Looking for devotionals to recommend or use in your community? The options can seem endless. To help you discern which resources may be most helpful for your context, we at Building Faith have put together a working list of our devotional top picks.

In this list, you will find our favorite devotional resources for people of all ages based on theology, availability, and pedagogy. We’ve focused this list primarily on materials published within the last five years that can be used at any time or season of year. If you would like additional support in choosing a resource, join Lifelong Learning’s free weekly Office Hours or reach out by email.

What Is a Devotional, and Why Use It?

If you’re not familiar with devotionals, these are resources designed to help people engage or grow in faith throughout the week beyond church gatherings. They often provide short reflections on scripture or faith-related topics, and they can be structured for daily, weekly, or occasional use. Some also include personal narratives, prayers, questions for further thought or conversation, or activities to incorporate into your day or week. The experiences and voices of their authors tend to shape the content and style to a greater extent than you typically find in a formation curriculum.

Devotionals can be beneficial for individuals, families, small groups, or community formation settings. While they may be best known as tools for facilitating personal spiritual discernment and prayer, they can be helpful resources for exploring, deepening, and sharing in faith with other people as well. Devotionals can illuminate scripture in fresh ways, offer relatively accessible entry points into conversations about faith, provide centering or grounding in relation to God, and inspire new practices for living into faith throughout the week.

How to Use This List

For each devotional “top pick” we list the title, author(s) or editor(s), publisher, publication date, and a brief summary. We have also included helpful information like:

• age groups (children, youth, adults, intergenerational)
• type of media (print, e-book, audio, etc.)
• the average length of each devotional entry
• the number of entries included
• links to samples or excerpts if available
• cost (generally for printed resources and may differ for electronic versions)

We have organized the options alphabetically by title under the following categories (with some options fitting more than one category):

• Activity & Body-Centered – devotionals that include activity components like journaling, coloring, and body movement
• Everyday & Hard Experiences – devotionals that focus on everyday life or challenging life experiences
• Justice & Inclusivity – devotionals that center on social justice, inclusivity for historically marginalized groups, ecological justice, and creation care topics and concerns
• Lectionary – devotionals that follow the Revised Common Lectionary or The Book of Common Prayer Daily Office Lectionary scriptures
• Scripture-Centered – devotionals aimed at offering reflections on scripture and that do not fit in one of the more specialized categories above

As always, when choosing resources for your setting, we recommend taking into account the theology, biblical interpretation, context, materials, and representation of human identities and experiences as you discern which devotionals might best fit your context.

Activity & Body-Centered Top Picks

Colors of Hope: A Devotional Journal from LGBTQ+ Christians
edited by Melissa Guthrie (Chalice, 2022)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: An LGBTQIA+ affirming devotional with reflections by multiple authors that follow the colors and themes of the Pride flag; devotional entries also highlight scriptures and provide journaling and action prompts
• Entry length: 5 pages, plus 7 pages for journaling
• Number of entries: 9
• Sample: n/a
• Cost: $16.99

Faith with a Twist: A 30-Day Journey into Christian Yoga
by Hillary D. Raining and Amy Nobles Dolan (Forward Movement, 2018)
youth, adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A workbook that brings together Christian faith with yoga principles and poses and thus enables embodied forms of prayer and meditation; entries include prayers, reflections, journaling opportunities, and yoga practices, which feature chair-based poses along with traditional poses to make the movements more accessible for all bodies
• Entry length: 2 pages
• Number of entries: 30
• Sample: Faith with a Twist Sample
• Cost: $8 (discounts for buying in bulk)

Families Celebrate Summer
(Augsburg Fortress, 2022)
children, adults, intergenerational | printed card deck

• Summary: A deck of cards with activities designed to help families with kids have fun and engage faith during the summer; cards are color-coded for special feast days, staying at home, traveling, rituals, and community service activities
• Entry length: 1 card
• Number of entries: 56
• Sample: Families Celebrate Summer Sample
• Cost: $9.99

An Illustrated Invitation for Families
(Illustrated Ministry, 2018)
children, adults, intergenerational | digital printables

• Summary: A resource for families with children that focuses on the theme of participating in what God is doing in the world; entries feature scripture stories, questions for wondering and imagining, story cards and illustrations to color, and activity suggestions
• Entry length: 2 pages, plus additional coloring pages and story cards
• Number of entries: 12
• Sample: n/a (this devotional is related to the Illustrated Invitation formation curriculum, which you can sample by visiting the curriculum website)
• Cost: $9.99 (for congregational use, the cost is $34.99 – 59.99 on a sliding scale by number of members)

