Basic Devotion Format

The basic devotion format includes three parts:

1. The study of a portion of Holy Scripture.
In choosing where to read, some people find it helpful to follow the daily lectionary. Others find it simpler to follow a study guide available from various Christian publishers. You may simply want to choose a passage that interests you-a gospel or an epistle, perhaps-and study it on your own using commentaries and other study aids.

2. Personal devotional time is meditating on the passage.
This is not quite the same as study, although the two often occur together or at nearly the same time. However, while one can remain relatively objective in the pure study of Holy Scripture, meditation requires that the believer allow the words and ideas to affect him personally-to speak to his own situation. While studying the passage may be like carefully laying a brick in line with other bricks, meditation is like stepping back and seeing the mansion as a building where people will someday live.

3. Devotional time includes a time of prayer,
when you express your concerns, needs, intercessions to the Lord, and allow him to answer you by quietly listening. This too can be a natural outflow of your study and mediation, as it is often in a time of meditating before the Lord that our questions and needs are met.

At the Start of Day

1. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
2. Let Israel say: "His love endures forever."
3. Let the house of Aaron say: "His love endures forever."
4. Let those who fear the LORD say: "His love endures forever."
5. In my anguish I cried to the LORD, and he answered by setting me free.
6. The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
7. The LORD is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies.
8. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.
9. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.
10. All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.
11. They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.
12. They swarmed around me like bees, but they died out as quickly as burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off.
13. I was pushed back and about to fall, but the LORD helped me.
14. The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
15. Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: "The LORD's right hand has done mighty things!
16. The LORD's right hand is lifted high; the LORD's right hand has done mighty things!"
17. I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done.
18. The LORD has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death.
19. Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
20. This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter.
21. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.
22. The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;
23. the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
24. This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25. O LORD, save us; O LORD, grant us success.
26. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you.
27. The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine upon us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.
28. You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you.
29. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Psalms 118: 24

Prayer of Thanks to God
Almighty God, and most merciful father, who didst command the children of Israel to offer a daily sacrifice to thee, that thereby they might glorify and praise thee for thy protection both night and day, receive, O Lord, my morning sacrifice which I now offer up to thee; I yield thee humble and hearty thanks that thou has preserved me from the danger of the night past, and brought me to the light of the day, and the comforts thereof, a day which is consecrated to thine own service and for thine own honor.
George Washington

Luther's Morning Prayer
My Heavenly Father, I thank You, through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, that You kept me safe from all evil and danger last night. Save me, I pray, today as well, from every evil and sin, so that all I do and the way that I live will please you. I put myself in your care, body and soul and all that I have. Let Your holy Angels be with me, so that the evil enemy will not gain power over me. Amen.
Martin Luther

I Cannot Do This Alone
O God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray
And to concentrate my thoughts on you:
I cannot do this alone.
In me there is darkness,
But with you there is light;
I am lonely, but you do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;
I am restless, but with you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;
I do not understand your ways,
But you know the way for me…
Restore me to liberty,
And enable me to live now
That I may answer before you and before me.
Lord, whatever this day may bring,
Your name be praised.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Morning Prayer
O Lord, grant that my heart may be truly cleansed and filled with Thy Holy Spirit, and that I may arise to serve Thee, and lie down to sleep in entire confidence in Thee, and submission to Thy will, ready for life or for death. Let me live for the day, not overcharged with worldly cares, but feeling that my treasure is not here, and desiring truly to be joined to Thee in Thy heavenly kingdom, and to those who are already gone to Thee. O Lord, save me from sin, and guide me with Thy Spirit, and keep me in faithful obedience to Thee, through Jesus Christ Thy Son, our Lord.
Rev. Thomas Arnold (1795-1842)

