Jesus Calling Review: Months of Daily Use

I have a confession to make. For years I bought devotional books the way other women buy throw pillows. I loved the idea of a quiet time. I bought the pretty hardback. I read it for a week in January, then it sat on the end table and I felt guilty every time I dusted around it. So when a friend in my Tuesday morning group handed me a copy of Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, I almost thanked her and set it aside like all the rest.

Then she said something that stopped me. She told me she had read it every single morning for three years and that it was the first devotional that ever made her sit still. That got my attention. I started it the next morning at six o'clock in my recliner with my coffee, and I have read it most mornings since. This is my honest review after months of daily use.

How I've Used It

I started on January 3rd, which meant I had missed the first two days and had to decide whether to start at the beginning or jump in. That is the first thing I love about Jesus Calling: it does not care. Each reading is dated, but the book is designed so you can start on any day of the year and never feel behind. I started at January 3rd, caught up on the first two entries that same week, and have been reading it daily ever since.

My routine looks like this. I get up around six, make a pot of coffee, and settle into the recliner by the living room window. I read the day's entry, then I read the Scripture verses listed at the bottom, and then I sit for a few minutes. Some mornings I write in a journal. Some mornings I just think. The whole thing takes about ten minutes, which is the key for me. I have led a women's Bible study for twelve years, so I know the difference between a study that requires preparation and a devotional that meets you in the moment. This one meets you.

I also brought it to my Tuesday morning group. We normally study books of the Bible verse by verse, so I did not expect the group to adopt it. But several women started reading it on their own after I mentioned it, and two of them told me it was the first devotional they had finished cover to cover. That alone tells me something about how this book works.

One thing that surprised me is how portable it is. I took it with me on a weekend trip to Little Rock in February, and it fit in my overnight bag without a second thought. I read the day's entry in the car before anyone else was up, and it took less than ten minutes, same as it does at home. That may sound small, but it is the whole point. A devotional you can take with you is a devotional you will actually read. The padded cover kept it safe bouncing around in my bag, and the pages did not get dog-eared the way paperbacks do. Two of the women in my group have since bought their own copies, and one of them reads it with her teenage daughter at breakfast.

What Makes Jesus Calling Different

The first thing you notice is the voice. Every entry is written as if Jesus is speaking directly to you. That is the signature of Sarah Young's writing, and it is either the thing you love or the thing you question. Young explained that she wrote the entries as she waited quietly in God's presence, and she was careful to say that the words are not Scripture. They are her expression of what she sensed God speaking to her heart, rooted in the verses printed below each entry.

I will be honest with you. The first-person voice took me a couple of weeks to get used to. I grew up in a church where we were careful about adding words to Scripture, and I wanted to be sure I was not being led astray. What convinced me was the way the entries consistently point back to the Bible. Every reading has Scripture references at the bottom, and when I looked them up, I found that the devotional thought for the day was always anchored in those verses. It did not replace Scripture. It helped me feel Scripture.

The other thing that makes it different is the length. Each entry is about a page, sometimes less. You can read it in the time it takes to finish your first cup of coffee. That sounds small, but it matters more than you would think. The devotionals I abandoned in the past were not bad books. They were long books. They asked for twenty minutes of focused reading before I had even opened my Bible, and on a busy morning that was enough to make me skip a day, then two, then a month. Jesus Calling asks for almost nothing, and that is why it is the first one I have actually kept up with.

The entries are dated, which I thought I would dislike at first. I am the kind of person who feels behind when I miss a day. But the dates turned out to be a gift. Each reading runs about a page, with the date at the top and the Scripture references printed at the bottom in small type. The verses are not quoted in the entry itself, which means the book always sends you somewhere else, into the Bible. On mornings when I only had five minutes, I read the entry and the verses, and that was enough. On mornings when I had more, the references gave me a place to go deeper. That small habit, following the references, is what turned a reading habit into a prayer habit.

How It Holds Up Over Months of Daily Use

The real test of a devotional is not the first week. It is the third month, when the novelty has worn off and life has gotten loud again. I can tell you honestly that Jesus Calling held up better than I expected. The entries do not all sound the same. Some are about peace. Some are about trust. Some are about obedience and some are about rest. Sarah Young returns to the same themes, but she approaches them from different angles, so the book never felt repetitive to me even when I was reading it every single day.