Praying the Psalms with Beads: A Book of Daily Prayers
by Nan Lewis Doerr (Eerdmans, 2020)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book for using Anglican prayer beads to pray all of the psalms in the Psalter; each entry covers a psalm and offers a script to indicate which lines and phrases correspond to the various beads on the rosary
• Entry length: 1 page
• Number of entries: 150
• Sample: n/a
• Cost: $16.99

Seasons of Wonder: Making the Ordinary Sacred through Projects, Prayers, Reflections, and Rituals
by Bonnie Smith Whitehouse (Convergent, 2022)
children, youth, adults, intergenerational | printed book, e-book, audiobook

• Summary: A book designed for families or groups with weekly meditations and activities for engaging both the liturgical year and creation; entries include short meditations, prompts for wondering, and rituals or creative activities to do, and the book provides monthly creation care challenges plus several additional entries for occasions like birthdays and healing
• Entry length: 3 – 8 pages
• Number of entries: 56
• Cost: $21

Study Journal: I’ve Been Meaning to Ask & Unraveled: A Study Journal
(Sanctified Art, 2021 & 2019, respectively)
adults | digital printables

• Summary: Printable resources that offer art, poetry, scripture, reflections, and journaling and conversation prompts to dive deeper into personal experiences, stories, and emotions; “I’ve Been Meaning to Ask” focuses on 4 questions — Where are you from?; Where does it hurt?; What do you need?; and Where do we go from here? — and “Unraveled” explores the question “What happens when our world falls apart?”
• Entry length: 8 – 10 pages for “I’ve Been Meaning to Ask”; 4 – 5 pages for “Unraveled”
• Number of entries: 4 for “I’ve Been Meaning to Ask” (may be adapted to 8); 12 for “Unraveled”
• Sample: available through title links above
• Cost: $18 (discounts for bulk purchases)

Walking the Church Year: Personal Devotions for a Labyrinth Prayer Practice
by Robert J. F. Elsner (Church Publishing, 2024)
adults | printed book (pocket size), e-book

• Summary: A devotional with prayers, practice suggestions, and reflection prompts for moving through a labyrinth; entries cover prayer walks for each day of the week and liturgical seasons as well as for selected feast days, situations, and U.S. holidays, and the book provides tips for creating labyrinths tailored to various contexts, movements, and experiences, including finger labyrinths
• Entry length: 5 pages
• Number of entries: 48
• Sample: n/a
• Cost: $20.95

Everyday & Hard Experiences Top Picks

Devotions for People Who Don’t Do Devotions
by Tim Schenk (Forward Movement, 2023)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book with short personal stories that highlight everyday experiences and speak to big questions and concerns that are part of lives of faith; entries include a verse from scripture and questions for reflection
• Entry length: 2 pages
• Number of entries: 50
• Sample: Devotions for People Who Don’t Do Devotions Sample
• Cost: $15 (discounts for buying in bulk)

Dimming the Day: Evening Meditations for Quiet Wonder
by Jennifer Grant (Broadleaf, 2021)
adults | printed book, e-book, audiobook

• Summary: A book that aims to help readers wind down at the end of the day with reflections on creation; entries combine personal stories, historical and scientific insights, and brief guided meditations
• Entry length: 7 pages
• Number of entries: 20
• Sample: n/a
• Cost: $19.99

Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection
by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie (Convergent, 2022)
adults | printed book, e-book, audiobook

• Summary: A book with stories, meditations, prayers, and blessings that seek to meet readers where they are in the challenges and imperfections of life in order to advocate lives of faith that are “good enough”; entries include a “good enough step” to practice
• Entry length: 5 – 7 pages
• Number of entries: 40
• Sample: available through the title link above
• Cost: $21

Living the Way of Love: A 40-Day Devotional
by Mary Bea Sullivan (Church Publishing, 2019)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book that features stories to illuminate the seven practices of the Way of Love; entries include practices to do and questions for reflection
• Entry length: 2 – 4 pages
• Number of entries: 36, plus 4 chapters on developing a Rule of Life
• Sample: n/a
• Cost: $16.95

Ordinary Blessings: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Everyday Life
by Meta Herrick Carlson (Fortress, 2020)
adults | printed book, e-book, audiobook

• Summary: A book of poetic blessings, prayers, and meditations that address a wide array of topics and situations in people’s lives; entries explore everyday life, loving yourself, loving others, living with each other, authenticity, hard things, bodies, work, turning points, important people, nature, and b-list holidays
• Entry length: 1 – 3 pages
• Number of entries: 114
• Sample: n/a
• Cost: $16.99

