One of the greatest gifts we can give our children is confidence in God’s Word. That’s why I’m so excited to share this interview with my friend Anna Meade Harris, one of the editors of God with You, a new devotional that helps teens trace the story of redemption from Genesis to Revelation.
With contributions from youth ministers, teachers, and parents, all of whom are skilled in communicating the gospel to young people, this year-long devotional shows how the Bible is one unified story centered on Christ and helps teens discover Jesus as the source of true rest, hope, and reassurance. I’m so grateful for this thoughtful resource and hope you enjoy learning more about it. God with You is available to order now.
1. Can you tell us a little bit about Rooted ministry and the contributors to this project?
In Rooted’s sixteen years of ministry, parents and youth pastors have consistently asked us to recommend a biblically rich devotional for teenagers. It’s been our prayer that God would enable us to create that resource—and it’s finally here!
God With You: A 52 Week Devotional Through the Whole Bible for Teenagers has been a labor of love for 55 writers, 3 editors, and a project manager. The writers are youth pastors, lead pastors, parents, youth volunteers, schoolteachers, counselors, and even a college student. The members of our editorial team—two former youth pastors and two former teachers—are all parents, with 12 kids ranging in age from 3 to 29. Each member of our team has been opening the Bible with teenagers for much of their personal and professional lives, and we’re dedicated to helping kids know and love God through his Word.
2. What prompted you to write God with You? Was there a particular burden for today’s teenagers that inspired this project?
It’s really tough to be a teenager right now. At home and at school, through friends and at church, teenagers have always had a number of voices speaking into their lives. Social media has exponentially amplified Folly’s voice (Prov. 9:16-17), meaning we must be more deliberate than ever to teach our children about who God really is. Only Jesus has “the words of eternal life” (John 6:68), and there’s no better place for teenagers to learn the voice of their Good Shepherd than through his own words in Scripture. That’s where they get to know Jesus, who he is and what he sounds like. Listening to Jesus in the pages of their Bibles, they will be better able to hear his gentle voice speaking love and life, even in the cacophony of nonsense and evil social media offers.
Additionally, teenagers report record levels of isolation, anxiety, and loneliness. God With You not only reminds young readers of God’s permanent presence in the life of the believer, it emphasizes church and Christian community. Our hope and prayer is that adults will read the devotional alongside their teenagers, using it for family devotions or small groups, revealing the joy of studying God’s Word together.
3. Rather than focusing on topical studies, God with You walks readers through the Bible chronologically. Why is this important?
In a recent article, Alistair Chalmers remarked that despite the abundance of devotional materials available for Christians, our biblical literacy is remarkably underdeveloped. A Lifeway study on Gen Z revealed that young adults can be “deeply involved” in church without being “deeply formed.” With these things in mind, it just makes sense to offer young believers the theological depth they need to nourish a robust, lifelong faith. A chronological approach to the Bible helps young people develop that essential biblical literacy.
In God With You, every Old Testament entry in the book refers to the New Testament and vice versa. Every entry demonstrates how that passage reveals the gospel. Showing teenagers the consistency and unity of the Bible—it’s all a story about Jesus—makes it easier for them to see both his goodness and our need for him. We aim to help young people treasure God’s Word, to fuel their curiosity about and desire for Jesus, and to see how God has always been at work for our good and his glory. We pray that God’s Spirit will be at work through the Word and the pages of God With You, forming hearts that love Jesus.
4. Our culture tells teenagers to discover themselves by looking inward. How does Scripture offer a different vision of identity?
In the opening chapter of Scripture, God wastes no time giving us a clear and infinitely valuable identity: we are made in His own image (Gen. 1:26), to rule over his creation (v. 26), to be fruitful and multiply (v. 28). Here we discover who we are and what God means for us to do. Everything we have—life itself, not to mention belonging, dignity, and purpose—it’s all received, a gift from the Lover of our souls. Our identity is bestowed, coming from outside ourselves. We cannot find it in some nebulous, undefined journey of “looking inward.” What we find there changes on a whim anyway, especially if we’re feeling tired, hungry, tempted, lonely, or bored.
