The smartphone is a wonderful thing. If you are like me, it is the one thing you never go anywhere without. It is my calendar, contact book, personal assistant (thank you Siri), navigation, and–last but not least–my phone. As Christians, there is a danger is spending too much time on devices and neglecting the “Be still and know” part of the Christian life. However, I’ve found that there are some great apps that don’t distract me from spending time with Christ in his Word, but rather help me in the areas of spiritual discipline.
Here are 5 apps that I use consistently that are very helpful:
1. ESV Bible – Free
The ESV Bible app is my preference for the Bible on my phone and tablet. It is very user friendly with the ability to keep notes, make highlights, and even pick favorite verses and passages of Scripture. Crossway recently made this app even better by adding the “Listen” button. In the car and have some time for bible reading? The ESV Bible app will read it to you!
2. FighterVerses – $2.99
Memorizing Scripture should be a priority for Christians. It not only encourages us to meditate upon Scriptures, but it is there in our heads and hearts for the Holy Spirit to use. DesiringGod has developed a first-class app for Scripture memory. There are built in memorization plans or you can create your own custom memory plan. It has 5 different types of quizzes to help you, plus, many of the passages have songs that will assist you in Scripture memorization! This app is well worth the $2.99 it costs on the app store.
3. PrayerMate – Free
Having a consistent prayer life is one of the things that many Christians struggle with. PrayerMate is an extremely helpful app in this area! You can input your own prayer lists, divided up by categories that you choose. It allows you to specify how many times a week you would like to pray for a certain thing or person, or it will randomize for you. Each day, when you open the app, it gives you your prayer list for the day. You can also subscribe to prayer feeds from the International Mission Board and other organizations.
4. The Village – Free
Matt Chandler has had a profound impact on my life through his preaching and teaching. Matt is the lead teaching pastor at The Village Church in a suburb of Dallas, TX. The Village app has all of their sermons organized by series for listening or viewing in HD. You can also stream their music from The Village Church Worship Band. They also have a tab of their latest blog posts. This is a great resource for Christian growth.
5. Feedly – Free
I spend at least an hour a day reading blog articles on my phone. I follow many different blogs and bloggers. The Gospel Coalition, Tim Challies, Albert Mohler, Denny Burk, and the ERLC are just a few examples of blogs I read at least 3 or 4 times a week. Going to each website to read articles is not efficient. That’s where Feedly comes in. Feedly is an app that organizes all of the blogs that you follow into one app. Each day it brings up the most recent blog posts on the websites of your choice and allows you to sort through them in one place. I highly recommend this app!
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