Personal Devotions Resources

At Grace Covenant, we want to find as many ways as we can to help you immerse yourself in the means of grace (the Bible, the sacraments, and prayer), and one of those ways is your personal time in the Word or, as some call it, your "quiet time." Now, while quiet times are supposed to be a pillar of healthy, freeing spiritual growth, they can become a source of great guilt and anxiety. If you are struggling with that, we recommend "Freedom from Quiet Time Guilt" as a place to start. Then, spending time in the Word and solid devotional resources are a great way to continue. There are, however, many resources online and in bookstores that offer such guidance, and it can be difficult to know which are truly Christ-centered, gospel-driven, useful resources and which are better left on the shelf. On this page, you will find a small collection of solid, biblical, free resources for personal time with the Lord.

Bible Reading Plans:

There are many Bible reading plans you could adopt for your quiet times, but whichever you do choose to use, remember the old adage that less is more. Most plans have you reading through the Bible in a year, which is a laudable goal, but it can lead to reading for quantity instead of quality, which is less helpful. If you find that being the case with you, try dividing each day's reading in half and taking two years to complete the plan. Here are a few possibilities:

  • Straight Through: This plan is designed to take you from the beginning to the end in a year. It has the advantage of a simple structure, a fairly even reading load, and following the Bible's natural progression.

  • Chronological: This plan takes you through the Bible in the order the events occurred chronologically. It has the advantage of reading passages in their historical context and putting parallel passages together so you can see events from different perspectives or with different emphases.

  • M’Cheyne Bible Reading: This plan is designed to take you through the NT and Psalms twice a year and the OT once. It has the advantage of balancing your daily readings with OT and NT passages with an even distribution of both.

  • 52-Week: This plan has you read through the Bible in a year, with each day of the week dedicated to a different genre: Epistles, the Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy, and Gospels. It has the advantage of dividing the Bible up by its major genres and giving you a balanced, weekly diet of each.

  • GCPC's Private & Family Worship Guide: This is a reading plan and worship guide that we publish each month that balances reading from the Psalms, Old and New Testaments, Gospels, and upcoming sermon texts, and it also has Scripture memory and catechism questions for children and adults. 

  • Want more plans? Ligonier has an even longer list of Bible reading plans--one for almost every need or desire. 

Recommended Devotionals:

Here are a few daily devotionals that are Christ-centered, gospel-driven, and available for free online:

  • Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening: This classic daily devotional was published by Charles Spurgeon in the mid-nineteenth century and has been a blessing to countless Christians ever since. For each day, Spurgeon has written a morning and evening devotion (hence the title), and in just a few paragraphs, each devotion expounds a single Bible verse with practical application to the life of the reader. This resource creates a great bookend for your day, and it is available for free from many sources: CCEL has it in several formats and there is an Android app and an iPhone app.

  • D. A. Carson's For the Love of God: This two-volume daily devotional is an exceptional contemporary resource. In Carson, God has developed the mind of a scholar and the heart of a pastor, both of which are evident in these daily devotionals. Each volume covers a whole year following the M'Cheyne Bible Reading Plan. On each day, Carson takes one of the passages from the reading plan and comments on it in a short devotion that combines brilliant exegesis with pastoral application to the life of the reader. It is available for free on The Gospel Coalition's website with the option to read online or through RSS. It is also available for free as an iPhone App and as print books (part 1 and part 2). 

  • Jerry Bridges's Holiness Day by Day: In a similar pattern to Spurgeon's devotions, this devotional starts each day with a verse of Scripture and then a short explanatory devotion, which is usually an excerpt taken from Bridge's wide breadth of writing. It is theologically solid, accessible to the reader, and gospel-centered, and you get it via Amazon or other booksellers.

  • Paul Tripp's New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional: This daily devotional is not a "read through the Bible in a year" devotional, but it does have a daily reading and a gospel-centered article from Paul Tripp (one page in length). It also has a "bottom line" sentence that sums up the devotional. The structure is the article first and reading second, but I have found it more helpful to reverse that--read the Bible reading at the bottom and then go back to the article. Either way you do it, it is a gospel-centered devotional that will center you each day on Christ and the implications of His work for you. It is available via Amazon or other booksellers. 

  • The Valley of Vision: Though this resource does not follow a Bible reading plan or start you out with Scripture, it is one of the best devotional and prayer tools available and a great addition to any reading plan. The Valley of Vision is a collection of Puritan prayers and meditations that are rooted in confessionalism, steeped in Scripture, centered on Christ, and overflowing with godly affections, exquisitely balancing the mind and heart. Unfortunately, it is not available for free in full anywhere online but Banner of Truth has most of them on their website and even has a daily Valley of Vision designed for devotional use.

  • Joel Beek has made an excellent devotional collection of Calvin's writings in his 365 Days with Calvin. It has short, selected readings covering a wide range of topics from John Calvin, who was a great theologian but also a great pastor at heart, which is reflected in these readings. This book is available through Amazon or other booksellers.

  • Nancy Guthrie's The One Year Praying through the Bible for Your Kids is obviously designed for parents, but it is a great resource. It follows the M'Cheyne Bible Reading plan, but along with each day is a short devotional with a gospel-centered parenting theme and a prayer based on one of the passages. It is not available for free anywhere but you can get it from Amazon or some other bookseller, and it is well worth the price for parents.

  • Kevin DeYoung has an excellent study of the Heidelberg Catechism called The Good News We Almost Forgot. It has 52 chapters—one for each “Lord’s Day” of the catechism—and it is great for a weekly devotional on your own or perhaps with family or a friend. You can find it on Amazon in a number of formats. Since he takes a Lord’s Day per week, you could potentially break up the questions on the Lord’s Day and make them meditative points throughout the week.

  • Starr Meade also has a great devotional study of the Heidelberg Catechism: Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds: Family Devotions Based on the Heidelberg Catechism. It follows the Lord’s Day structure of the Heidelberg, and it has a few paragraphs for each day of the week based on that week’s questions. It is a great resource for family or personal devotions. You can find it on Amason or through other booksellers.