Forming Faith Blog

4 Key Faith Practices: Devotions

Posted on July 14 2026 by Gregory Rawn

Devotions, the second Key Faith Practice, can refer to a faith reflection or intentional time spent with God. Either way, they help you grow in your relationship with God.

A family reading together. Reading Scripture together is one option for devotions.
Photo by Ksenia Chernaya
Faith Practices and Four Keys

This blog post marks the second in a series on the framework of faith practices known as the Four Key Faith Practices. The first post (and the first Key) is on Caring Conversations.

The framework of the Four Key Faith Practices comes from the doctoral work of the Rev. Dr. David W. Anderson. The history and more information can be found at Milestones Ministry. Dr. Anderson recently wrote a blog post for us on his related Five Principles of Faith Formation.

The Four Keys are:

  1. Caring Conversations
  2. Devotions
  3. Service
  4. Rituals and Traditions

This framework is the basis for the faith-at-home devotional resources Taking Faith Home (Revised Common Lectionary) and Sharing God’s Story @ Home (Narrative Lectionary).

What Is a Faith Practice?

At its most basic, a faith practice is a repeated action intended to help someone grow in their faith. Such practices are the foundation of faith formation. There are many types of faith practices (also called spiritual practices or spiritual disciplines), but Spirit & Truth Publishing sorts them into four main categories—prayer, worship, fellowship, and service—for our Living the Story (Narrative Lectionary) and Word in the World (Revised Common Lectionary) activities in our curriculum products. A fifth category is learning/education, but since that is the entire point of our curriculum products, we do not include that in our spiritual practices activities.

The Four Keys (and the devotional resources based on those) are valuable for individuals, couples, and intergenerational relationships (in the home and congregation). You can find out more about intergenerational ministry and why we should do it on our What Is Cross+Gen Ministry? page.

Second Key: Devotions

The word “devotion” originates from the Latin word for dedicating oneself by a vow to someone or something. It came to mean loyalty (e.g., devotion to a cause, devoted to a loved one) and loving dedication to God. In a spiritual context, “a devotion” is a type of faith practice.

Practicing the Presence

Dr. Anderson describes the Second Key as “practicing the presence of God,” a term coined by the seventeenth-century Catholic monk Brother Lawrence. Specifically, Dr. Anderson focuses this “practicing” on the Word of God, referring both to Scripture and the Word made flesh, Jesus.

Reflecting on Scripture and Faith

One concrete way to practice devotions is to read a portion of Scripture and to reflect on its meaning, especially its meaning for one’s personal faith. This can be done:

  • Individually via meditation (e.g., Lectio Divina) or focusing on a question (e.g., how might this direct my daily actions)
  • Communally via conversations with another person or group

In both of these contexts, the Scripture reflection can be aided by the writings of someone (often with some sort of authority) who has already done this reflection. A collection of these writings is often called a devotional. Our Taking Faith Home resource includes a written devotional reflection each week.

God-time

Another spiritual use of the word “devotions” is a period of time set aside for one or more concrete practices. This time is often organized in a way somewhat analogous to a worship service and might include one or more of: prayer (prewritten or extemporaneous), singing, conversation, journaling, Scripture reading, reflection, or meditation. The concrete practices can be set (by oneself or in a provided order) or flexible (i.e., the time period can be filled with any number of practices depending on one’s decision at the moment). 

This is the definition of Devotions that our Sharing God’s Story @ Home resource uses, and can refer to the time one sets aside for whatever aspect of Taking Faith Home one uses.

Benefits

The primary use of formal devotions (scriptural reflection or God-time) is to consciously set aside time to spend with God. This intentional effort blesses you with a growing relationship with God, which forms your faith. If you are doing devotions with others (family, friends, small group, etc.), then you have the additional benefit of learning from each other and growing in faith together.

A Few Tips

One thing to keep in mind is that there is a reason faith practices are also called spiritual disciplines. Growth is not achieved from a single action. It takes discipline and perseverance, just like exercising your body or acquiring a skill. You need to make any faith practice a priority and stick with it, whether you “feel like it” or not.

Here are a few tips:

  • Start small. While you might want to do everything all at once, it can be overwhelming to make a huge change in your schedule. Whether you are doing devotions by yourself or with your household, choose one or two practices to start with. 
  • Make a plan. Add your devotions time to your (or your household’s) schedule. It is common to set aside time when a person first wakes up or as part of a bedtime routine. It can also be at or after a meal or during a regular commute.
  • Be flexible. The unexpected is going to happen and mess with your schedule. And that’s okay. Give yourself some grace and never beat yourself up about it. On the other hand, it can be helpful to just do something. Maybe you just do one practice (e.g., say the Lord’s Prayer) or shorten the practices (e.g., limit highs and lows to one sentence each).
  • Experiment. If something is not working for you, try something else! Just make sure you give each practice a fair chance rather than jumping from one practice to another.

Devoted to Christ,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

Order Faith Formation Resources

Are you planning for summer and the 2026-2027 faith formation programming? Order an affordable VBS-ready Learning Together unit and program-year curriculum for the Narrative Lectionary (Year 1, 2026-2027), Revised Common Lectionary (Years A & B, 2026-2027), or Key Bible Stories (non-lectionary, PK-2nd, 3rd-6th).

New RCL faith-at-home resource!

I’m excited to announce a new product series for Spirit & Truth Publishing: Taking Faith Home. Taking Faith Home is a set of weekly devotional resources (often distributed as worship bulletin inserts) that follows the Revised Common Lectionary. We offer it as a Church Year (Dec. 2025 to Nov. 2026) and a Program Year (Sept. 2026 to May 2027). You can also purchase by quarter, such as Summer and Fall. Learn more here and read a review!

VBS, Events, Retreats, and More!

Are you looking for resources for VBS, topical Sunday school, family/intergenerational events, retreats, and more?

Learning Together is a series of affordable, five-lesson units on a variety of topics. Our faith formation resources are easy to use, theologically sound, and inclusive. Each unit can be used at any time in many different settings, but here are a few suggestions:

+ VBS: Paul’s Adventures (NEW!), Celebrations, Created to Care, God’s Gift of Water, Heroes of the Bible
+ Education, Events, and Retreats: The I AM Statements of Jesus (free!), Travelers (Immigrants and Refugees), Do Justice, Celebrations, Women of the Old Testament, Bible 101

Building Faith has recommended two of our units as VBS curriculum: Paul’s Adventures (reviewed in 2026) and Celebrations (reviewed in 2025)!

You can also read outside reviews on both our Do Justice and Created to Care units.

Our Resources

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