Best Classic Daily Devotionals: 15 Books for Every Day, Free
If you want a classic daily devotional for the whole year, start with Spurgeon's Daily Help. Each reading is one paragraph, so you will actually keep it up. If you want more to chew on each morning, take Alexander Maclaren's Music for the Soul, a page a day from one of the best Bible preachers who ever lived. If a year sounds like too much, try a month: Andrew Murray and John R. Macduff both wrote small books of thirty-one readings, one for each day.
The best known of all, Spurgeon's Morning by Morning, is in the library too. Our guide to Morning by Morning explains how it works, and the Abide in Christ reading plan takes you through Murray's most loved month of readings.
The old writers didn't think a devotional replaced the Bible. They meant it to send you to the Bible. Each reading takes one verse, sets it in front of you, and turns it toward prayer. The point is the habit: a few quiet minutes with God before the day pulls at you. A short book read every day will do more for you than a long one you never open.
Here are fifteen of the best in TheWay Library, all free to read.
A reading for every day of the year
1. Daily Help, by C. H. Spurgeon
365 short readings taken from Spurgeon's writings, each a single paragraph of comfort, warning or encouragement on prayer, faith, the love of Christ and the promises. It takes a minute a day, and it is the easiest place to begin.
The very soul and life of our love to God is his love to us.
Daily Help, May 8
See Who Was Charles Spurgeon? Read Daily Help.
2. Music for the Soul, by Alexander Maclaren
A year of readings chosen from Maclaren's sermons. Each opens a text and gives a page of careful, warm exposition. It returns again and again to God's love shown in Christ, the new life given by faith, and joy in God. This is the one to choose if you like to think as you pray.
Joy in God is the strength of work for God, but work for God is the perpetuation of joy in God.
Music for the Soul, October 18
See Who Was Alexander Maclaren? Read Music for the Soul.
3. Days of Heaven Upon Earth, by A. B. Simpson
One short meditation for every day from January 1 to December 31. Simpson writes on faith, the indwelling Christ, the Holy Spirit, victory over sin and fretting, and living "on the heaven side" of life. His sentences are short and they stick.
God wants people that He can depend upon.
Days of Heaven Upon Earth, January 5
Read Days of Heaven Upon Earth.
4. Come Ye Apart, by J. H. Jowett
A year of daily devotions arranged by month. Each day gives a Bible text, a brief meditation in Jowett's vivid style and often a few lines of prayer, meant for a quiet moment before work.
The fear of the Lord is the soul's eastern window. It faces the place of the dawn.
Come Ye Apart, February
5. The Bent-Knee Time, by S. D. Gordon
Gordon's "wedges for the Quiet Corner," set to the days of the week for fifty-two weeks. Each entry is a few sentences with one plain thought about living with Jesus as Master: trust in the dark, temptation as a chance for victory, and the daily habit of prayer.
We'll always find that whatever Jesus asks us to do, he has done.
The Bent-Knee Time, Week 32, Sunday
6. "Beautiful Thoughts," by Henry Drummond
A year of very short passages from Drummond's books, chiefly Natural Law in the Spiritual World and The Greatest Thing in the World, arranged by Elizabeth Cureton. It reads quickly and is a good gift for a young believer.
Fruit-bearing without Christ is not an improbability, but an impossibility.
"Beautiful Thoughts"
A month at a time
7. With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray
Thirty-one lessons on prayer, each built on a saying of Jesus, starting from "Lord, teach us to pray." Read one a day for a month and your prayer life will not be the same. See our summary of the book.
My prayer will depend on my life: what God's words are to me and in me, my words will be to God and in God.
With Christ in the School of Prayer, Lesson XXII
Read With Christ in the School of Prayer.
8. Holy in Christ, by Andrew Murray
Thirty-one daily meditations that follow the word holy from creation through the prophets to the Epistles. Murray teaches that God alone is holy, that believers are made holy in Christ, and that holiness is received by faith and lived in obedience.
What God gives, He continues with a never-ceasing giving.
Holy in Christ, Twenty-second Day
9. The Spirit of Christ, by Andrew Murray
Another month of Murray, this time on the Holy Spirit living in the believer and the church. The readings are longer than most here, so give them a little more time. See Who Was Andrew Murray? and our guide to the best books on the Holy Spirit. Read The Spirit of Christ.
10. The Words of Jesus, by John R. Macduff
A small book with one saying of Jesus for each day of the month, each opened in a page of warm comment. Macduff's little books sold in huge numbers in the 1800s, and this is the best of them.
All that befals you, to the very numbering of your hairs, is known to God!
The Words of Jesus, 6th Day
11. The Mind of Jesus, by John R. Macduff
The companion to The Words of Jesus: thirty-one readings, each on one grace seen in Christ, such as compassion, meekness, forgiveness and humility, with a call to grow like Him.
Speak of the faults of others only in prayer
The Mind of Jesus, Twentieth Day
12. The Faithful Promiser, by John R. Macduff
A month of God's promises under the motto "He is faithful that promised." Good for a hard season, when you need to be told again that God keeps His word.
Grace is no scanty thing, doled out in pittances. It is a glorious treasury, which the key of prayer can always unlock, but never empty.
The Faithful Promiser, 3d Day
Prayers for morning and evening
13. The Morning Watches and Night Watches, by John R. Macduff
Thirty-one written morning prayers for particular needs, from pardon to comfort in bereavement, and thirty-one night meditations on God's attributes and promises. If you find it hard to know what to pray, borrowing Macduff's words for a while is a good way to learn.
I am another day nearer death — oh, may I be a day nearer Thee!
The Morning Watches, For a Pilgrim Spirit
14. Evening Incense, by John R. Macduff
A month of written evening prayers, each opening with a verse and asking for one grace, from communion with God to support in death. Read one aloud before bed, alone or with your family. Read Evening Incense.
For children
15. Morning Bells and Morning Stars, by Frances Ridley Havergal
Two small books of a month's readings for children. Morning Bells gives a child a text to carry through each day, about following Jesus and pleasing others. Morning Stars takes one name of Christ for each day, finished as Havergal was dying.
Jesus Christ gives us life, not for trying, not even for asking, but only just for believing on Him!
Morning Stars, Our Life
How to keep the habit
Pick one book and a time of day, and keep both. Read your Bible first if you can, then the devotional. Read slowly, and stop on the line that catches you. If you miss a day, don't try to catch up; just read today's. Once a year-long book is finished, try one of the month-long ones for a change, then go back.
For more books like these, see our guide to the best Christian devotional classics and the Devotional topic page.