Imagine pastor Rick Warren (The Purpose Driven Life) personally giving you an encouraging word about God’s promises before you face your day. Or, you’re looking out a sunny window, contemplating God’s creation with Ann Voskamp, farm wife and author of One Thousand Gifts, a book on gratitude that has sold a million copies. Or maybe theologian Kelly Kapic persuading you to sit still a bit and remember his book, You Were Never Meant to Do It All: A 40-Day Devotional on the Goodness of Being Human. (Brazos, May 2025), a title drawn from his Christianity Today Award-winning book You’re Only Human.
“The value of the devotional format is that it directs you inward,” says Brazos editorial director Katelyn Beaty. “It grounds you and takes you out of the frenetic demands on your time and energy. For women, the primary audience for any kind of nonfiction spirituality books, a devotional offers a kind of 'me time.' ” In September, Brazos will publish The Women We’ve Been Waiting For: A 40-Day Devotional for Self-Care, Resilience, and Communal Flourishing, by speaker and author Tiffany Bluhm.
In a typical devotional, the entries—spaced across a few weeks, months, or a year—begin with a Bible passage, expand with the author sharing personal observations or experiences, and conclude with a spiritual call to action: try this or meditate on that; pray now and see where God leads you. They’re meant to be interactive as well as inspirational.
And they’re highly marketable. Laura Barker, VP and publisher for Penguin Random House imprints Waterrook, Multnomah, and Ink & Willow, says her teams “seek authors and titles that can provide power-packed inspiration in a devotional format that backlists well.” Author Jennie Allen draws from her blockbuster 2020 book Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts for her 100-Day Stop the Spiral Devotional (WaterBrook, Sept.), which strives to guide readers toward realizing God can set them free.
Mental health advocate Anh Lin’s 30-week devotional, The Abundant Life (Ink & Willow, Feb. 2025), mixes suggestions for creating personal prayers and mantras with origami, recipes, and coloring pages. And Gospel singer-songwriter Tasha Cobbs Leonard’s debut book Do It Anyway, released back in May, gains a companion 60-day devotional from WaterBrook in October that expands Leonard’s call for bold faith, according to the publisher.
Pulling Wisdom
Publishing house editors also assemble devotionals by matching Bible passages with excerpts from previously published works by well-known authors and adding reflection prompts or activities.
Go Forward in Love: A Year of Daily Readings from Timothy Keller (Zondervan, Oct.) was created by the late pastor’s British publisher by drawing on several of his bestsellers. Westminster John Knox partnered with British editors at the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) for Every Day for Everyone: 365 Devotionals from Genesis to Revelation (Oct.) by combing through early commentaries by renowned biblical scholars John Goldingay and N.T. Wright.
Some devotionals center on holy seasons, such as Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr.’s Recapturing the Glory of Christmas: A 25-Day Advent Devotional (B&H, Oct.), as well as Guideposts’ 40-day Walking with Jesus: Devotions for Autumn and Thanksgiving 2004 (Sept.), by the team of authors who also write the publisher’s Mornings with Jesus annual devotional series. Guideposts’ many devotionals are intended to “feel like a faith walk taken with family and friends,” says Ansley Roan, Guideposts v-p for content. “Our focus is always on coming along with new discoveries and challenges rather than taking the tone of preaching or teaching.”
Special interest audiences draw attention, too. Nurse and wellness expert Anna Fitch Courie pairs 40 passages about biblical journeys with 40 days of workout routines in Walking with God (Morehouse, Jan. 2025). Tyndale author Jennifer Marshal Bleakley, known for her inspirational animal tales, adds to her Pawverbs devotional series with Paws in His Presence (Oct.), featuring endearing photos of critters along with passages from Psalms.
'Looking for a break'
Jon Farrar, associate publisher at Tyndale, says, “Devotionals are part of our DNA,” adding that devotional sales are strong right now because “people are looking for a break” from modern-day stresses. He highlights Warren’s Daily Hope Devotional: 365 Days of Purpose, Peace, and Promise (Oct.), which was created by compiling many of his Daily Hope radio show and email messages, and Voskamp’s woodcut-illustrated Loved to Life, which Farrar describes as a poetic 40-day spiritual pilgrimage with Jesus through the book of John.
Busy moms—grandmas included—are a prime audience for calm and caring voices in devotionals. Harvest House has pastor’s wife and homeschooling mom Whitney Newby’s Lift Your Eyes: Daily Invitations to Behold Christ in Motherhood coming in March 2025, while Pauline Media is set to publish EWTN TV host Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle’s Daily Devotions for Grandmothers (Aug. 2025), which incorporates quotes from Catholic Saints along with prayers and scripture.
Just as the Bible is timeless, so, evidently, is the classic devotional, My Utmost for His Highest, written more than a century ago by Scottish evangelist Oswald Chambers. B&H pairs the full text of its Christian Standard Bible with Chambers’s devotions to create the Oswald Chambers Bible, (B&H, Oct.). Becky Loyd, VP for marketing at Lifeway, which publishes numerous devotionals each year, says, “For many people, opening a devotional in the morning is a reminder that we are on a journey together, following God’s word, which sustains us every day.”
