Five in the Word, five thinking it over, five in prayer. This page keeps your plan, your day, and your list, and walks you through the fifteen minutes each morning. Nothing leaves your phone.
Quick takePick a plan below. Every plan is numbered by day, not by date, so you can begin whenever you begin. If you miss a day, you simply pick up where you left off.
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Day 1
Today
01Prepare
02Read
03Meditate
04Pray
01 · Prepare · 30 seconds
DRINK
Before you open the Bible, ask God to open your heart. Five lines from the Psalms, one after another. This is a reset, not the prayer time.
TipSay the five lines, then open the book. The Word is the food; this is asking for an appetite.
Deeper
Why so short? George Müller learned that long prayer before the Word tends to wander, and that the Word itself is the food for the inner man. Like Piper’s APTAT, DRINK is quick by design. It pulls your mind off the phone and the day and onto him, and then gets out of the way.
02 · Read · 5 minutes
Read today’s chapter once, slowly
His Word is not spiritual fast food. Five minutes is enough for one chapter at a walking pace. If you finish early, you might read it again and see what you missed the first time.
Some days, go deep. Something snags you. Follow it. Don’t worry about finishing the chapter.
Other days, just sit and savour. If something strikes you, stop there. The chapter will still be there tomorrow.
And some days are dry. That’s ok. Just keep going.
Deeper
Try reading the chapter twice: once for the shape of it, once for the one line that is yours today. On a deep day, read the surrounding chapter, look at the footnotes, and follow the cross-references. On a savouring day, stay on one verse and read it aloud slowly three times.
03 · Meditate · 5 minutes
Ask three questions
Christian meditation is the filling of the mind, not the emptying of it. Take your observation and bring your whole attention to bear on it. A sentence for each is plenty.
Your observation
More questions
Looking at the text. What is the one word or phrase I cannot get past? What exactly does it say, and not say? Is there anything odd here? Is there a promise, a command, a warning, an example? What does it say about Jesus? What do I not understand? Write that down for your partner or for Sunday.
Looking at your heart. Where does this meet me in the week I am actually having? What does it expose? What comfort does it offer that I am slow to take? If I really believed this, what would be different about today?
Looking at God. Richard Baxter’s way: pick one attribute of God from today’s reading and simply consider it for five minutes. No questions. Just look.
Carry it. Meditation has two sides: the seated minutes, and the rest of the day. Take your verse on the walk to class, in the car, in the shower.
04 · Pray · 5 minutes
Now you get to answer him
Pray it back
Praise him for what you saw of him. Confess what you saw of yourself. Ask for help to live it today.
When you do not know what to say
Keep it simple. You are a child and God is your Father. Pray the Lord’s Prayer one line at a time. Pray a Psalm as your own prayer when one resonates (23, 25, 51, 62, 130, 139). Borrow words from the Book of Common Prayer or The Valley of Vision. Or say what is true: “I do not feel like praying. I am here anyway.” That is a prayer, and he hears it.
Luther’s four strands, if you want structure: Instruction (what does this teach me?), Thanksgiving, Confession, Petition. You will not need all four every day.
Done
That’s fifteen minutes.
Notebook pageRead · Observation · Prayer · Thankful for. If you keep a paper notebook too, copy your observation across. Four lines is enough.
Journal
What God has been saying
One observation a day is a record of grace. In six months, read this from the top.
Your list
People I am praying for
Names, not categories. A short list you pray is worth more than a long one you don’t. Give each one a day, or leave it on every day.
Answered
Read this on a dry morning.
Guide
Why the first fifteen minutes
The means of grace are such as Bible reading, private prayer, and regularly worshiping God in church… Our God is a God who works by means and he will never bless the soul of that man who pretends to be so high and spiritual that he can get on without them.
J. C. Ryle, Holiness
God works by means. He could pour grace into us any way he pleases, and he has chosen to do it through ordinary things: an open Bible, a quiet prayer, a room full of his people on Sunday.
Justification is finished. Christ’s work on the cross, and only his work, makes us right with God. You do not earn a better standing by showing up tomorrow morning, and you do not lose it by sleeping through. The fifteen minutes are the means. Communion with God is the end.
Discipline first, desire later
Discipline gets you started, and your love for the Word grows in time so the discipline is needed less and less. The goal is to want communion with God so badly that you no longer need a rule to get you out of bed.
Oh begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises. You may acquire the taste which you have not: what is tedious at first, will afterwards be pleasant. Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily. It is for your life.
John Wesley
The plans
None of these is the beginner plan and none is the advanced plan. Every one of them is Scripture, alive and powerful. What changes is the shape of the year, not your standing.
Deep days and savouring days
Depth is not a plan you graduate to. It is what happens on a given morning. Some days you follow the rabbit trail and never finish the chapter. Some days one verse stops you and you sit in it. Some days are dry, and you simply keep going. All of that is the plan working.
If you find yourself wanting more: a Psalm a day, prayed when it resonates. Ten or fifteen minutes on one attribute of God, Baxter’s way. One memory verse a week, from your own reading. A short book read twenty times. An older voice alongside the chapter: Watson, Sibbes, Bunyan, Ryle.
Accountability partners
We were not meant to do this alone. Find one person and agree on a day. Three questions, every week: What did God show you this week? How many mornings did you make it? Where are you stuck? Then pray for each other, right there, briefly.
Prepared for the CHBC young adults group, September 2026. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.
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Timers
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