No matter what we experience, there's a devotional to get us through it. Whether we want to get over negative thoughts, heal from a certain experience or simply get closer to God (which at times can feel like a challenge in itself), we're never lacking the daily devotional that can help us overcome the smallest and worst situations. Plus, these devotionals can step in and just help us through our everyday lives. Sometimes we need that extra push between Sundays, and that's where these come in. Take a look at these faith-based devotionals that are bound to give your spirit the feels.
Anxiety & Depression: Finding Hope With Michelle Williams
Bible.com
One of the best things about this devotional is that it's found on the YouVersion Bible app. Yes, Michelle Williams has been open about her struggle with anxiety and depression. But it's no secret this is something that was seen as an off-limits topic of conversation in the church community; specifically the Black church community. Thank God for evolution.
While therapy has been something that is being embraced more and more, Michelle has utilized this devotion to pave the way to start the conversation in a new way, letting her fans and readers know that they aren't alone in dealing with these issues. She also provides three key truths from the Bible that helped lift her out of her state of depression and into the faith that she has now.
Fearless Faith + Hustle: 21 Day Devotional Journey
Arian Simone's long-awaited devotional certainly comes through. There's a reason it jumped to the number 1 slot for religious faith books on Amazon, and top 10 in other competitive categories just days after its release. The devotional, which lasts 21 days, is a guide for female entrepreneurs and encourages readers to go beyond the grind and the hustle and add spiritual and faith-based principles to their businesses, and life as a whole.
What I love about this devotional is that Arian is so open about how her faith played a major part in her success and lets everyone know that she wouldn't be where she is without it. While it could easily serve as a something else, she goes beyond the surface and uses the devotional show readers how to tap into their relationship with God on a new level as it relates to their businesses. Cause He wants all of us to secure the bag.
Jesus Calling
www.dayspring.com
I've had the pleasure of doing Sarah Young's devotional from the beginning of the year, and it's AMAZING, to say the least. It's been around for a while, but it's safe to say it will never get old. I know a few other people who have taken a dive into this one and one of the most resounding things I've heard and experienced is that this devotional is phenomenal because it's like we get a letter from Jesus Himself daily. Seriously.
The way it's written is as if Jesus is talking to us, and I don't think it gets more personal than that. He's reminding us of His love for Him and encourages us to continue having a relationship with Him throughout the day, even after our scheduled time with Him comes to an end. I can say this one has personally given my spirit the feels and then some.
Hiding Place
Bible App
Anyone who follows Tori Kelly, and maybe even those who don't, know that she's never been afraid to display her love for God to the masses. Now, she's taken things a step further with her worship devotional. This one is also on the Bible app (but the app is free so it's a complete win). While she has multiple devotionals through this app, the Hiding Place is the one that gives all the feels. It lasts 8 days and is based on the songs from her new album of the same name.
I love this one because it brings about a level of security in God that reminds us we can lean on Him for anything, and that we're never alone (which is all we need to hear anyway). Once most of us take even the slightest of glances, we'll be ready to dive into this devotional and dive even deeper in our relationships with God.
Awaken: 90 Days With The God Who Speaks
Amazon
Priscilla Shirer is another fave who has a devotional that helps us improve our relationship with God. She's been in the game for years, but this actually serves as her first devotional. Similar to Jesus Calling, this one urges us to tap in even more with our connection and reminds us to hear from God on things that only He can provide.
From our concerns and worries to our dreams, desires, and future, this devotional doesn't just remind us that we have a God-shaped hole that only He can fill but shows us how to lean on Him for every area of our lives. It goes beyond the idea that we're reading a book just because, and pushes us to actual steps we can take for a more fulfilling walk with Him.
Wild Woman Challenge
Bible.com
Sarah Jakes Roberts started the Wild Woman Challenge on her new platform, Woman Evolve, shortly after giving her amazing Wild Woman message at her conference last year.
The seven-day challenge is done via video but can certainly serve as a devotional and series that will give our spirit the feels we need. The first one is free via YouTube, and the rest can be viewed on the Woman Evolve platform for $4.99. But trust, it's worth every penny as Sarah pushes us to have a wild faith and approach to everything we do from receiving God's wild grace to being bold in our service to others. This series will help us to worship God and build our relationships with others to help us grow.
Overflow Devo: Cece Winans
Bible.com
When doesn't Cece Winans give us all the feels? She's now taken her influence from an amazing worship experience and paired it with an amazing devotional experience.
In her four-day devotional via the Bible app, CeCe takes us through worship as she explains the details behind four of her newest hit songs. Don't get me wrong, this is much more than a listening party. She pours out her heart as what she experienced that served as inspiration for the vulnerable lyrics and doesn't hold back with pushing us to have the same type of reliance and faith in Christ as she did, even in the toughest of times. Like CeCe always does, she manages to help us realize there's no situation that's too difficult for God to handle.
