Daily Devotional

Dear Victorious,

I went to the Christian bookstore to buy myself a daily devotional. I was surprised by how many there were! It seemed there were all sorts of themes and all sorts of purposes to these devotionals. How do you pick one out? Or does it matter? Are there any you'd recommend?

Steve E. - McKinney, TX

Dear Steve,

To start with, I think it does matter. Think about why you're buying a daily devotional. My guess is that you think it will help you develop a daily discipline of spending time with God's Word. (And that is a very good reason!) So I would look for a daily devotional that has that singular purpose.

The problem with many of the daily devotionals on the market these days is that they have a different agenda. Typically they are trying to make you feel good, address a specific problem in your life, or sell you on their specific agenda. Devotionals with titles like, "Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul," or "Dieters' Daily Devotional" are trying to make you feel good or single out one specific area of your life that needs more of God in it. Similarly, devotionals like "Purpose Driven Life" or "Wild At Heart" are selling an agenda or perspective. (While that in itself may not be wrong, it is not right enough.) And devotionals specifically for men or women have the same weakness - they just don't cover it all.

I would recommend some hard-hitting, well-balanced daily devotionals that take you deep into God's Word on a daily basis ... and that cover all aspects of the human experience. Some examples that I would recommend are:

"My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers
"Insight for Leaders" by A. W. Tozer
"Thoughts From the Diary of A Desperate Man" by Walter A. Henrichson

You can find links to the first two on my main blog (http://www.victoriousconqueror.blogspot.com/) for access to them on-line. If you want to buy them in book form, the first one is widely available in most Christian bookstores or on-line. The third one I've listed is also very good, but harder to find. Amazon.com is out of them right now, but you can find used copies through Amazon and elsewhere.

(For what it's worth, I'd recommend just about anything else these same authors have written too.)