By: Tyler Faught
“If you want to be filled with the Spirit of God you must drink of His Word… What are you drinking?”
Danny Panter, Associate Pastor, First Baptist Church, SA
“How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
Psalm 119:103 (NASB)
I have a pet peeve about devotional materials. It has been my experience that many devotionals can be bad about using unrelated Bible passages or using passages out of context for the topic that the devotional is covering for that day. I first started to realize this while going through My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers while I was in seminary. I noticed that the verses often didn’t have anything to do with the devotional text. It started to bug me because it wouldn’t have been very hard to find verses to go with what Chambers was trying to say.
I started to look for other devotional materials and found that most of the books I looked at were either terrible at linking Bible reading with the devotional text they had for that day, very shallow, or had a me-centered focus. Sometimes I could tell they tried, but their interpretation of the Scripture was either too narrow, not taking into consideration the context for the passage, or they misinterpreted the passage.
Then during my hermeneutics class (Biblical Interpretation), we had an exercise where we were given devotional materials that had the author removed, and we had to read the Scripture passages selected by the author and read the devotional text. Then we graded how well the author used Scripture to support their devotional material. Most authors failed. What surprised me was that we were given a few devotionals written by Charles Spurgeon, and we gave him a C. It also wasn’t necessarily that the devotional material had problems with what was said. I think there was only one devotional we were given that was just theologically incorrect. Most of the material was correct in the content of the devotional, but the Scriptural reading for the day had little to nothing to do with what was discussed.
The Purpose of Devotionals
It feels unstructured and a bit chaotic to me to have random passages to read combined with a devotional. I think that it is a severely missed opportunity to combine Scripture with a devotional. The point of a devotional text is to encourage devotion to the Lord, and it really should only be in addition to time reading the Bible. Ideally, the devotional text would highlight what was said in the Scriptural reading and help either gain a greater understanding of the text or help in applying it to your life by helping you understand how you need to orient your life according to what the Scriptures have revealed. I think it’s dangerous and unfaithful to the text to misinterpret Scripture, tell people it means the wrong thing for their lives, and then publish it for so many people to be misguided.
So, what do we do then? Is using an off the shelf devotional bad? Not necessarily. Can it be bad? Definitely, but that depends mostly on how true to the Scriptures it is and where the focus of the material lies. Is it true to the text? Is it centered on the Lord? Does it draw your affection and thoughts to God? These are the questions I want to ask when I’m evaluating a devotional material.
I’ve read quite a few devotionals that at least teach and encourage correct theology. I still love a lot of Spurgeon’s writing. Is it the best thing to do with your “quiet time”? I think it depends. If you just want a short little time in the mornings to get your focus centered on thinking of heavenly things, then sure, go for it. However, I would encourage you to also have a time where you are focusing and meditating on the Word of God with no filters. That means reading and “ruminating” on God’s Word itself and not what someone else has written. Then ask some simple questions about the passage (context, observation, interpretation, application). Then, I would add a devotional if I have time. Using devotional materials should never replace time in the Word of God.
My goal in my quiet time is to have God’s Word on my mind and in my heart throughout each day. At times in my life, my quiet time has been spent memorizing Scripture, going through a devotional book, and going through a reading plan. If you’re someone who journals, it’s a good idea to write down your thoughts and questions as you read and write down things and people you’re praying for.
Helpful Tips on Structuring Your Quiet Time
Here are some helpful tips on structuring a quiet time plan. Typically, you want a consistent time each day that you have set aside for having a quiet time to help establish a good habit, but I have rarely had much opportunity to do that. It can be more difficult without a consistent daily schedule because with consistency, habits develop more easily. At a bare minimum, I would encourage you to spend time reading Scripture and spend time praying. Prioritize the time you have on the Word and structure other things around that. Right now, I spend my time reading and praying in the morning when I’m watching Titus. It’s not a lot of time, but I want it to still be a priority. I have been spending about 30 minutes doing this lately. Ideally, you want time alone, but as a parent of a little one, you take what you can get. Wallis has even been helping Titus, 18 months old now, with learning the ABC’s of God’s character. As he gets older, we’ll help him have time with the Lord and understand that daily time with the Lord is important to us and vital for the spiritual health of the believer.
Here are some devotional ideas in addition to Scripture reading: read through London Baptist Confession, the Baptist Faith and Message, commentaries, or biographies of Christian heroes.
I personally like to read through the Christ-Centered Exposition commentaries on books of the Bible that I want to study. (There are some available to be borrowed from the church library.) Paul Tripp has written a devotional called New Morning Mercies that I want to check out soon.
Lastly, find an author you like, see if they have written a devotional, and check it out and see if it:
1. stays true to the Word
2. is God-centered, not you-centered and
3. draws your affection and thoughts to God.
(The most important are the first two. Our affections can be easily manipulated, so let the third check be contingent on the first two.)
Ask: Is this true to the context of the Word? How does this move me to the Lord? Does it draw my affection and thoughts to God, His Word, and His work in my life and in the world?
My exhortation is not to forsake the reading of Scripture for the reading of a devotional book. Let a devotional supplement your time in the Word, not replace it.
“Be filled with the Spirit by responding to the Word of Christ, making room for its influence, giving our minds to its truth, our hearts to its teaching, and our wills to its obedience. To be under the influence of the Word is to place ourselves under the Lordship of the Spirit.”
Sinclair Ferguson
Corinth Baptist Church 