If you're reading this, pay very close attention. We, as Christians, slack a lot in "feeding our faith."
Firstly, the majority of us commonly use devotional books/plans as our main means of studying God's Word and completely forget about the whole Book He has written through His people to teach His people. When I say "devotional," I'm referring to the devotional books and articles written by people like you and me that basically are a means of encouragement and support for anyone trying to further their faith. Don't get me wrong. I'm not downing any devotional books; they're actually pretty insightful, and most of the time it's comforting to study another person's opinions and learn about what they, personally, have derived from certain scriptures.
But... using a devotional as your only source of studying can potentially stray you further away from what God wants you to get out of reading the actual Scripture. Think of it as reading a book review or movie review without ever watching the movie or reading the book, trying to derive your own opinions mainly from another fellow human's thoughts. God's Word is 100 percent holy and sin-free so only studying something that another sinful human, such as you and I, has written won't feed your faith nearly as much as the Bible will.
God works in mysterious ways, and sometimes one person may get something out of a certain piece of Scripture while another person derives something completely different. Although what the print says never changes, He personalizes what we derive from reading the Bible to fit our own personal convictions in life. He always, always knows what we are going through and exactly what we need to give us that extra push that we need.
Secondly, if your goal is to strengthen your faith and your relationship with God, then your relationship with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ is just as crucial as anything! Get involved at a church where you feel comfortable! Go mingle with some fellow Christians -- pun intended. Fellowship is crucial because we all have times that we question our faith. We all get lost here and there. We all get confused. Which is why we need actual people that we can converse with that have been exactly where we are at that moment. It's human nature to become most like the people that we associate with!
There's nothing wrong with devotional books; just don't solely rely on them as a means of "feeding your faith!" Get involved in church and surround yourselves with people that you know will always have your back when it comes to your relationship with God! After all, we are the church. We can only move forward from here!
