Reading Through Blackaby Experiencing God Day By Day Properly
I picked up the Blackaby Experiencing God Day By Day devotional about four years ago after a friend recommended it during a period when my own spiritual routine had become mechanical. The book is a day-by-day companion to the broader Experiencing God curriculum by Harold B. Blackaby and Richard Steig. It follows a structured reading plan designed to walk readers through Scripture while applying four key questions from the parent book: What does the text say? What did it mean then? What does it mean now? And what should I do about it? The format itself is straightforward. Each day gives you a Scripture passage, a short devotional reflection, and then space for your own notes. There are no fancy illustrations or elaborate study aids. It is deliberately sparse so you spend more time in the text than in commentary.
How the Blackaby Experiencing God Day By Day Structure Actually Works in Practice
The four questions form the backbone. You start with observation — what is actually happening in the passage. Then you move to interpretation — what was going on in the original context. The third question bridges into application, and the fourth pushes you toward a concrete response. That last step is where most people stall out. I learned this the hard way during a season when I was working through the book covering the Gospel of John. I kept skipping the application question or answering it vaguely. I would write something like "I need to trust God more" and move on. That is not application. That is self-help filler. The devotional forces you into specificity, which is uncomfortable if you are not used to it. I started rewriting my responses until they looked like actual action steps: "Call Sarah and apologize before Friday. Fast one meal this week and pray about my reaction to her email." Concrete. Measurable. Awkward to write down, but that is the point. The daily readings are usually short passages — sometimes half a chapter, sometimes a few verses. The devotional sections range from one paragraph to a page. Some days hit harder than others. You will skip days. That is normal. The book is not a guilt engine, though a lot of people treat it like one anyway.
Common Pitfalls That Slow People Down
The biggest issue I see is pacing. People finish a devotional section and immediately close the book without spending time on the note-taking space provided. The value of Blackaby Experiencing God Day By Day comes from the interaction between the reader and the text, not from reading the devotional commentary and calling it a day. The commentary guides you. Your own notes solidify what you actually learned. Another problem is treating every day as equally important. Some passages will resonate deeply. Others will feel thin or irrelevant. This happens especially when you are working through historical books or genealogies. I tried to force myself to mine meaning out of every single line and ended up burning out around day forty or so. The workaround was simple: when a passage felt completely dry, I still read it, answered the four questions briefly, and moved on. The habit of showing up matters more than the depth of any single entry. There is also a tendency to over-rely on the devotional commentary and under-invest in the Scripture itself. The authors wrote the commentary to help, not to replace your own engagement with the text. If you find yourself agreeing with the commentary but unable to restate what the passage actually says in your own words, you are not doing the work the devotional is asking for.
Get the Full Details
What to Expect and Where It Falls Short
This method works well for people who want structure. It does not work well if you are someone who needs extended contemplation on a single verse before moving forward. The day-by-day pace can feel rushed if that is your natural rhythm. I have seen people try to slow it down by spending multiple days on one entry, which is fine, but the layout does not accommodate that easily since each day is a separate section. The devotional also assumes a certain baseline familiarity with biblical narrative. If you are new to Scripture, the reference passages might leave you lost more often than helped. Pairing it with a simpler translation or a basic Bible guide for the first few months makes a real difference. I used the NIV for the main text but kept a message paraphrase nearby when the language felt opaque. Another limitation is that the application questions tend to lean toward personal holiness and obedience. If you are looking for a strong emphasis on social justice or corporate ethics, you will find those themes present but secondary. The focus is individual transformation through Scripture engagement. That is not a flaw. It is just the design intent. If that is not what you want, other devotionals like The Daily Offering or Jesuit-inspired readings might fit better.
A Practical Setup That Actually Sticks
Keep a dedicated notebook next to your Bible. Do not use your phone for notes. Writing by hand slows you down just enough to force better thinking. I used a cheap spiral notebook and wrote answers directly into the margins of the devotional when possible, otherwise transferring them to the notebook afterward. Read the Scripture passage first. All by itself. Before you touch the devotional commentary. Sit with it for a few minutes. Let it confuse you if it needs to. Then read the commentary. Then go back to the Scripture and read it again. The second reading always reveals something the first one missed. If you miss a day, do not restart the entire book. Just pick up where you are. I had three separate gaps over two years where I fell behind for weeks at a time. Restarting would have been absurd. The habit recovers faster than you think.
The book is widely available through major retailers and some church supply stores. Look for the edition that includes the note-taking space. Some printings compress the layout and make writing difficult. A larger font size and adequate margin space make a noticeable difference in whether you actually use the pages or just read past them.
