The key to leading an effective biblical devotional is that you explain, illustrate, and apply one main point from the Bible itself. Everything is driven by first understanding what main point the Bible is conveying. These general principles will help you do this.
1. General Principles
- Short: no more than 10 minutes, start to finish
- ONE main point which is:
- Derived directly from the Biblical text through faithful study of grammar, context, syntax, and history. This is called “exegesis,” meaning “taken out of.”
- Do not think up a main point then go find a text to support it, or decide on your point and force a text to support it. That’s called “eisegesis, or “reading into.”
- Main point is one very short, action-oriented sentence (e.g. “The gospel is the highest motive for serving Christ”).
- Main point addresses the hearers’ heart, attitude, and/or will.
- It’s best if the text and main point are relevant to the evening’s activities, the purpose of the meeting and/or the spiritual condition of the people
- Practice beforehand. Be sure you’re clear and concise (remember, 10 minutes, max!)
- Pray to The Holy Spirit for help and understanding to prepare.
2. Delivery Flow & Structure
- Introduce, and then read the Biblical text. In the intro, you may want to cite context of the text you’ve chosen so the hearers get the big picture.
- Explain the main point of this text and how you discovered it.
- State and summarize the main point.
- Illustrate the main point. Be sure you illustrate the main point, not some other point!
- Use a personal or other story that illustrates the main point.
- Use a situation or challenge facing the Team that has to do with the main point.
- Again, be sure to illustrate the main point, not some other point.
- Connect your illustration to the main point explicitly. Don’t assume people can make that connection.
- Summarize the main point again.
- Apply the main point.
- Answer, “Why and how is this main point relevant to me, us, our Team?”
- Answer, “How can I/we apply this main point?”
- Be as specific as possible.
- Be sure to apply the main point, not some other point.
- Pray