11 Devotionals Like Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

Jesus Calling became one of the best-loved devotionals of our time because it meets readers in a few quiet minutes each day, with words of peace, rest and trust. Many readers finish a year with it and want something new that keeps that daily habit going. The devotionals below are different in style, but share its heart: short readings that turn you towards God each day.

What Jesus Calling is, and how these differ

Jesus Calling, first published in 2004, offers a short reading for each day of the year, written as though Jesus were speaking to the reader, with Scripture references after each entry. Its focus is on peace, rest, trust and a sense of God's nearness.

The devotionals below share that focus but take a different approach: they're written in the author's own voice, and each reading works directly from Scripture, or, in the Songs of the Redeemed series, from one of the church's great hymns and the Bible passages behind it. Readers who loved the comfort of Jesus Calling often appreciate that grounding.

A Firm Foundation: seven 30-day devotionals

Joel Banner's A Firm Foundation series offers seven 30-day devotionals, each on one theme. A month is long enough to form a habit and short enough to finish, which suits readers coming from a daily book like Jesus Calling.

1. Pray: Drawing Near to the Heart of God

If what you valued most in Jesus Calling was the sense of talking with God each morning, start here. Thirty days on prayer, drawing near to God, and learning to bring every part of life to Him.

2. Think: Renewing the Mind

Jesus Calling speaks to many readers in anxious seasons. Think offers thirty days on renewing the mind: facing worry, fear and cultural pressure with the truth of Scripture.

3. Known: Living Your Identity in Christ

For readers who found comfort in being reminded that they are loved, Known spends thirty days on identity in Christ, for anyone who struggles with worth, comparison or the sense of not being enough.

4. Rooted: The Gospel That Holds You Fast

A month on the heart of the gospel, written with new believers in mind but rich for anyone who wants to be grounded again in what God has done. A good place to begin the series.

5. Stand: Holding Fast in a World That Shakes

For hard seasons, when faith feels tested. Thirty days on holding fast, drawn from Scripture's promises for people who are struggling to stand.

6. Follow: Everyday Discipleship

For readers ready to move from comfort to growth: thirty days on following Jesus in ordinary life, at home, at work and in relationships.

7. Obey: Joyful Submission to the Lordship of Christ

The most challenging volume: thirty days on joyful obedience, for readers who want their daily devotional to shape how they live, not only how they feel.

Songs of the Redeemed: four hymn devotionals

Elias Hartwell's Songs of the Redeemed gives each volume to one beloved hymn: its story, its words and the Scriptures beneath it. These four share Jesus Calling's themes of peace, prayer and God's nearness.

8. What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Reflections on prayer, friendship and Christ the burden-bearer, built around the much-loved hymn. For readers who treasured Jesus Calling's invitation to bring every worry to God.

9. Safe and Secure from All Alarms

Built on "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms", this devotional is about trust and security in God when life feels unsafe. One of the most comforting volumes in the series.

10. I Am His, and He Is Mine

Based on "Loved with Everlasting Love", a meditation on belonging to God and being held by His love, for readers who want to rest in being His.

11. O Thou Who Changest Not

Built on "Abide with Me", a devotional on God's unchanging presence through loss, change and the evening of life. Especially meaningful in seasons of grief, and for anyone caring for someone near the end of life.

Choose by the season you're in

A year of devotionals after Jesus Calling

If you loved having a devotional for every day of the year, you can build a year from these books. The seven A Firm Foundation volumes cover seven months at thirty days each. Fill the remaining months with hymn devotionals, taking one hymn a week or a fortnight and reading its reflections slowly alongside the hymn itself.

1. January:Rooted, to begin the year grounded in the gospel.
2. February to March:Known, then Pray.
3. April:A hymn devotional on the cross for Holy Week.
4. May to July:Think, Follow and Obey.
5. August:What a Friend We Have in Jesus and Safe and Secure from All Alarms.
6. September to October:Stand, then I Am His, and He Is Mine.
7. November to December:O Thou Who Changest Not, and more hymn devotionals through Advent.

Making a daily devotional habit last

• Same time, same place. Tie your reading to something you already do: morning coffee, lunch, or bedtime.
• Keep it short. Ten quiet minutes a day outlasts an hour once a week.
• Read the Scripture too. Look up the passages each reading draws on.
• Write one line. A sentence of prayer or reflection each day builds a record of God's faithfulness.
• Miss a day, not the habit. If you skip a day, simply pick up the next morning.

Praying the hymns

One of the gifts of a hymn devotional is that the hymn itself becomes a prayer you can carry through the day. After reading a reflection from Songs of the Redeemed, sing or say the hymn's first verse slowly, then return to one line that stays with you. "What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear" becomes a prayer on the commute; "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide" a prayer at the end of a long day.

Devotionals for families

Many families read a devotional together at breakfast or bedtime. The 30-day format suits a family month: one short reading, one Scripture passage, one question for everyone. Hymn devotionals add singing, which children often remember long after the reading. Older children can take turns reading aloud.

Devotionals as gifts

Jesus Calling is one of the most-gifted Christian books, and many readers want something similar to give. The A Firm Foundation and Songs of the Redeemed books come in paperback and hardcover as well as ebook. A single volume matched to someone's season (Stand for a friend in a hard time, Rooted for a new believer, O Thou Who Changest Not for someone grieving) makes a thoughtful gift.

Three readers, three choices

A young mother who read Jesus Calling in snatched moments moved on to Pray, reading one entry each morning while her baby slept, and keeping a one-line prayer journal beside it.

A widower found O Thou Who Changest Not in his first year of grief, reading a reflection each evening and singing "Abide with Me" softly before bed.

A small-group leader chose Known for her group after several members shared that Jesus Calling had helped them through seasons of feeling unworthy.

Reading devotionals on your phone

A daily devotional on your phone means it's always with you, for a quiet moment at work or before sleep. In Oasis Reader, a warm Sepia or Dark theme and larger text make evening reading restful, and highlights keep the lines you want to return to. More in reading ebooks on your phone.

More guides for devotional readers

For more on these series, see 30-day devotionals, hymn devotionals and the stories behind famous hymns. For groups, devotionals for small groups; for new believers, books for new Christians.

See the Devotionals shelf →

In short

If Jesus Calling gave you a daily rhythm of peace and trust, these eleven devotionals can carry it on. Choose Pray or What a Friend We Have in Jesus for prayer, Think or Safe and Secure from All Alarms for peace, Known or I Am His, and He Is Mine for belonging, and O Thou Who Changest Not for seasons of loss. Ten quiet minutes a day is all it takes.

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