How to Have a Daily Devotional Time with God

Did you know that God wants to have a personal relationship with you? He seeks to spend time with us, and He invites us to commune with him daily. A daily devotional time is a way for you to interact with God, learn from Him, and enjoy His presence.

How do I develop a daily devotional time with God?

Follow Jesus’s model. Jesus often “went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35, NIV). Find a quiet place free of distractions where you can meet and interact with Him. During your time, you can follow David’s example from his psalms by using the ACTS acrostic:

• Adoration (praise for who God is), 

• Confession (of any sins God brings to mind), 

• Thanksgiving (for things God has done and prayers He has answered) and 

• Supplication (requests for your own needs and those of others).

Begin with the first two: adoration and confession. Praising God for who He is refocuses your perspective on God, reminding you of His character and kindness. Then, confessing your sins restores your connection to Him, enabling you to experience His presence and love. After that, ask God to speak to you through His Word in a personal way, and read it expectantly. Look for truths about who God is and how He works, or for things that speak directly to you and your current circumstances. Use what you learn there to thank Him for who He is and what He does. Finish by praying for yourself and for others.  

This isn’t the only way to cultivate your relationship with God. You can invite Him into your visit to a beautiful location outdoors by praying and talking with God or meditating on a Scripture verse. You can take a “walk with God” and follow these same guidelines. You can write to and about God in a journal. Be creative, as variety keeps this activity interesting.

What happens during a devotional time with God?

You are stregthened.

The Christian life is challenging. You may be facing doubts, fears, and temptation or attacks from the enemy of our souls. The authors of the New Testament described the truths of God’s Word, the Bible, as milk and solid food, spiritual sustenance that helps believers grow from spiritual infancy into adulthood. In Joshua 1:7-8, God promised Joshua success in everything he did if he simply obeyed what God said.

Your trust in God grows.

In any relationship, the less you know the person, the harder it is to trust them. You learn more about God through daily time in the Bible, but you also experience and interact with Him through prayer. The more you know God and experience His presence and His answers to your prayers, the easier it is to follow and serve Him. If reading the Bible is new to you, here are some Bible reading plans available; some are focused on different parts of the Bible, and one helps you read through the whole Bible in a year.

God renews your perspective.

Daily time with God also renews our perspective and maintains our communication with Him. Paul exhorts us in Colossians 3:1-3 to “set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (New International Version). Setting your mind on things above means choosing to think about God and asking Him for His perspective on what you are walking through. It is so easy to be distracted and disturbed by all that’s going on in the world around us and lose sight of the person and the ways of God. Regular times with Him help us to “cast all your anxiety on him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7, NIV).

God helps you heal, and you receive His direction.

In 1 Samuel 13:14, God describes the next king of Israel, David, as “a man after His own heart” (NIV). The psalms he wrote are his prayers, praising and thanking God for who He is and what He’s done, or crying out to God for help in times of difficulty. Psalm 51, written after the exposure of David’s adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband, is a powerful and exemplary confession of sin. It reflects both the depths of his selfishness and unworthiness before God, and his heartfelt appeal to God’s incredible gracious forgiveness. 

God wants to spend time with you.

Whatever you choose to do during your daily devotional time, know that God wants to speak to you through His Word, the Bible. You don’t have to worry about “messing it up” or following a specific pattern each time.

In his booklet “My Heart Christ’s Home,” Robert Boyd Munger imagines his heart as a literal house he’s invited Jesus into, including a drawing room, with comfortable chairs and a crackling fireplace, where they can meet every morning. Munger says, “The truth that Christ wants my fellowship, that he loves me, wants me to be with him, wants to be with me, and [daily] waits for me, has done more to transform my quiet time with God than any other single fact. Don’t let Christ wait alone in the drawing room of your heart, but every day, find some time, when, with the Word of God and in prayer, you may have fellowship with him.”

Next Steps:

• Determine when and where you will have your daily devotional time. 

• Pick a book of the Bible or a daily Bible reading plan. 

• You can share with a friend what you’re reading and ask them to check-in on your readings while you develop your habit. 

A daily devotional time with God is primarily meant as time for you to interact with Him. In order to study the Bible in greater depth at a separate time, see this article: How to Study the Bible.