How to Write a Thoughtful Devotional
When writing a devotional, God is your ultimate muse. The main goal of a thoughtful devotional is to show your devotion to God in a brief writing. A devotional should focus on one topic related to Christian life and faith. You're not required to be a minister or part of the clergy to write devotionals. Anyone devoted to God can write one. Recognizing God's love, God's mercy or God's grace, for example, and writing about them is all you really need to do.
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Things You'll Need
- Journal
- Bible
- Notebook
- Bible dictionary
- Dictionary
- Thesaurus (optional)
- Pen
- Pencil
- Highlighter (optional)
Instructions
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Fishing trips can inspire a devotional about fishers of men (Matthew 4:18-19). Write about your daily observations and thoughts in the journal as they pertain to God's presence in our everyday lives. Write journal entries about past personal experiences, activities that occur at home, at church or at work. Write about a prayer answered or a scene that you observed in the park, for example. For example, snowflakes can remind you of how God creates each individual completely different and autumn leaves can remind you of Joseph's robe of many colors (Genesis 37:3).
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Pray for guidance without giving up (Luke 18:1), especially during writer's block.. Pray about devotional writing. Ask God to guide you and help you. Recognize that as you are the pen, God is your guide. Pray diligently and continue your journal writing. The more you write, the easier your writing will flow.
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A home office should be well-lit, decluttered, clean, prioritized and organized. Create a writing space where you feel comfortable and free to write. Have everything you need at hand, such as pencils, paper and a Bible as well as refreshments like mints or water bottles. Try to think in advance of everything you possibly might need when you begin to write your devotional. In case a need crops up, you have it close at hand and won't have to lose your focus.
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Read your journal. Underline key points or specific ideas you feel led to write about.
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Search through the scriptures in the Bible at your writing space and link scripture references to the situation you feel led to write about. List the Bible references. Read the references carefully and pray about them.
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Write your devotional. The first line should be attention-grabbing. It should pull on the heart strings or draw your reader in and make the reader want to continue. Write the devotional without worrying about spelling mistakes or length this first time around.
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Put the devotional in a sealed envelope and date it for a week later. Do not open it until that day, no matter how tempted you may be. When the day arrives, wait until you have quiet time in your office to open the envelope and read. The week was "cooling time" between you and your devotional. You will be amazed at new inspirations you've thought about to add in one week's time. You will also have new ideas to incorporate into the devotional now that you have a fresh perspective.
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Rewrite the devotional on a fresh sheet of paper. Edit and rewrite until it is polished and complete, using scripture references within the text. The devotional should not be more than one page long.
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Tips & Warnings
The daily observation phase or the journal phase is the first step toward writing your journal. It lays the foundation for a meaningful devotional. The first two weeks should be set aside for these valuable journal entries before you begin writing the devotional on a separate sheet of paper or on your computer. Allow time for your mind to put the pieces of a devotional together.
Some ideas for devotional topics include being a Christian homeschooling parent, patience, praise and answers to prayer, and letting God's light shine.
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