to question or not to question

My current Work in Progress is a devotional – sort of!

As with all my other books, I am not writing according to a format. Sigh, I do seem to make things difficult for myself, but as a Kingdom writer integrity to my message matters more to me than commercial success or marketability – hence the ‘sort-of’.

True devotionals seem to be presented as a set of daily readings – check.
Each one is usually based on a Bible verse or passage – check.
And each one is usually short – erm…
Mine aren’t exactly short. They are not exactly long chapters either, but there is good reason why I didn’t want a set of brief little readings this time. Each day contains a thought that is meant to go deep, to speak into real pain and/or need, and I couldn’t do that in just 100 brief words.

And the final characteristic common to many devotionals is that most of their chapters conclude with a set of questions designed to help the reader think deeper, study further, or apply the day’s thought to their life. I totally get why writers include them. But as a reader, I do not like them – they feel patronising and stifling, and often unrelated to the nuances of how God has spoken to me through it. So I usually skip right past them, but often with a residual sense of guilt that I haven’t read/ used the book properly. To be honest, I don’t read many devotionals – maybe for this reason.

So when I found myself writing a (sort-of) devotional, I really wrestled with whether to include these questions, jnowing that just because I don’t like them it doesn’t mean some readers might not find them helpful. They didn’t come naturally as I wrote, but a writer friend who I hugely respect encouraged me to keep trying, so I tried to add some at the end. I really, repeatedly tried – and kept hitting a block. And then I got completely stuck. I just couldn’t come up with anything that satisfied me. So I put out a few research questions on social media and in the writer groups I belong to (shout out to Kingdom Story Writers and the Association of Christian Writers – thank you all!) And the responses I received really helped me to filter my own thoughts. I think I have decided not to include questions in my WiP, and here’s why:

• Many times these questions are too generic – they have to be, in order to apply to as many readers as possible. But that doesn’t leave space for truly incisive personal revelation.
• This is not a book for baby Christians. I feel it would be disrespectful and unhelpful to spoon-feed my readers with set responses.
• I personally believe God wants to speak to each individual person as they read. If I have done my job and landed the point I believe He wanted me to make, I must trust that the reader is already receiving a personalised blessing from Him and don’t need me interrupting that process with generalisations that could detract.
• It’s not authentic to who I am as a writer. The whole of this book has been very – at times painfully – personal. It goes deep, to minister to people in dry, dark and difficult places. I don’t want to place a demand on those readers that could make them feel like a failure if they skip over it.

Basically, I want to trust the Holy Spirit to use the book as HE wants, to bless the reader and not make subconscious demands of people who may already be struggling.

So I think my decision is made, but I’d love to hear your thoughts: as a devotional writer why do you include these kind of questions, or not? And as a devotional reader why do you like them or not?