ASPIRATION
In the quiet of this hour, I bring an offering of penitence, if not of purity; of teachableness, if not of wisdom; of hope for the time to come, if not ample fruits of well-doing in the time that is past. And so may I find strength and courage for every time of need.
COME, HOLY SPIRIT!
Come, Holy Spirit! Take from us the tediousness and anxiety of a selfish mind, the untrustfulness of cold affections, the weakness of an inconstant will. With the simplicity of a great purpose and the power of a well-ordered soul, may we pass through the toils and watches of our pilgrimage; grateful for all that may render the burdens of duty light; and even in strong trouble, rejoicing to be deemed worthy of severer service.
UNION
Infinite One who fills the universe with Your unsearchable presence, and has a dwelling-place in every heart that trusts in You: I come now in a spirit of thanksgiving, and I would commune with You in prayer that I may learn to live in Your constant presence. Indeed, may I learn to pray as I ought in spirit and in truth.
YOU ARE OUR STRENGTH
Dear God, we are as strangers in Your wondrous universe, yet as children at home within Your shelter. You inspire joyful confidence in You. Enlightener of true seers and prophets, You are our Strength. May their faith and spirit rest upon all our life, refreshing the weariest task. In life and in death, You are the steadfast light of our hearts; You are our portion forever.
THE TASK
Eternal and infinite One, our hours of faithful duty follow us from the past and do not perish. Stir within us that we may redeem the time. Great Giver of the task, we live day and night beneath Your constant eyes. May we be steadfast through all faintness of soul and not rest by the roadside while Your errand waits. Daily may we drive out our selfishness and delight to bear one another’s burden and uphold each other’s faith and hope and love. May our minds be wholly turned to finish, without undue disquiet or contention, the work we strive to do for You. O Watcher of our days and nights, we would commit them all to You.
A PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Eternal God, who commits to us the swift and solemn trust of life: since we know not what a day may bring forth, but only that the hour for serving You is always present, may we wake to Your instant claims, not waiting for tomorrow, but yielding today. Lay to rest the resistance of our passion, indolence, or fear. Consecrate the way our feet may go, and the humblest work will shine, and the roughest places be made plain. Lift us above unrighteous anger and mistrust into faith and hope and charity, through steady reliance on You. So may we be modest in our time of wealth, patient under disappointment, ready for danger, serene in death. In all things, draw us to Yourself that Your lost image may be traced again, and we may be at one with You.
OUR SECRET LIFE
God of our secret life, weary of ourselves, we come to Your shelter. Our span of troubled days we bring within Your calm eternity. Over our path of pilgrimage, we feel the spaces of Your immensity. In the strife of life and the sadness of mortality, we find a spirit of power and of hope in Your providence.
Infinite Ruler of creation, whose spirit dwells in every world: we look not to the heavens for You, though You are there; we search not in the oceans for Your presence, though it murmurs with Your voice; we wait not for the wings of the wind to bring You near, though they are Your messengers; for You are in our hearts, O God. You make Your abode in the deep places of our thought and love. In each gentle affection, each contrite sorrow, each noble aspiration, we would worship You.
SOURCE OF ALL GOOD
Source of all good! Day by day are Your blessings renewed to us, and again we come with thankful hearts to seek the sense of Your presence. O that we could be reborn like the morning. For even as we seek to commune with You, shadows from our past dim the joy of our aspiration. We remember our thoughtless lives, our impatient tempers, our selfish aims; and yet we know that You have neither made us blind nor left us without the guidance of Your still, small voice speaking in our inmost conscience, and Your open word, appealing to us to choose the better part. Take us now to serve You in newness of spirit, and sweep away every dust of care, every trace of unjustified fear, and every trace of an uncharitable mind.
YOU, OUR SUN AND SHADE
The day is Yours, O God, and the night also. In the morning, You renew my strength; in the evening, I find the shelter of Your wing. You are my Sun, and apart from You, my toil is weary and blind, and there is no glory in my joy. You are my Shade, for in You, my restless soul finds rest. Abiding God, enter fully into my life.
Long have I thirsted after You, the Spring of everlasting life. You are the Treasure of generation after generation. Eternal God! the stars without number proclaim Your power, and the prayers of the human heart never cease to speak. Shame my prejudice, melt down my pride, quiet my fears, and lift me above fretfulness to repose. I would give myself to You, not by inward vision only, but by faithful service. May I never grow weary of well-doing; and may I never look for peace without suffering.
FOR THE NATIONS
God of all, whose balance tries the nations, to lift up or to cast down; You have laid upon the people of the planet a mighty trust. Never through vain conceit may we be blind to the unchanging conditions of Your blessing. The world and its fullness are Yours; our portion, therefore, may we hold with reverence and not in wanton self-will. May we be a refuge of the oppressed and a moderator of lawless ambition. Grant true wisdom and understanding to the leaders of the nations and to all others entrusted with international authority. May we acknowledge You as our supreme Lawgiver and Judge. May all of us, leaders and people, buyers and sellers, know You as weighing the path of the just, as well as being the deathless source of power for peace.
James Martineau

Good morning!
King David wasn't perfect by any stretch. But he sure knew how to start the day.
"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go, for to you, I lift up my soul" (Psalm 143:8).
Great advice. Works, too, for real life.
That's why this Web site exists. That's why I have written hundreds of Morning Devotions and plan to continue until I see God's face.
Thanks for seeking real answers to real challenges that are part of real life.
As you do so each day, your faith becomes more real to others.
And that is real good.
As always, I love you

Suggested Prayers for Morning Devotions
Heavenly Father, in your compassion and mercy I have spent the past night: Pour out your Holy Spirit on me this morning so that I may praise you with my whole being. Reveal yourself to me, even now, so that my heart can respond to you; through Jesus, your son, my Lord and redeemer.
Amen.
Heavenly Father, since it is of your tender mercy and compassion that I greet another new day in my life, please accept my total being as an offering to you this day. Guide and strengthen me as I face the events and decisions before me today, especially (here mention specific needs) that all may be done to your honor and glory. I make this offering and prayer through Jesus Christ, my Savior.
Amen.
Lord, even as I make this offering, I realize my own impotence to maintain my life in your way, and so I ask for the strength of your Holy Spirit to hold me firm in my resolve, keeping my eyes on Jesus, my Savior, each hour of the day.
Amen.
Heavenly Father, because of the love that you have for me, I intercede for all my brothers and sisters. Let your Good News be made known to all of them. Especially, I ask your blessings on all my brothers in the Brotherhood of St Andrew, giving special strength, inspiration and insight to those in positions of leadership-especially our National President (add name) and all the National Officers, the staff in the Central Office, the Assembly Officers, and my Chapter Director. Father, as many as have accepted you, keep them in the light of your Gospel, and fill them with your Holy Spirit that they may be witnesses for you to all those other brothers and sisters who do not yet know the good news of your great salvation. Bless all of your ministers in the Church, both lay and ordained. I ask the blessing of your grace on each member of my family today, drawing each one closer to you; make your love known to my friends and neighbors, and if there is any way in which I can minister to their needs, Father, make it known to me, that your name may be glorified and honor given to Jesus Christ my Lord and Redeemer.
Amen.
Almighty God, who gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him; Give us, who are called by your Holy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of the Father, and the unifying power of the Holy Spirit be made manifest among all mankind and especially to the people I walk among today.
Amen.