Wrong Devotionals in church groups

Many churches encourage personal devotional sessions in their study groups where Christians are trained to take any passage from the Bible and attempt to find a personal application.

A common practice involves going around the room and asking believers to share their opinion about the verse in question, which usually starts with the phrase, “well to me this verse means such and such.”

The outcome of such devotion is simply a compilation of everyone’s ignorance and several potential interpretations, all of which may be wrong and out of context.

Such a hermeneutical approach misguides people into thinking that the Bible is about them when Jesus says all the Scriptures point to Him.

John 5:39-40 (NKJV)

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.  But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

Similarly, when devotional practices encourage believers to focus on self-centered interpretations, they risk misunderstanding the purpose of Scripture. The Bible is not primarily about us; it is about Christ. Only after understanding what God is saying through His Word can we apply it correctly to our lives. The true meaning of any verse lies not in personal opinions but in discerning God’s intent as revealed in the text.

The truth is that it does not matter what a particular verse means to you and me. What matters is finding out what the verse means by discerning the actual meaning of Scripture to understand what God is saying in the text.