As with any new attempt at building a habit, consistency is key. If you’re looking to supplement your life with a daily practice that brings a sense of calm and balance to your world, then perhaps a daily devotional routine is something to try out. With an array of free devotional books available online through The Word For You Today, there is bound to be the perfect focus for you.

If you’re considering a daily devotional routine, then take care to make sure you have a snippet of time in your day when you’re able to be mindful, quiet, and take some time to yourself. If you’re not able to carve a specific time out of the day, then try to find some time each day when you can be as at peace as possible in order to do your devotional.

If being on your own to do the reading isn’t what you’re envisioning for your daily practice, then consider using a time when the family is together to hold a devotional as a family. The benefits of developing habits and routines can be felt throughout the family, so as you put together the time and space for yourself, consider these benefits of a daily devotional routine.

1. Doing It Daily Makes It a Habit

Nurturing the action of communing daily can help bring about a lasting habit. Experts say that it takes two weeks of practice to make a habit. By the time the end of the first month comes around, you’ve essentially established a habit: it’ll just be part of your day. Relationships require work, and reading through your free devotional books can help shape your morning and your day.

If you like, bring a journal and either music or a podcast to your dedicated devotional time. During your reading, if you find yourself with reflections, questions, or insights, you’ll have your notebook or journal right there and won’t need to get up and detract your focus away from your meeting with God. An audiobook, a podcast, or music can be a smooth transition back to the rest of your day.

To help guarantee that it becomes a habit, take these three key points into consideration:

  1. Choose the same time of day. This can streamline the process and help make the habit stick.
  2. Set a reminder. This can be a sticky note, an alarm on your phone, or something that you’ll see as you go about your morning. If your aim is to prioritize this practice, then make sure you’ll see the reminder as early as possible in the day.
  3. Clear out all distractions. That means no phone nearby and making sure you don’t schedule things that will conflict with your daily devotional routine.

2. It’s a Great Way to Make Time for Yourself to Read

That’s not to say it’s selfish, rather, finding time for yourself to be with God is an integral part of the devotion. It’s creating not only space and time to commune, analyze, and reflect, but creating the energy for the practice. If you’re in a sour mood, do something to bring yourself back to balance, like some deep breaths, meditation, or prayer.

From there, you’re more likely to be able to focus on what it is you’re reading and to take the messages to heart. When you focus on passages and lessons, you’ll be more open to listening and ingesting the message and, ultimately, practicing the news things you learn in your day-to-day life.

3. When Done in Silence, It Can Be Very Healing

We often forget what silence really is. There always seems to be noise from outside, people talking, or push notifications arriving on our phones. Really setting aside time to focus on the one-on-one relationship between you and God can make all the difference, especially if it’s done in silence.

If you live in a place where true quiet and silence is unattainable, this might be a good time to invest in noise-canceling headphones. While securing a continuously quiet place may be hard to do, if you have noise-canceling headphones, so long as you can find space away from others, this is a keen method for making sure you have the time—and quiet—to dedicate to your studies.

4. You Will Hone Your Focus and Block Out Distractions

While the noise-canceling headphones will make a noticeable difference, over the course of time, your attention to the written word will draw you in, and all the distractions and noise around you will begin to fade. When you practice your devotions with a yearning for understanding and an openness to new lessons, you’ll notice that your focus may begin to shift.

With your mind, body, and soul focused on the devotional words, you’ll find an energy space that causes all those distractions to fade from focus, and you’ll be able to be more present in the moments of reading. Your mind won’t wander as easily, and you’ll be better able to soak in and process the devotional books.

5. Make It Tech-Free for a Deeper Connection to the Word

Even though noise-canceling headphones and technology capable of playing music or podcasts have been mentioned, there is a way to practice your daily devotional in the good old-fashioned tech-free way. With a journal, pen, and your free devotional books in tow, you can make a special, tech-free moment of your communion.

Anytime we’re able to separate ourselves from technology, we feel a deeper sense of gratitude and awareness. This is something you can harness and hold close in your routine by keeping your phone and other unnecessary forms of technology out of the practice. If you’ve downloaded a devotional book onto your kindle, the best thing to do is to turn off the Wi-Fi capabilities so you can stay connected directly to what you’re reading.

The Word For You Today offers free devotional titles to help you focus more on the Word, on yourself, and on your relationship with Jesus.