Heavenly Whispers: The Best New Christian Devotional I’ve Read This Year

Have you ever opened your Bible app, looked at the reading plan, and just felt nothing? I know I have, more often than I’d like to admit. It’s not that I don’t believe. It’s just that, at some point, spending quiet time with God started to feel like another task to finish before I could call my day good.

That’s the problem with striving. It can turn even the best things, like prayer, Scripture, and worship, into a performance. And trying to perform all the time is exhausting.

When I picked up Heavenly Whispers by Işık Abla, hoping to find something to go along with my usual Bible reading, I didn’t expect much. I’ve read a lot of devotionals, and most of them end up skimmed for a week before being set aside. But this one was different. After spending time with it, I’m convinced it’s the best new Christian devotional I’ve read in a long time.

The One Idea Behind This Whole Review

Here’s the main thing I want you to remember: Heavenly Whispers isn’t just another item on your to-do list. It’s a daily reminder that God is already speaking, and your only job is to listen.

That might sound simple, and it is. But simple doesn’t always mean easy, especially if you, like me, sometimes treat your faith like a performance review.

What Heavenly Whispers Actually Is

It’s a 365-day devotional, released in November 2025, and each entry follows the same three-part structure:

• A Heavenly Whisper — a short message written from God’s perspective, meant to speak directly to your heart.
• Practical Steps — a clear way to put the message into practice, so you don’t just read it and move on.
• An Intimate Encounter — a slower, more reflective ending, designed for prayer instead of more reading.

That structure is what makes it work. It’s not a Bible commentary, and it doesn’t hide the main point under pages of explanation. It’s short enough to fit into a real morning and is designed for connection first, information second.

Why Heavenly Whispers Might Be the Best New Christian Devotional for Your Routine

I’ve mentioned this book before in my post about Bible reading plans and called it my current favorite because it’s short, honest, and most days feels like it was written just for me. I’ll say it again here, with more space to explain why: this is easily my favorite new devotional.

If you’ve ever read Jesus Calling, you know the feeling of a page speaking directly to you instead of just at you. Heavenly Whispers gives me that same feeling, and it happens often. It’s amazing and very encouraging. Most devotionals give you information about God, but this one is written to sound like it’s coming from Him directly — a “love letter,” as the book’s tagline says. That’s a risky approach. If done poorly, it can feel manipulative or too familiar. But when it’s done well, like it is here, it does something most quiet-time materials don’t: it makes you feel spoken to, not just taught at.

And it’s short. That matters to me because I need my morning time with God to actually fit into my morning. But short doesn’t mean shallow. Some days I end up highlighting almost the whole entry. There’s very little wasted space in these pages.

Pro tip: Don’t just take my word for it. Download the Kindle sample and read a few entries yourself before you decide. It’s the quickest way to see if the tone fits where you are right now.

The Story Behind the Voice

Part of why this book carries weight is who wrote it. Işık Abla was born in Turkey, raised in a devout Muslim household, and survived an abusive marriage before emigrating to the United States in 1996. By her own account, she reached a point of suicidal crisis before encountering Jesus Christ and experiencing what she describes as supernatural healing. She’s since become an ordained minister with theological training from Yale and Harvard, and her ministry now reaches an estimated 700 million people across more than 200 countries.

I mention this because it changes how the book feels. This isn’t just generic devotional writing. It’s written by someone who truly knows what it takes to go from broken to whole, and that especially shows in the “Practical Steps” sections. They read like advice from someone who’s actually had to rebuild, not just a writer working from theory.

The Turn: From Striving to Being Spoken To

This is where it made sense for me. Most of my frustration with faith hasn’t come from doubting God is real. It’s come from quietly believing I have to earn His attention — by reading enough, praying long enough, or feeling the right amount of conviction — before He’ll actually meet me.

Heavenly Whispers challenges that idea, entry after entry. Its main themes — identity in Christ, replacing shame with being chosen, and moving from striving to thriving — are not just abstract ideas. They directly push back against the performance mindset. The book isn’t asking you to do more for God. It’s asking you to sit still long enough to hear what He’s already saying.

That’s the change. It’s not about trying harder. It’s about listening.

Bottom Line: Is It the Best New Christian Devotional Out Right Now?

For where I am in my faith this year, yes — I’d put it near the top of the best Christian devotionals of all time on my own shelf, and it’s definitely the best new Christian devotional I’ve picked up in a while. It’s short enough to stick with, honest enough not to feel like marketing, and it pairs naturally with a full Bible reading plan instead of competing with it (see my post on the best reading plans on the Bible app if you haven’t chosen one yet; I’ll add the link once that post is live).

There’s one small thing to watch out for: with 365 daily entries, it’s easy to treat it like a checklist if you’re not careful. That’s exactly the trap the book is trying to help you avoid. Read it slowly. Skip a day if you need to. It will still be there when you come back.

Give it a try. The easiest way to see if you’d like it is to download the Kindle sample before you buy, or grab the free 7-day preview from Işık Abla’s website if you’d rather start there.

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So, the next time you open your Bible app and look at the day’s reading but feel nothing, try spending five minutes with something like this first. What’s your favorite devotional to pair with your reading plan? I’d love to hear it.

You Might Also Like

• The Best Reading Plans on the Bible App (And How to Actually Stick With Them) — link pending, still a draft
• Transform Your Story into a Divine Appointment
• 7 Powerful Prayers for All Situations

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