Searching for the Sacred: Sixty Meditations on Faith, Hope, and Love
by Cameron Trimble (Chalice, 2022)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book with stories and encouragements that invite readers to reflect and to live into faith courageously amid contemporary global changes and crises; entries include a scripture verse and questions for reflecting or journaling
• Entry length: 2 pages
• Number of entries: 60
• Sample: available through the title link above
• Cost: $16.99

Justice & Inclusivity Top Picks

Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth
by Randy Woodley (Broadleaf, 2022)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book that draws upon the author’s Indigenous experience to encourage readers to learn from and to become more connected to creation in the places and lands where they live; entries include prompts for reflection and practice
• Entry length: 2 pages
• Number of entries: 100
• Sample: n/a
• Cost: $19.99

Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love
by Pádraig Ó Tuama (Eerdmans, 2024)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book that offers poetic prayers on scriptures to invite readers to connect more deeply with where they are through praying; entries include an opening prayer, a reading from sources external to scripture, a scripture passage, a collect, and a remembering prayer
• Entry length: 6 pages
• Number of entries: 31
• Sample: n/a
• Cost: $22.99

Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human
by Cole Arthur Riley (Convergent, 2024)
adults | printed book, e-book, audiobook

• Summary: A book that flows from the author’s Black Liturgies on social media and aims to generate liberation and healing for people who have experienced diverse, intersecting forms of marginalization and oppression in religious spaces; entries highlight human experiences as well as church seasons and other occasions, and they include Black voices, letters, poetry, breathing practices, confessions with words of forgiveness, benedictions, and questions for contemplation
• Entry length: 9 – 11 pages
• Number of entries: 43
• Sample: available through the title link above
• Cost: $22

Called Out: 100 Devotions for LGBTQ Christians
by E. Carrington Heath (Westminster John Knox, 2022)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book that speaks on an array of topics in affirming ways to experiences of people who identify as LGBTQIA+; entries feature a scripture verse, meditation that connects the scripture to a topic, and prayer
• Entry length: 2 pages
• Number of entries: 100
• Sample: Called Out Sample
• Cost: $20

The Creation Care Bible Challenge: A 50 Day Bible Challenge
edited by Marek P. Zabriskie (Forward Movement, 2022)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book that highlights scriptures centered on creation and the call for humans to care for it; entries provide a scripture passage, meditation, reflection questions, and prayer
• Entry length: 4 pages
• Number of entries: 50
• Sample: The Creation Care Bible Challenge Sample
• Cost: $15 (discounts for bulk purchases)

Face to the Rising Sun: Reflections on Spirituals and Justice
by Mark Bozzuti-Jones (Forward Movement, 2021)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book that invites readers to learn from the Spirituals of enslaved African Americans and to take action to bring about racial justice; entries feature lyrics of a Spiritual, scripture passages (Old Testament, psalm, New Testament), meditations, and prompts for reflection and practice
• Entry length: 4 – 5 pages
• Number of entries: 31
• Sample: Face to the Rising Sun Sample
• Cost: $15 (discounts for bulk purchases)

Glory in the Margins: Sunday Poems
by Nikki Grimes (Paraclete, 2021)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book of poems written for Sunday worship that engage scriptures from the author’s perspective as a Black woman with an eye toward marginal identities and experiences; entries cover church seasons as well as U.S. holidays and observances, and they consist of poems and scripture references
• Entry length: 1 page
• Number of entries: 100
• Sample: Glory in the Margins Sample
• Cost: $22 (discounts for bulk purchases)

The Night Is Long, but Light Comes in the Morning: Meditations for Racial Healing
by Catherine Meeks (Church Publishing, 2022)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book that encourages readers to grapple with the question “Do you really want to be well?” (as Meeks says in the preface) with respect to our contemporary context of racial injustice in the U.S. and need for racial healing; entries offer personal narratives and meditations on an array of topics that are organized into seven parts: “An Invitation to a New Way to See”; “Now That I See”; “Unweaving the Web”; “What’s Love Got to Do with Racial Healing?”; “Going below the Surface and Creating New Space for Healing”; “Brokenhearted”; and “The Outer World Needs You”
• Entry length: 5 – 6 pages
• Number of entries: 48
• Sample: n/a
• Cost: $24.95

Lectionary Top Picks

Bread for the Day: Daily Bible Readings and Prayers, Year B 2024
(Augsburg Fortress, 2023)
children, youth, adults, intergenerational | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book designed to help readers engage throughout the week the Revised Common Lectionary readings prescribed for Sundays and other feasts; entries consist of a scripture passage, additional scriptures to explore, a suggested hymn from Evangelical Lutheran Worship or All Creation Sings, and a prayer, and the book also includes seasonal prayers and blessings for families
• Entry length: 1 page
• Number of entries: 365
• Sample: Bread for the Day Sample
• Cost: $6