I also noticed something I did not expect. The entries seemed to land differently depending on what was happening in my life. In February, when we had a health scare in the family, the readings about peace were exactly what I needed. In April, when I was exhausted from a busy season at church, the readings about rest hit me differently. I do not think the book is magic. I think it is just written in a way that is broad enough to meet you where you are, and specific enough to feel personal.

I have read devotionals for thirty years, and this is the first one I have actually finished cover to cover. That is not a small thing.

The physical book itself has held up well too. I have the padded hardcover edition, and I carry it around the house, toss it in my bag for trips, and leave it open on the arm of my recliner. After months of daily use it still lies flat, the pages are intact, and the cover still looks good. I have had devotional books fall apart in six weeks. This one is made to be used.

The strongest test came in May, when we had a stretch of three weeks where I was at the church building almost every day. I was helping with Vacation Bible School registration and a memorial service for a longtime member, and my quiet time kept getting squeezed. There were mornings I read the entry standing at the kitchen counter, coffee in one hand and the book in the other. It still worked. That is the thing I keep coming back to. A devotional that only works when life is calm is not much of a devotional. This one met me on the rushed mornings too, and those were the mornings I needed it most. I did not miss a single day that month, and that surprised me more than anything. When June came and things slowed down, I went back to my recliner by the window, and the book felt like coming home.

The One Caution I Tell Every Friend

Here is the caution I give every woman who asks me about this book, and I want to give it to you too. Jesus Calling is a devotional, not a Bible. Sarah Young has said plainly that the words in the book are not Scripture, and I think it is important to read it the same way. I read the daily entry, and then I read the Scripture verses it points to. The devotional is the doorway. The Bible is the room.

I have seen women get this backwards. They read the devotional and skip the verses, and over time they start to treat the devotional as if it had the same authority as the Bible. I do not think that is what Sarah Young intended, and I do not think it is good for us. The book is at its best when it sends you back to Scripture, and I try to always go.

There is one other thing I want to mention, because nobody told me before I started. The voice is intimate, and for some people that is uncomfortable at first. If you are used to devotionals that talk about God in the third person, hearing Jesus speak directly to you can feel strange for the first week or two. Give it a little time before you decide. For me, the intimacy became the thing I loved most. It made me feel like I was not just reading about God, but actually sitting with Him.

There have been mornings when the entry landed on a worry I had not even put into words yet, and the verses underneath gave me the words to pray. One morning in March I was carrying a heavy concern for a friend who was waiting on test results. The entry that day seemed written for exactly that worry, and the references underneath were verses I have read a hundred times. Reading them again with that concern on my mind, they hit differently. I underlined that entry, which I almost never do, and I went back to it twice that week. That is what this book does at its best. It does not give you new information. It gives you old truth at the moment you need it.

Who This Is For

I recommend Jesus Calling to three kinds of people. First, the woman who has tried and failed to build a quiet time. If you own a shelf of half-finished devotionals, this is the one that will actually become a habit, because it asks for so little and gives back so much. Second, the new believer who does not know where to start. The daily entries are gentle and clear, and the Scripture references give you a simple path into the Bible. Third, the seasoned Christian who is in a dry season. I have been there. Sometimes you need someone to sit beside you and remind you that God is near, and this book does that better than almost anything I have read.

Who Should Skip It

I would gently steer you away from Jesus Calling if you are looking for deep verse-by-verse teaching. This is not a commentary and it is not a Bible study. If you want to work through a book of the Bible with detailed explanations, you will be frustrated by how simple the entries are. I would also say that if you are the kind of person who is deeply bothered by any devotional that speaks in the first person as Jesus, you should trust that conviction. There are many excellent devotionals written in a more traditional voice, and you do not need to force yourself to love this one.

Finally, if you are looking for a book to replace your Bible reading, this is not it. I say that with love. Jesus Calling is at its best when it leads you into Scripture, and it will never be a substitute for it. Read the entry, then open the verses. That is the way the book was meant to be used, and it is the way it has blessed me most.