WHY YOUR DEVOTIONAL ISN’T A BIBLE
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WHY YOUR DEVOTIONAL ISN’T A BIBLE
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What do Bible teachers do for fun on a Friday night? They check the Amazon lists to see which Bible translation holds the top spot.
The last time I looked, it was the New International Version (NIV). The NIV has been the best-selling translation in the US for decades, but on Amazon’s rankings, the translation sat at No. 5, beat out by two children’s Bibles, an audio Bible, and at No. 1, a popular devotional guide that somehow made its way into the Bible category.
The devotional far outshone the Bibles on the list, boasting 5,800 five-star reviews in 18 months. Seeing it in the top spot was a reminder of how many Christians rely on daily devotions as a formative practice and how big a business devotional books have become. . . .
Again, I scanned through the descriptions for other popular devotionals on Amazon. Among the 10 bestsellers, one offered 365 days of “inspiring, unexpected, humble teaching on grace and love that will prepare you for the day ahead.” Another provided “an inspiring Bible verse to reflect and meditate on throughout your week.” Still another promised that readers would “be inspired to activate living your life on mission.” The takeaway was clear: Daily devotion involves being inspired.
But another defining element also emerged consistently in the descriptions. One book was “designed to help alleviate your worries as you learn to live in the peace of the Almighty God.” Others promised “words of encouragement, comfort, and reassurance of God’s unending love,” the ability to tackle life “with the wisdom and comfort of the Bible.” Another takeaway: Daily devotion involves being comforted. . . .
The Bible uses the term “devoted” to mean consecrated, or set apart for special service. As a museum devotes a wing to displaying a particular art form, so God devotes us to display his image. Yet we sometimes mistakenly equate devotion with emotion. Devotion is not mere feeling, but action: It serves and it obeys. Jesus made this connection when he taught that “No one can serve two masters … you will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matt. 6:24).
Compare those bestseller descriptions from Amazon to Paul’s words: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17, CSB).
While best-selling devotional books offer formation through inspirational words of comfort, true Christian devotion—the formative practice of being set apart to serve—is founded on inspired words that correct.
Are the words of devotional books profitable? Some, but not all. Emotion is certainly an expression of devotion but is not its sum total. Biblical words of comfort are profitable, but so are words of correction. Both are words of life. If devotional reading is our primary vehicle for formation, we run the risk of malformation and—worse still—of forming God himself into an idol, one who comforts without correcting, seeks relationship but not repentance, dotes but does not discipline, and is our companion but not our commander. . . .
The inspirational words of humans are a paltry substitute for the inspired words of God. Devotional writing, when done with excellence, may supplement our time in the Scriptures, but it must not subordinate or supplant it.
Peter captured the preciousness of divine speech in his pleading question to Jesus: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”
(John 6:68).
Christian, to whom shall you go for words of life? For formative words, daily applied, to devote you to sacred service and submission? Amazon is happy to provide you with authors. But forget not the author of all things. Like the flowers on a devotional’s dust jacket, human words fade. But the Word of the Lord—ever profitable for both comfort and correction—endures forever.
(Excerpt from Christianity Today. Article by Jen Wilkin. Photo Credit: Unsplash.)
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Comments
I can understand how people rely on these devotionals to start the day, but they should not replace our bible study or time focusing on the presence of God and listen for His voice.
There is a lot of truth in the observations made in this article and I agree.
When we first begin to get to know Him, we can depend on such things as devotionals.
Maybe we are tempted to let it go at that, but if we do we deprive ourselves of the greatest of blessings.
There is the first stage of thinking, “how do I do this thing of belonging to the Creator and Sustainer
of the universe?” We know we need knowledge of how to do it and we want to do it right. Because we are new
at it, we can put our trust in getting knowledge secondhand, instead of going to the very source from which any
writer of any devotional has obtained their knowledge. When we cut out the middle man, this is when we grow
in the knowledge of Him and He gets to know us as well. Remember about the sheep and the goats!!!
Every time I read through the Bible, I find hundreds of things I “missed” before. Fortunately our Paraclete, the Holy Spirit is not ignorant. There is admonition throughout the Bible, But there is comfort too if it is needed. There are benefits to reading scripture that we will never understand until we reach heaven.
I would, however, recommend good, solid devotionals to those who are new to the faith, especially young people. I greatly benefited from them in my youth. (I think they were from Moody.)
The Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, not the words of man. Devotional books have a place but are not to replace the Bible.
I try to read my bible every day and have read thru it for several years but I have someone who says just reading it is not bible study so how do I study the Bible?
Reading the Bible is good. Studying the Bible is reading with focus. For instance, if you have an anger issue, you can look up all the verses on anger to understand what the Bible says about anger and how you are supposed to live.
There are bibles with added focused studies (“study bible”), bible study books that focus on a certain topic or book of the Bible and guide you through the study, and there are books that talk about studying the Bible in other ways. Spend time browsing ChristianBook’s website, you’re bound to find interesting educational books. Also, listening to ministers on the radio/ internet and following up with your own reading of the passages they covered.
I love listening to radio ministers, and one recently brought up the need to learn to study the Bible for oneself. He recommended the book “Living by the Book: The Art and Science of Reading the Bible” by Howard and Bill Hendricks. I haven’t read it yet, so can’t give an opinion, but wanted to share in case it helps you.
This is so true! We must go directly to the source, every single day. The Word of God does teach, it does rebuke, it does correct, it does train in righteousness as you explained that 2 Timothy 3:15, 17 state. We can see the impotent Christian today falling for too many winds of doctrine because we are not saturating ourselves with the pure Word of God, reading it first hand for ourselves. The psalmist writes in Psalm 119, You Yourself have taught me.” We need to hear God speak to us directly through His Word with no middle man, every single day to correctly navigate through this life. We need to by like the men of Issachar, who “understood their times and knew how to act”. (1 Chron 12:32) This comes through daily Bible study.
In a book I just finished reading call “Rediscover Jesus” it suggested taking 15 minutes a day to read the Gospels over and over and each time you’ll discover something new about Jesus and you’ll fall deeper in love with Him. To try to place yourself in the situation and try to imagine what those around Him were experiencing during His teachings.