Fourteen Ways to Freshen Up Your Devotional Life

Stuck in a rut in your time with God lately? Why not try something new and different?

When it comes to your quiet time, the key word is “your.” It is your devotional life, and you need to feel the freedom to tailor-fit your personal time with God to fit your ever-changing time constraints and living patterns.

For this reason it is helpful to consider reinvigorate your devotions every now and then with new approaches and ideas. Careers shift. Habits become calcified. Relationships experience change: singleness, engagement, marriage, children, and grandchildren. Loss happens! Each of these phases represents tectonic shifts in the patterns of our lives. With this transiency of life it is necessary and needful to be open to new approaches to rejuvenate worn or untenable devotional routines.

The following are fourteen ideas to consider in refreshing your time with the Lord:

1. Focus an entire week on one Psalm from the Bible—let its message soak into your soul!
2. Use S.O.A.P to study verses that are impactful to you: S = Scripture; O = Observations; A = Application; and P = Prayer. See soapstudy.com for more information.
3. Set your alarm one half hour earlier—give yourself uninterrupted time with God!
4. Find an old Reformation era Bible online—read from it daily to refresh your view of how God speaks to you through His Word!
5. Use a prayer guide like Kenneth Boa’s “Handbook to Prayer” to focus your thoughts in daily biblical prayer.
6. Spend some time singing to the Lord from a hymnbook or chorus book—glory in the presence and goodness of God!
7. Write down and memorize a new Bible verse each week. Perhaps start by memorizing a gospel plan and move on from there J
8. When you come across a special passage in Scripture, try putting it to poetry—why not add a tune to it so that you can sing it back to the Lord!
9. Using a computer Bible program, get lost in cross-references on a Bible word or topic that you are reading.
10. Purchase a Journibles Bible journaling book to hand copy a book of the Bible—consider starting with the Book of Deuteronomy!
11. Write your own outline of the passage you are reading in the margin of your Bible. Follow the patterns of thought the author is communicating.
12. Choose an attribute of God (love, holiness, righteousness, etc.) and using a concordance or website like BibleGateway.com look at several verses with this attribute. Then thank God for the attribute you are studying.
13. Listen to the Bible on an audio player. Follow along in a Bible as you listen to the passage being read.
14. For one month, read five Psalms a day and one chapter of Proverbs—in so doing you will cover both of these books in one month!

Free up your devotional life from competing with others, and allow yourself to spend unrushed time with God. Learn what it means for you to “Enter His gates with thanksgiving” (Psalm 100:4). Take time to recharge your perspective with a visit to “the sanctuary of God” (Psalm 73:17). Set yourself come under the gaze of God as you visit Him “in His holy Temple” (Psalm 11:4). Let His Holy Spirit refresh your soul, filling you with His conviction, peace, strength, and wisdom for each new day!