A devotional does not need to be long or fancy. It needs to be real, and it needs to happen most days.
A promises of God devotional is a simple idea. Each day you take one promise from the Bible, you read it slowly, you find out who first heard it, and you pray it back to God in your own words. Over time you build a store of promises in your heart that you can reach for when life gets hard.
You do not need a special book or an app to start. A King James Bible, a notebook and ten quiet minutes are enough. This page gives you a five step method, walks through one verse as an example, and then answers an honest question many people carry: if prayer helps, why does it so often feel like it does not?
What is a Christian devotional?
The word devotion means giving yourself to someone. A devotional is a set time when you give your attention to God. Most people keep it in the morning, before the day pulls at them. David wrote that in the morning he would direct his prayer to God and look up. Mark tells us that Jesus rose a great while before day, went to a quiet place and prayed.
A devotional is not a test you pass or a box you check. Some days you will feel close to God and some days you will not. The habit is what carries you through the dry days. Daniel prayed three times a day, as he had done before, even when it could cost him his life. That steady habit is what held him when the pressure came.
Five steps with one promise a day
- Ask for helpBefore you read, say one sentence to God. Something like Lord, speak to me in what I read today.
- Read it slowlyRead the promise out loud, twice. Then read the few verses around it so you know the setting.
- Find who heard itAsk who God was speaking to, what was going on, and whether there is an if. This keeps you from claiming too much or too little.
- Pray it backTell God what the promise says, tell Him what you are facing, and ask Him to do what He said.
- Take one line with youWrite a few words of the verse on a card or your phone. Read it at lunch and again before bed.
That is the whole method. On a busy day it takes five minutes. On a slow Sunday afternoon it can take an hour. Either way, you meet God through something He actually said.
A worked example: Philippians 4:6 to 7
Here is how one morning might go with a single promise. We picked a verse about prayer and peace, because worry is one of the most common reasons people open a Bible in the first place.
Step one: ask
You sit down with your coffee and say, Lord, I am anxious this morning. Please speak to me.
Step two: read it slowly
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7 (KJV)
The word careful in the King James means full of care, or anxious. So the first line is not telling you to be careless. It is telling you not to be eaten up with worry.
Step three: who heard it
Paul wrote this to the church at Philippi, a church he loved. He was a prisoner when he wrote it. That matters. A man in chains was telling free people not to worry. He knew what he was talking about. The promise is written to believers, and it has a shape: pray about everything, with thanks, and God's peace will guard your heart and mind. There is a response named, and there is a promise attached to it.
Step four: pray it back
You might pray something like this: Father, You said not to be anxious about anything. I am anxious about the bills and about my son. I am bringing both to You now. Thank You for the job I have, and thank You that he is still talking to me. You said Your peace would guard my heart. Please guard it today.
Step five: take one line
You write in every thing by prayer on a sticky note and put it on the dashboard. At a red light you see it and pray again, for ten seconds. That is a devotional that lasts all day.
Where the books fit
Every Promise of God was written to be used this way, one promise at a time.
Each promise in the books has its own page, and each page ends with a part called Stand on it: a short prayer, written to be said out loud, that turns the promise into words you can speak back to God. If you use the books for your devotional, that prayer can be your step four on the days you cannot find your own words. On other days, read it and then keep going in your own voice. The books go through the Bible in order, so reading a page a day also walks you through the story of Scripture, from the first promises in Genesis onward.
A first week to try
If you are not sure where to start, here is a week of promises from across the Bible. Use the five steps with one each morning.
| Day | Promise | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Psalm 23:1 to 4 | Starting the week in God's care |
| Monday | Joshua 1:9 | A hard task ahead |
| Tuesday | Isaiah 41:10 | Fear |
| Wednesday | Matthew 6:33 | Worry about money |
| Thursday | James 1:5 | A decision you need wisdom for |
| Friday | 2 Corinthians 12:9 | Weakness and tiredness |
| Saturday | 1 John 1:9 | Clearing the slate before the Lord's day |
Why prayer can feel like it doesn't work
If you have prayed hard and seen nothing change, you are not alone, and you are not doing it wrong because you feel that way. The Bible speaks to this with more honesty than people expect. Here are four things it says.
Sometimes we ask for the wrong thing. James wrote to believers who were fighting among themselves:
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
James 4:3 (KJV)
That is not a verse to beat yourself with. It is an invitation to let God reshape what you ask for.
Prayer lines up with God's will. John gives this confidence:
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
1 John 5:14-15 (KJV)
Many of God's promises show His will in plain words. That is why praying a promise is such solid ground.
Sometimes the answer is not yet. Jesus told a parable about a widow who kept going back to an unjust judge until he gave in. Luke says why He told it: so that people would keep praying and not lose heart.
Sometimes you do not know what to say. Then you are in good company.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Romans 8:26 (KJV)
If you are waiting on a long prayer, our guide on when God's promises are delayed may help.
Keeping the habit
Most people do not quit a devotional because they stop believing. They quit because they miss two days and feel guilty. So plan for missed days. If you skip one, start again the next morning with the next promise. No catching up, no shame.
Keep everything in one spot: Bible, notebook, pen. Put it where you sit first thing in the morning. Read the same promise for a whole week if it keeps speaking to you. And every so often, flip back through your notebook. You will find prayers God has answered that you had already forgotten you prayed.
If you want a ready verse each morning, our page of Bible promises for today has one for every day of the month.
Read them one at a time
Book One makes a ready devotional: Promises 1 through 295 from Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus, one per page, each ending in a prayer to say out loud. Read one page a morning and you will spend most of a year walking from the garden to Mount Sinai.