Why I Don't Recommend Devotionals

I remember looking for resources for new Christians as a new Youth Pastor.  I scoured the local Christian bookstore and the resources in our library at our church.  I settled on a couple of devotionals to give to students who were serious about their walk with Christ.  One was a 30 or 40 day devotional and the other was a 400 day devotional through the New Testament.  

I have had nearly 20 years to evaluate my approach to this early form of discipleship.  I don't deny my zeal for wanting to see students grow in their relationship with Christ.  However, if given the opportunity to redo, I would cut out all devotionals and simply stick with the Bible.

Devotionals give the impression that they are growing our faith in Christ, but I am not so sure they do much for the faith of those who read them.  As a matter of fact, some elements in devotionals could be detrimental to those we are hoping to raise up in the Lord.

Consider the following problems concerning devotionals:

1)  Very little actual Scripture is shared in devotionals.

Whether reading the popular "Our Daily Bread" or another book form of devotional geared toward children or youth, the one thing that you will inevitably notice is very little Scripture is referenced.  Even the most robust devotionals I have found only have a handful of verses to them.

If you were hoping that a steady stream of devotionals with only one verse a day covered would be enough for you or your growing child in the Lord, consider that there are over 31,000 verses in the Bible.  Even if every verse were covered (and not repeated) it would take a little over 85 years to go through the entire Bible once!  

On top of that, devotionals focus on the most popular passages at the expense of the more hard to understand or obscure.  I mean, when was the last time you had a devotional focus on the census of the people of Israel before and after their 40 years of wandering in the desert (Num. 1 & 26)?  Yeah...me either.

2)  Devotionals are more story driven.

The Scripture passage for devotionals are usually either at the top or bottom of the page or set apart on the side.  The rest of the space is devoted to the story or lesson by an author that is supposed to somehow connect with the Scripture.  However, what you often get is a story that helps the author connect with the reader at the expense of Scripture.

Which leads to the next issue...

3)  Devotionals subtly train people that a good story or good author is more important than God's Word.

"I love the way he/she writes or puts things."  "She/He is just so relatable."  "I resonate with everything this person puts out."

I don't wish to disparage any writers or authors (I mean, I am writing this blog post).  However, this subtlety should not be overlooked.  If we teach our children that the writing style is more important than hard biblical truth, then we will create an atmosphere where our children (or even we) will look more to be entertained or captivated by the style of an author instead of comparing what the author says to the Word of God (2 Cor. 10:1-5; Col. 2:6-8).

4)  Because so little Scripture is shared, it is easy for devotionals to take Scripture out of context.

In a way, a devotional undermines the very thing that it purports to do, that is, to give the reader a greater understanding of the Scripture.  When only one or a handful of verses is shared, the greatest thing that is missing is context.  The reader is missing the surrounding context that would explain the verse or verses better than any story could.

Because of the lack of context, the author of the story could share something totally unrelated to the passage of Scripture quoted and the reader would be wholly unaware.  Would that sharing be simply a mistake?  Could that wrongly applied interpretation be on purpose?  Without context, it is impossible to say.

5)  Devotionals give the illusion of discipleship without actually discipling anyone.

There are many who are avid in doing devotionals.  However, devotionals don't actually lead people to a greater understanding of the Word of God.  Many are too short and cover too little to actually give the reader a full understanding of the Scriptures.  They would be better off reading the actual Word of God on a daily basis instead of any devotional.

Consider:  A person who reads a devotional for a month will have read between 30-50 verses of Scripture, mostly disassociated from one another (equivalent to about 1 or 2 chapters of the Bible, if they were all together).  If the same person decided to read a chapter or two a day from the Bible itself, they would have finished 30-60 chapters of the Bible in that same period of time (That would be roughly the equivalent to the Gospel of Matthew or the book of Genesis).

This isn't a knock on devotionals.  I mean, there are a few, and I mean a very few, that I think are beneficial.  However, they should be used as a supplement to an informed faith, one that has already read through and understood the Scriptures for themselves, so the person can say the "Amen" to what they are reading or discern whether the devotional is worth their time at all.

As such, I don't think that children or youth should be reading them at all.