When to do devotions according to the Bible

When I was in my early teens, I felt the need to do personal devotions, and the best time I had for that was when the sun was coming up before my sisters got up. I prayed and told God I wanted to start waking up earlier for Him, but didn’t want to wake my sisters by setting an alarm.

The next morning at dawn, a very loud bird sang right outside the window at the head of my bed, waking me up. Opening the curtain just enough for a view (and light for reading), I found it was a robin. I thanked God for the clever solution and read my Bible. The robin woke me up at dawn for about 3-4 days, and then was replaced by a cheery little brown and white bird with a tail that stuck straight up like a flag and a white stripe at its eyes. This bird was quieter than the robin and seemed to know more than one song. I spent some time looking up what kind of bird was my cheery new alarm, and it turned out to be a Carolina wren. My bird book said they could sing up to 40 different songs! I found my cheery bird lived just a little ways from my window and woke me up for countless mornings after that.

This Bible passage became very precious to me at the time: “The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.” Isaiah 50:4 KJV

During my college years, I tried to continue my early morning readings, but sometimes I found I had to make up for it during my lunch break by keeping a small Bible in my purse to read as I ate. After college, I worked as a night shift nurse, and whenever I woke up became my “morning” when I would read, thinking of the verse “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33 KJV

After I got married and had a newborn, I found it very difficult to find time for my early morning devotions. It’s hard to read in the early morning as a sleep-deprived new mom whose baby will wake up in the morning if you get up, even when I managed the miracle of not waking the baby, I would fall asleep trying to read. I was fortunate enough to become a stay-at-home mom, so I was discouraged that I was having trouble fitting in my devotions with all this “time” on my hands. My devotions became patchy one here, one there, a few days without one, then we would go to church and I’d tell myself I will do better this new week, and so the cycle continued.

The guilt of the early morning devotion myth

I looked up personal devotion tips on the internet to try and help and soon found a vast amount of people saying that the early morning was the Biblical way to do devotions. Saying things like “His mercies are new every morning”, and even claiming “Jesus did his devotions in the early morning” and we are called to be like Him. I became jealous of the early morning devotion crowd that I was once so proud to be a part of. I would try early mornings again, only to find that I could not stay awake, or my family would all rise early with me and need things. The rare mornings I succeeded, I felt were good days, and the rest of the time I felt I had missed a blessing that vanished with the morning dew. I even despaired for my spiritual life and relationship with God at times due to these morning failures and my inconsistent devotions.

One night, once my family was asleep, I got up with a deep need for some alone time with God in prayer and Bible reading. I came across the following passage in Hosea: “And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.” Hosea 13:2-4 KJV

I was shocked when God basically cursed the wicked, saying they would be like the morning dew because I had come to associate that symbol with some sort of special devotional blessing, and even thought God Himself was like the morning. Then God contrasts Himself with the wicked who are like the morning, saying he doesn’t change, “Yet I am the Lord…”

What the Bible Really Says

I prayed for understanding, and the following verses came to mind one after another: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.” “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” “For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (Hebrews 13:8, Psalm 121:4, and 2 Corinthians 6:2)

I almost cried as I realized God is always there for me whenever I have time to read the Bible, and I don’t need to feel guilty if the early morning doesn’t work out, any time of day is “today”! “Now is the accepted time,” and I have never experienced a present moment that wasn’t now!

Understanding “New Every Morning”

I love that God is never changing and doesn’t vanish with the dew, but what about the early riser’s arguments that early morning is best and even biblical? Well, let’s look at the verses they reference: “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:21-23

I am not consumed! I’m alive, and God has given me a new day with new opportunities! Looks like I have never missed out on this blessing of new morning mercies from the day I was born until now! How freeing! Now, I can let go of my spiritual FOMO.

”Seek ye First”: Priorities, Not Time

Well, how about “seek ye first the kingdom of God”? Let’s see it in context: “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:31-33

So it’s about priorities and what we focus on in life. As Christians, our top priority should always be God and the advancement of His kingdom; everything else in life is temporary and not worth our focus or worry.

Didn’t Jesus Always do Early Morning Devotions?

Ok, so what about the claim that Jesus did early morning devotions, and we need to be like him? “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. And Simon and they that were with him followed after him. And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee.” Mark 1:35-37

So Jesus, on this occasion, did get up early morning and pray. I love how the passage is so realistic and shows him getting interrupted. The disciples track him down and end his prayer time with the message “All men seek for Thee.” I think he understands busy moms needed by their families all the time. However, this passage does not say “as was his custom” (like it does in Luke 4:16 when he goes to the synagogue on the sabbath and reads the scriptures). Nor am I able to find another passage that mentions him rising early to sneak off and pray.

There are other times it says he prayed at night:

“And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.” Matthew 14:23-25

“And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;” Luke 6:12-13

Also, there was the night of prayer in Gethsemane: Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and John 17.

All the other times I could find Him mentioned praying for personal devotional time are below:

“But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.” Luke 5:15-16

“And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?” Luke 9:18

“And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.” Luke 9:28-29

“And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1

The Best Time

So Jesus prayed often and at different times of day. Every devotional time is represented in one passage or another. So, what time according to the Bible should we do devotions? Anytime in the day or night we can, because God is always there waiting.

“While it is said, Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation.”

Hebrews 3:15

“For He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

2 Corinthians 6:2

All scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV), unless otherwise noted.