But God gives us a rock-solid identity. What he says about us will never change because he is utterly stable and completely reliable. When all else fails, and all else will fail, God never does. We could not be more secure than we are in Christ (Psalm 16:9, John 10:28). We can say to the struggling teenager: let your Creator tell you who you are. Let your Savior show you your worth. If you ever doubt, look to the Cross, where Christ died to atone for your sins and give you an eternally secure identity as his adopted brother or sister.
There simply is no other way to understand the infinite value and meaning of the life you’ve been given.
5. Many parents want to help their teenagers engage Scripture but aren’t sure where to begin. What encouragement would you offer them?
Begin by finding your own delight in God’s Word. If you don’t feel a hunger for God’s Word, ask him for it. That desire to study Scripture is both a gift from God and an acquired taste. Acclimate your palate by study, asking questions of wise mentors, singing hymns, and praying God’s Word back to him. Because it’s the nature of a parent to give good gifts to their children (Matt. 7:11), your excitement will overflow into your conversations and interactions with your children. I’m not talking about cramming Bible verses into every conversation about soccer practice or friend drama; if you “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16), his words will shape your words organically, spilling out of the overflow of a Bible-saturated heart and mind.
The second key is to combat your own anxiety well. You have an important role in helping your child know Scripture, but the Holy Spirit is alone responsible for opening their eyes to the truth of the gospel. You cannot make your child love God or his Word. Do your part—give them a Bible and read it with them, take them to church weekly and discuss what you hear, let Scripture shape your life, and pray, pray, pray—but most of all, trust God with your child. He loves that child more than you do.
6. For a sneak peek, here are some quotes: 
If you’ve been bullied or hurt, did something inside you cry out for things to be made right? That cry for justice is something God shares. He is not indifferent to evil, and we see this in the book of Nahum.
God’s Word combats your deepest insecurities with the truth: the most important thing about you is that you are created and loved by God. You need not fear a God who is acquainted with all your ways.
We are saved by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, not by our own efforts to do good and be good.
When we rebel and run away, our Shepherd doesn’t abandon us to our bad choices. He leads us back to safety and the fullness of his blessing.
7. Here are some endorsements:
“God with You is an ambitious project with significant potential. With 260 short readings, five per week, the devotions trace the Christ-centered story of Scripture in ways teens can grasp. I encourage families and youth groups to work through it in sections for deeper impact. It can strengthen biblical literacy and cultivate a durable, gospel-rooted faith.” — Steve S. Chang, president, SOLA Network
“Rooted in Scripture and shaped by the real questions and pressures teens face today, this devotional offers far more than inspiration; it points young people to a hope that is practical and resilient, grounded in God’s story, and strong enough to help them trust and follow Jesus in the midst of real life.” — Kara Powell, PhD, executive director of the Fuller Youth Institute and coauthor of Future-Focused Church
“How I wish I would have had a copy of God with You when I was a teenager! It brims with the wisdom and grace one thirsts for at all stages of life but especially during the singularly spiky period known as adolescence. This is the Good News, digestibly delivered day after day without a whiff of condescension–zero homework vibes, in other words.” — David Zahl, author of Seculosity and The Big Relief
8. If you could sit down over coffee or pizza with your teenage self, what encouragement would you give?
When God says he is able to do far more abundantly than you could ask or think (Eph. 3:20); when he tells you that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Phil. 4:19); when he says he has given you everything you need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3); when he says he loves you with an everlasting love (Jer. 13:31)… IT’S ALL TRUE. It’s the truest thing in the world. It will take many years and lots of ups and downs for you to begin to see it, but God is as good as he says he is—in fact, he’s better.
Sometimes he will feel far away. He isn’t. He will never leave you or forsake you (Heb. 13:5). He is always speaking to you in the pages of your Bible. Find him there.
God is with you, always, even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20).
Anna Meade Harris (MA) is contributing editor at Rooted Ministry, co-host of the Rooted Parent podcast, and author of God’s Grace for Every Family (Zondervan, 2024, winner of Christianity Today’s 2024 Book Award in the Marriage, Family, and Singleness category).