Christ in Our Home
(Augsburg Fortress, ongoing quarterly)
adults | printed book, large print edition, audio edition

• Summary: A resource that offers daily meditations and narratives that connect with scripture according to the Revised Common Lectionary; entries include a scripture verse, brief meditation, prayer, specific people or concerns to pray for, and additional scriptures to read
• Entry length: 1 page
• Number of entries: roughly 90 per quarterly issue, 365 for the year
• Sample: Christ in Our Home Sample
• Cost: $11 for 1-year subscription (discounts for multi-year and bulk subscriptions)

d365
(Passport, Inc., ongoing)
youth, adults | website, mobile app

• Summary: A daily digital resource tailored to youth and adults that follows the Revised Common Lectionary and guides participants through five steps: “pause,” “listen,” “think,” “pray,” and “go”; the devotions include an opportunity for centering, scripture passages, meditations with reflection questions, prayer, and a practice to try, and the site provides an option to listen to music while using the devotional
• Entry length: 5 web pages
• Number of entries: 365 for the year
• Sample: available through the title link above
• Cost: free

Forward Day by Day
(Forward Movement, ongoing quarterly)
adults | printed book, large print edition, braille edition, e-book, email, podcast, website, mobile app | English, Spanish

• Summary: A resource that follows the Daily Office Lectionary in The Book of Common Prayer and Revised Common Lectionary and provides daily meditations that connect with scripture; entries feature a scripture verse, daily scripture references, short meditation or story, prompt for reflection or action, and a call to pray for churches and dioceses throughout the world
• Entry length: 1 page
• Number of entries: roughly 90 per quarterly issue, 365 for the year
• Sample: Forward Day by Day Sample
• Cost: starts at $15 for 1-year subscription (discount for 2-year subscription); free by braille edition, email, podcast, website, and mobile app

Means of Grace: A Year of Weekly Devotions
by Fleming Rutledge, edited by Laura Bardolph Hubers (Eerdmans, 2021)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book of meditations drawn from sermons by Fleming Rutledge that follow the liturgical year; entries include a scripture verse, meditation, and collect
• Entry length: 4 pages
• Number of entries: 60
• Sample: n/a
• Cost: $24.99

The Word in Season
(Augsburg Fortress, ongoing quarterly)
adults | printed booklet, large print edition, e-book

• Summary: A resource that provides daily meditations engaging scriptures from the Revised Common Lectionary; entries include a scripture verse, short meditation, prayer, a concern to pray for, and additional scripture references
• Entry length: 1 page
• Number of entries: roughly 90 per quarterly issue, 365 for the year
• Sample: The Word in Season Sample
• Cost: $11 for 1-year subscription (discounts for multi-year or bulk subscriptions)

Scripture-Centered Top Picks

A Is for Alabaster: 52 Reflections on the Stories of Scripture
by Anna Carter Florence (Westminster John Knox, 2023)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book that retells and meditates on Bible stories by using the letters of the alphabet to structure the expositions; entries cover both the Old and New Testaments and include scripture passages with the meditations
• Entry length: 4 pages
• Number of entries: 52
• Sample: A Is for Alabaster Sample
• Cost: $20

Bible Women: All Their Words and Why They Matter
by Lindsay Hardin Freeman, 2nd edition (Forward Movement, 2023)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book that features the women who appear in scripture and the words they speak; the entries on each of the women include a snapshot of where and how they feature in scripture, a biographical description, an account of their words, their story, a meditation on their story, takeaways, questions for reflection, and a prayer
• Entry length: 4 – 6 pages
• Number of entries: 89
• Sample: Bible Women Sample
• Cost: $22 (discounts for bulk purchases)

Liberating Love Daily Devotional: 365 Love Notes from God
by Sandhya Rani Jha (Chalice, 2020)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book that offers short messages in the divine voice and seeks to help readers deepen relationships with other people as well as with God; entries include a scripture passage and letter
• Entry length: 1 page
• Number of entries: 365
• Sample: Liberating Love Daily Devotional Sample
• Cost: $17.99

Sacred Belonging: A 40-Day Devotional on the Liberating Heart of Scripture
by Kat Armas (Brazos, 2023)
adults | printed book, e-book

• Summary: A book with personal stories and meditations on scripture that seek to decolonize scripture in order to enable readers to engage scripture as full human beings; entries include scripture verses and questions for reflection and are organized into five topics: creation, spirit, the body, wisdom, and the feminine
• Entry length: 3 – 4 pages
• Number of entries: 40
• Sample: Sacred Belonging Sample
• Cost: $18.99

Featured image is by Claudia Wolff on Unsplash