’t here yet. Can you think of a time you felt broken? Were there any ways you noticed God caring for you? • Where are you still waiting for God’s renewal? Consider taking a moment to talk to Him about this. But those who die in the Lord will live; their bodies will rise again! Those who sleep in the earth will rise up and sing for joy! For your life-giving light will fall like dew on your people in the place of the dead! Isaiah 26:19 (NLT)

Does Jesus Know My Pain?

READ: ISAIAH 52:13–53:12; JOHN 16:33; HEBREWS 4:14-16 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ISAIAH%2052%3A13%E2%80%9353%3A12%3B%20JOHN%2016%3A33%3B%20HEBREWS%204%3A14-16&version=NLT] Long before Jesus was born, many prophets foretold His coming. Isaiah was one of these prophets. And his words (found in the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament) use powerful imagery to convey God’s glorious redemption story. Isaiah had a lot of incredible things to say about Jesus, even before He was born. One of Isaiah’s most gripping word-picture passages is Isaiah 52:13–53:12. Earlier in the book of Isaiah, we learn of Jesus’s power and divinity (9:6-7). But here, we understand His relatable, humbling humanity. Jesus knows our pain— He was not particularly attractive, He knew suffering and sadness, and He was despised by many (53:2-3). Jesus loves us so much that He willingly took on this pain and affliction, and He suffered to the point of death on the cross. For you and me. We praise Him because through His death and resurrection He has overcome the pains and sins of this world! He offers us new life in Himself— forgiving our sins, saving us from death, and healing all our hurts (53:5). No matter what you’re going through, you can trust that Jesus loves you, and He understands your pain to the fullest. He knows grief. He knows what it feels like to be unpopular and rejected by people. He knows abandonment. He even knows death. He didn’t have to experience these painful things, but He chose to enter into our suffering in order to heal us. Jesus knows your pain and loves you immensely, which is why He died for you. He came to heal you from the sin and pain of this world and to bring you into a right relationship with Himself. You can always bring your pain to Him because He understands, and He cares. • Rachel Wierenga • Consider reading Isaiah 52:13–53:12 slowly. What phrases stick out to you the most? How do these make you feel—curious, confused, sad, thankful, frustrated, peaceful, or something else? • What sort of pain are you experiencing today? It might be physical, emotional, mental, relational, or spiritual. Consider taking a moment to tell Jesus about your pain. You can be totally honest with Him. He truly knows what you’re going through, and He weeps with you. • When Jesus returns and raises all His people from the dead, we will have resurrected bodies and live harmoniously together in restored creation! Revelation 21:4 says, “There will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.” How can this eternal future give us hope for today? But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. Isaiah 53:5 (NLT)

Salvation Walk

READ: ISAIAH 53:1-12; MARK 15:16-41; LUKE 23:34, 39-43 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ISAIAH%2053%3A1-12%3B%20MARK%2015%3A16-41%3B%20LUKE%2023%3A34%2C%2039-43&version=NLT] Anguished, Blood splatters On the sacred ground. Jesus weeps for us. Soldiers taunt Spitting, striking Upon His holy face Our Savior scars for us. Falling, rejected, Brutal nails pierce Into the Son of God Jesus dies for us. Many did not understand Who you were and are: The Lamb, the Messiah, Restorer of our brokenness. • Cindy Lee • Today’s poem describes Jesus’s journey, death, and sacrifice. He knew that suffering the cross was the only way to repair the broken relationship between us and God. It was worth it to Him to give up everything for us—because He loves us. Consider taking some time to read today’s Bible passages slowly and ponder God’s love and sacrifice for you. • If you want to know more about what Jesus has done for us, who are trusted Christians in your life you could talk to about it? You can also find more about Jesus on our "Know Jesus [https://unlocked.org/knowjesus/]" page. For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NLT)

