Does the Bible Command Daily Devotions?

It may come as a surprise, but there’s no explicit com­mand in Scripture to have a time of worship each day, ei­ther as an individual or as a family. And yet it’s a habit every Christian believer or Christian family is encouraged to practice.

The name of the habit may vary depending on one’s Christian tradition or background—“devotion,” “quiet time,” or “personal or family worship”—but it usually includes the basic ele­ments of Bible reading and prayer. In my book, I opted for the general term “daily worship”; it covers a time of personal or family devotion while maintaining the vertical dimension of worship.

But from where do we get this idea of a time of daily worship, which consists mainly in Bible reading and prayer? The answer is that the practice is implied in a number of Scriptures.

Old Testament Pattern

In Genesis, God says he chose Abraham so that he might command his children and his household to keep the way of the Lord (Gen. 18:19). This would involve Abraham having a time in the day or week to teach his family and servants what God had commanded him. In Deuteronomy, God commands Israel to love him with heart and soul and mind and strength, a love that is to be expressed by parents taking every opportunity during the day to teach their children the words of God (Deut. 6:5–6).

In Joshua, after Moses dies, God exhorts Joshua to be “strong and very courageous” by being careful to obey the law of Moses (Josh. 1:7). The command implies that Joshua would need to familiarize himself with the books of Moses throughout his life, a discipline that would require regular, systematic reading of the sacred text. At the end of his life, Joshua declares to Israel that his commitment to God is not just personal but familial: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15). For his family to serve the Lord, Joshua would first have to know the law of Moses for himself before instructing his family in it.

God’s command implies that Joshua would need to familiarize himself with the books of Moses throughout his life, a discipline that would require regular, systematic reading of the sacred text.

The practice is reflected in the Psalms where Israel is encouraged to tell the glorious deeds of the Lord to the next generation (Ps. 78:4). The prophetic books contain a similar idea of personally hearing from God in his Word before passing on the revelation to others.

In Isaiah, the servant of the Lord is said to be awakened “morning by morning” to listen to God’s instruction (Isa. 50:4) before he undertakes the work to which God has called him. In Amos, God says that he does no great work in history without first revealing his secret to his servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). In Ezekiel, the prophet is told to eat the words of God from the scroll as a symbolic gesture of first digesting the Word of God for himself before proclaiming it to Israel (Ezek. 3:1–2).

In each of these examples—Abraham, Israel, Joshua, Isaiah, Amos, and Ezekiel—it’s reasonable to think the personal reading of Scripture or the familial instruction from Scripture would have also involved times of prayer. This is supported by the fact that the canon of Christian Scripture contains its own prayer book. The book of Psalms includes individual and corporate prayers (e.g., Ps. 3; 96) mixed with encouragement to meditate on God’s Word and his promises (e.g., Ps. 1; 119).

New Testament Pattern

The New Testament reflects similar sentiments on reading the Scriptures and praying, either as an individual, a family, or a church. Jesus frequently asks the Pharisees, “Have you not read?” as he rebukes them for not knowing their Bibles (Matt. 12:3, 5; 19:4; 22:31; Mark 12:10, 26), which means he believed that they ought to have been reading the Old Testament for themselves.

Jesus also teaches on corporate and individual prayer. On the one hand, the Lord’s Prayer is intended to be a public prayer said by the church, seen in the plural forms that run throughout it: “Our Father in heaven. . . . Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:9–13). On the other hand, individual prayer is something Jesus envis­ages being performed alone, in private: “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret” (Matt. 6:6). So, according to Jesus, there’s a time to pray together as a church and a time to pray on our own.

We see a similar focus on reading the Scriptures and praying in the writings and lives of the apostles. Peter encourages Christians to crave the spiritual milk of God’s Word like newborn infants (1 Pet. 1:24–2:2), while also exhorting them to be alert and sober-minded so that they might pray (1 Pet. 4:7).

In his epistles, Paul commands the public and private reading of Scripture (1 Tim. 4:13, 15; 2 Tim. 3:15), alongside prayer (1 Tim. 2:8). He reveals the content of his own personal prayers for the churches (Eph. 1:17–19; 3:16–19; Phil. 1:9–11; Col. 1:9–12), while also encouraging believers toward a similar commitment to daily prayer: “Be constant in prayer” (Rom. 12:12) and “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).

Finally, family instruction from the Scriptures, along with prayer, is implied in Paul’s exhortation to fathers to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).

What, When, and How?

So while there is no explicit command to have a time of daily worship as an individual or a family, consisting in reading the Scriptures and praying to God, the habit is certainly assumed or implied in a number of places. If this is so, then some ques­tions arise: How should we structure our own daily worship? What should we do and how should we do it?

At a basic level, daily worship obviously involves hearing from God in Scripture and responding to him in prayer. However, can we be more intentional and creative than that? I think we can be. For example, we know Jesus would rise early in the morn­ing to spend time with his Father. Was this worship time structured or random? I think we have good reason to believe it was structured.

For one, Jesus knew the Old Testament Scriptures comprehensively and precisely, and he could only have attained such knowledge if he was reading God’s Word regularly and sequentially. At the very least, he would have heard the consecutive reading of Scripture at the synagogue.

Jesus knew the Scriptures comprehensively and precisely, and he could only have attained such knowledge if he was reading God’s Word regularly and sequentially.

Second, when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he provided a basic structure in the Lord’s Prayer of adoration, petition, confession, and further petition. So it’s reasonable to assume that when Jesus spent time with his Father each day in worship, he had a system for reading and meditating on the Old Testament as well as a structure for praying.

Following our Lord’s example—and the example of God’s people throughout history—will instill in us vibrant habits of daily worship that will last a lifetime.

Content adapted from Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Daily Worship (Crossway, 2021). A version of this article appeared on Crossway.org; used with permission.