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Those rumors were more than laid to rest when Jodie and Joshua went to the 2023 Oscars together earlier this year, and even more recently, when they celebrated her birthday together last month during the September unveiling of the Lotus Emeya.
Jodie Turner-Smith celebrates her birthday with husband Joshua Jackson at the unveiling of the new fully-electric Lotus Emeya on September 07, 2023 in New York City.
Brian Ach/Getty Images for Lotus
Despite seeming particularly happy and in love, perhaps the writing was already written on the wall even then. In the past, Jodie has been very celebratory publicly about her love for her estranged husband, even boldly recounting their love story for the books in a 2021 interview with Seth Meyers.
When Jodie and Joshua met, it was while at his birthday party in 2018. Their relationship was hot and heavy from the start, with Jodie openly noting that they began as a "one-night stand." During her 2021 interview with Seth Meyers, she jokingly referred to their love story as a "three-year one-night stand." She shared:
"First of all, I saw him before he saw me and when I saw him, I was like, 'I want that.' And then when he saw me, I just pretended like I didn't see him. He had to yell across the room to me, and I was wearing this T-shirt from a movie called Sorry to Bother You and [actress] Tessa Thompson plays a character called Detroit, and she has this T-shirt that says, 'The Future Is Female Ejaculation.'
"And so, he shouts across the room, 'Detroit!' He comes over and… does this really cute, charming thing that he does and just all night -- he just basically followed me around the party."
The couple were together from that moment forth, and even made things "Instagram official" less than two weeks later while on a dinner date. Joshua would later clarify to Insider that the night they met in 2018 was not a 'one-night stand' or a 'three-year one-night stand' like his then-wife joked but instead, it was "technically a three-night stand."
"It was sealed with a kiss that night and then we didn't leave each other's sides for, well, three years now," Joshua continued at the time.
In a July 2021 interview with Jimmy Fallon, Joshua dropped more details about the why behind getting married. He revealed that he didn't know he wanted to get married to Jodie until "the moment she asked me."
"She asked me on New Year's Eve. We were in Nicaragua. It was very beautiful, incredibly romantic, we were walking down the beach and she asked me to marry her."
He added, "I did not know [she would propose], but she was quite adamant and she was right. This is the best choice I ever made."
Joshua Jackson Reveals Jodie Turner-Smith Proposed To Him
Jodie received quite a bit of flack for proposing to Joshua because it goes against tradition and what society sees as acceptable for a woman to do to a man, and proposing isn't one of them. No matter how much time has passed, the viewpoints around who should do the proposing and who should be proposed to are still very traditional.
After being on the receiving end of such backlash, Joshua would later clarify to the media in a separate interview that it wasn't just Jodie's proposal to him that sealed the deal of them getting married, he proposed to her too. She might have initiated it, but Joshua followed through.
"I accidentally threw my wife under the bus because that story was told quickly and it didn't give the full context and holy Jesus, the internet is racist and misogynist," he explained to Refinery29 that same year. "We were in Nicaragua on a beautiful moonlit night, it could not possibly have been more romantic."
David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images
He continued, "And yes, my wife did propose to me and yes, I did say yes, but what I didn't say in that interview was there was a caveat, which is that I'm still old school enough that I said, 'This is a yes, but you have to give me the opportunity [to do it too].'"
"She has a biological father and a stepdad, who's the man who raised her. [I said], 'You have to give me the opportunity to ask both of those men for your hand in marriage.' And then, 'I would like the opportunity to re-propose to you and do it the old-fashioned way down on bended knee.' So, that's actually how the story ended up."
Joshua and Jodie would eventually marry in December 2019. Shortly thereafter, Jodie gave birth to the couple's first child, Janie, in 2020.
In a recent interview with Elle UK, Jodie shared the ways becoming a mother to Juno helped to heal her of her wounds from colorism she experienced in the past. "It's interesting because I had a lot of resistance to becoming a mother and, throughout my life, I always said if I were to have children, I wanted to have Black, Black babies so that I could affirm them as children with the love that I felt I needed to have been affirmed with by the outside world," Jodie shared with the outlet.
She continued, "Then I fell in love with my husband and we talked about having kids. I did have this mini pause, where I was like, 'She's going to be walking through the world not only having an experience that I did not have, but looking like people that, in a way, I'd always felt a little bit tormented by.' Now that I've got this little, tiny, light-skinned boss, I feel like it’s the universe teaching me lessons. I've been given a daughter who looks this way to heal my own conversations around colorism."
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