Maundy Thursday: Love and Service

READ: JOHN 13:1-38 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=JOHN%2013%3A1-38&version=NLT] Maundy Thursday is one of my favorite times in the church calendar. The evening service I attend is one I have always found deeply moving. Listening to Scripture during the commemoration, it’s as if the words transport me back in time to the upper room sitting with Jesus and His friends. Key moments from the Bible unfold, like when: Jesus washes His disciples’ feet. As Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, He humbled Himself and adopted a servant’s role. At times in the history of the UK (where I live), the monarch would reenact this Christian message by washing the feet of the poor and giving them donations. Ministers all over the world still wash people’s feet. It can remind all of us of the way Jesus humbly loved and served us—and the way He calls us to love and serve each other. Friends gather together. When Jesus gathers His close friends together for a meal, they are celebrating the Jewish Passover (Exodus 12). During this meal, Jesus points to His upcoming sacrifice on the cross. It’s impossible to imagine the sorrow and anxiety Jesus experienced. Even His friends couldn’t offer Him strength. He predicted Judas’s betrayal and Peter’s denial, and loved them still. This caused uncertainty in the room. Everyone wanted to know who the traitor was, and Peter argued with Jesus that he would never deny Him. It paints a raw picture of human frailty. Jesus’s fulfillment of the plan of salvation draws near. The Last Supper is the start of the horrific events that lead to Jesus’s betrayal, torture, and death. Although the disciples couldn’t comprehend it at the time, today we know that Jesus defeated death through His resurrection—and now He offers salvation as a free gift to all who believe in Him! Wherever you may be on Maundy Thursday, this special day during the last week of Lent is a wonderful reminder of the love and forgiveness Jesus offers to us—sinful and broken people that we are. The celebration of the Passover in the upper room was the start of a momentous event that would change lives forever, offering hope and salvation to those in the past, present, and future. • Cindy Lee • Consider reading John 13:1-38 slowly, and imagine you are in the upper room while these events take place. What moments stick out to you? Which people do you resonate with? What do you notice about Jesus? Consider spending some time in prayer, talking to Jesus about all of this. Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. John 13:1 (NLT)

Rooster Crow

READ: MARK 14:27-31, 66-72 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=MARK%2014%3A27-31%2C%2066-72&version=CSB] A rooster crowed at the moment of the apostle Peter’s biggest failure. Let’s back up a few hours before that awful choice. On the night of Jesus’s betrayal, He warned His disciples that they would scatter when He was taken from them. That’s when Peter spoke up: no matter what the others would do, he would not deny Jesus! But Jesus had sad news for Peter. That very night, he would deny Jesus three times before the rooster crowed. Sure enough, as we read in today’s Bible passage, Peter denied knowing Jesus. But, upon hearing the rooster crow and realizing what he had done, Peter broke down and wept. Peter loved Jesus and wanted to be faithful—yet he abandoned and denied Jesus in His darkest hour. Have you had any rooster crow moments? Times when you were sure you would follow what God’s Word said? Times when a quick decision had to be made, and you made the wrong one? Times when you chose sin over Jesus? Then, when you realized what you had done, you stopped and wept. You mourned a choice that couldn’t be unmade. The rooster was crowing in the background. But here’s the good news. Jesus loves us and knows our struggles against sin. He has not left us alone. When we trust Him as our Savior and Lord, He wraps us in His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). In God’s eyes, it’s like we’ve never done anything wrong. And God has given us His Word and His Spirit to teach us the way and empower us as we learn to walk in it. When we are tempted to sin, we can listen to the Holy Spirit, rejecting sin and remembering who we are in Christ (Titus 2:11-14). And when we do sin, we can run to Jesus, knowing that we are securely held in His love and forgiveness— even in our rooster crow moments (Romans 8:33-39; Hebrews 4:14-16; 1 John 1:9–2:1). • Deborah del Villar • Read John 21:15-19. After Peter failed, was Jesus done with him? • Read 1 Corinthians 10:13 and Hebrews 4:14-16. When we sin or are tempted to sin, why can we always run to Jesus? My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one. 1 John 2:1 (CSB)