It’s our annual Encouragement for Today Devotion Writing Challenge! Each year we want to give you an opportunity to practice your writing and have a chance for your devotion to be published on Proverbs 31’s Encouragement for Today with over 1.5 million subscribers. 

Each year we choose between 8 and 15 devotions to be published, depending on how many publication-ready devotions we receive. 

Here are the details:

Who: We invite all current COMPEL members to enter, women and men.

What: Include a title, your name, key verse and a devotion. The devotion itself should be around 500 words. Do not include a prayer, Truth for Today, Related Resources or Reflect & Respond questions.

When: Submit your devotion between Monday, August 12 and Sunday, September 1. It will take us a few months to review them all, depending on the number of submissions, but everyone will hear back from us.

How: Your devotion will go through a 3-step review. If it passes the first level, it goes to the next, and then the next.

Below are the three levels devotions will be held up to: 

Step 1) The title: Make it compelling as this is the first chance we have to catch our readers’ attentions in their inbox. If it makes us want to read the first paragraph, it moves to Step 2. For a refresher on how to write titles, you can visit this lesson and this lesson in the COMPEL Course Library. 

Step 2) The opening paragraph: Give it a good hook. If we want to keep reading, your devotion moves on to Step 3.

Step 3) The entire devotion: If your devotion passes Steps 1 and 2, we’ll review the entire devotion.

To submit your devotion, please copy and paste the following information into the body of the email: 

• The title of your devotion.
• Your full name.
• Your primary email address.
• Your key verse.
• Your final devotion. 

Please send your devotion submission to [email protected] between August 12 and September 1. No devotions will be accepted for consideration after the September 1 deadline.

To prepare to enter the Devotion Challenge, we have a few options to help! 

First, we’d like to invite you to read through past Encouragement for Today devotions on the Proverbs 31 website. This is good practice for submitting to any publication. You never want to lose your voice, but you must accommodate their style. You can also lean on the wisdom and encouragement of your fellow COMPEL Community Members by joining the COMPEL Training Devotion Writing group on Facebook. To learn more about the group and receive the password to join, click here. 

Secondly, Glynnis Whitwer, the Executive Director over devotions at Proverbs 31 Ministries, recently taught on 6 Crucial Elements of a Strong Devotion in a Wednesday Workshop. Click here to access it in our course library. 

Lastly, check out some published devotionals from last year’s Devotion Challenge winners: Lisa Apello, Susan Daughtery, Deborah Ard, Kathy Howard. 

Men, please write something that a woman would want to read. Click here and here to read devotions from some of our past male guest writers.

And please know that while we wish we could provide specific feedback, unfortunately our time prevents us from doing so.

Thank you for being a COMPEL member and let the devotion writing begin!