Grow Your Heart In The Gospel This New Year

 The New Year Is Coming

I am not typically inclined toward “daily devotionals.”  You know the books that have a one-page thought for each day of the year? For my own life – and for those I am discipling – I usually focus on developing the spiritual discipline of daily Bible reading, especially with the Lectio Divina method.  Think of it as getting to the source itself, rather than getting second-hand thoughts from someone else.

That said though, I have had a great time over the past few years meeting twice per month with a group of men over breakfast where we take a gospel-centered “daily devotional” and use that as our starting point for spiritual conversation. Every other week we order breakfast and then ask each other, “So what did you underline over the past two weeks?”  This format seems to have given us all the right balance of focus, content and freedom, so that the participation, reflection and growth for each of us has been wonderful.

The key to this all working seems to be having a really solid and “Gospel-Centered” devotional book as the starting point.

 It is not about “inspiration for my day:” an engaging illustration to ponder, or a memorable moral or a nugget of Bible knowledge. Instead, the devotionals that we have found and used help us navigate the pathways of our heart and be fed on the Good News of our new life “in Christ” as adopted children of the great King. The conversation has been rich because of the richness of the Gospel of God’s Grace.

Here are three of the devotionals that I can say are “tried-and-true.”  Why don’t you consider picking one up for yourself, or giving one as a Christmas present or better yet, get several and commit with some friends to a regular time and place to sit down together and as, “So what did you underline since we last met?”

New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional  by Paul David Tripp - Paul David Tripp is one of the best writers I know for navigating the depths of my heart and motivations in light of the Gospel.  His pastoral background shines through in these daily readings. CLICK HERE for Amazon.com link

God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Book of Proverbs by Tim & Kathy Keller – I call Tim Keller my “Gospel Yoda” and the people of Celebration know well the appreciation I have for him. These reflections on the wisdom of God in Proverbs are written with his wife and marvelous for facing the issues of daily life.  CLICK HERE for Amazon.com link 

Mockingbird Devotional: Good News for Today (and Every Day) by Ethan Richardson and  Sean Norris - This one was a surprise for our group. I love the website MBird.com. The movie, music and pop culture illustrations were more natural to the Millennial demographic, but the Gospel was so richly permeating everything written, that each time we met we had great spiritual conversations. Plus, I learned more about the movies my kids are talking about!  CLICK HERE for Amazon.com link