The United States is full of places that can make you stop and think. Maybe you’ve been to a national park, a small town that made you smile, or a historic church that feels and smells old.
A place can sometimes help you notice something you would otherwise miss.
A mountain can remind you of God’s creative power.
A battlefield may make you think about sacrifice, suffering, or decisions that affected thousands of people.
A small church may make you wonder about the generations of people who worshiped there before you.
Christian devotions inspired by places like that can take those kinds of experiences and connect them with Scripture and your own life.
And you do not need to personally visit the place for the devotion to mean something to you.
Think about Yellowstone National Park. The massive fires of 1988 burned large areas of the park. Yet new growth eventually appeared. That experience can become a starting point for thinking about renewal.
Where do you need a new beginning?
Is there something difficult in your life that you hope God can bring something good from?
A devotion might begin with Yellowstone, but the real subject quickly becomes your own life and what Scripture says about hope, renewal, or trusting God.
That is what a place-based devotion can do.
American history can lead to deeper questions
Historic places can also give you something to think about.
You might read about a battlefield, a civil rights site, an old church, or a place connected with an important event in American history.
Some places bring up difficult subjects. They may lead you to think about courage, injustice, sacrifice, forgiveness, or how people treated one another. Simply put, places can raise questions for us to think about.
What would faithfulness have looked like in that situation?
How should Christians respond to injustice?
What can someone else’s courage teach you?
How should the past affect the way you treat people today?
What have we learned in the years since that event?
Nature can help you think about God
America also has extraordinary natural places.
You may picture the mountains of Colorado, the coast of Maine, a desert in Arizona, farmland in Ohio, or the beaches of Hawaii.
A place does not have to be famous to matter. Maybe there is a lake you remember from childhood. Maybe a road through the mountains made you feel small. Those memories can become part of your time with God.
A devotion might use a landscape to begin thinking about God’s power, provision, beauty, or care.
The important part is where the devotion takes you next.
Does it faithfully interpret Scripture?
Does it help you think more about God?
Does it make you consider something in your own life?
You can also read Scripture more carefully when a devotion raises a question.
A 50-state Christian devotional
The book From Sea to Shining Sea is a 50-day Christian devotional based on travels to every state in America.
Each devotion begins with an experience from a different state and connects that experience with Scripture and something readers can consider in their own lives.
You do not need to have visited those states. The location simply gives the devotion a starting point.
The places change from day to day, but the goal is the same: use something experienced in the real world to help you think about God and your own walk with Him.
A shorter journey through seven states
There is also a shorter Bible App plan connected with the book.
From Sea to Shining Sea: Hope for Your Journey is a free 7-day YouVersion plan that takes readers on a “journey” through seven states, from Maine to Hawaii.
Each day uses a different travel experience to think about hope.
One day looks at Yellowstone and the new growth that followed the 1988 fires.
Another uses a covered bridge in Vermont to think about strength.
You can read the devotions or listen to the audio narration.
In a way, you are traveling through the places in the plan while sitting at home and letting a story give you something to think and pray about.
Let the place point beyond itself
Devotions help us reflect on our own lives and faith.
Christian devotions inspired by places across America can be useful even if you never visit those places yourself.
You can learn from the story and think about the Scripture connected with it. You can learn about different places. Then you can consider what devotion may have to say about your own life.