What are the best apps for busy Christians?
The apps that I have found that are the best for us busy Christians are, YouVersion bible app, Blue Letter Bible, Spotify Music, and Evernote. These apps allow us to prioritize our walk with Jesus, dig deeper into His Word, have worship at our finger tips and also be mindful of the other areas of our lives that need attention daily. There are so many good apps out there and honestly, the “best” ones will depend on what you want them to do FOR you. In my research (and humble opinion), a good app is one that allows you to be intentional about your time while minimizing distractions (Ahem… social media) and prioritize what is most important in your day. For us Believers, that priority is our Spiritual walk with God. I am a bit finicky when it comes to apps.
Update! While this original post was written a few years back, I STILL use these exact apps day to day. I haven’t added anything new to my arsenal to be intentional in my faith when it comes to technology.
Let me start out by saying that all of these apps aren’t “Christian or Bible apps”. These are apps that I personally use to live an intentional Christian life and deepen my walk with God on a practical level, daily. This isn’t a list of 52 different bible apps (I mean how many “bible apps” does one really need?)… so if that’s what you’re looking for… I’m sorry!
I hope you’ll enjoy my short and practical list of apps for Christians!
Multiple Uses are key. I just don’t have a ton of time and energy to invest into things so I like a good app that has multiple uses or ver specific uses. The apps I’ve listed down below do exactly this. Over the past several years, there have been a select few apps that I STILL consistently use to delve deeper into my studies, grow my spiritual walk, and prioritize worship and devotions. These in NO way can replace a good ol’ physical Bible and in my opinion and your physical bible should always be the number one place you’re ingesting the Word. This is by no means an exhaustive list of apps (who has time for those!?) These are just the few (practical, no-fluff, help-me-avoid-distractions) ones that I use on a nearly daily basis.. oh and they’re FREE.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m completely open to any new practical apps, I just like to make sure I’m ingesting the word itself without a lot of fluff. If you have any that you love please share!
YouVersion Bible App
DOWNLOAD THE APP HERE: For Apple For Android
This is my go-to Bible app. I’ve tried a few others but I always come back to this one. Its VERY user friendly and perfect for having God’s word at your finger tips and on the go. You can set up notifications for the verse of the day or a reminder to read a bible plan you’re into.
One of my favorite features of YouVersion’s Bible App is now the ability to read plans with “friends”. This wasn’t something I used a few years back, but as my kids get older and our lives get busier, I LOVE to be able to read bible plans along WITH my family. My 13 year old and I are working through reading the bible in 2 years and my husband occasionally joins in with plans as well! It has been a great way to connect around God’s word and share what He is teaching us.
YouVersion has so many amazing bible reading plans for nearly EVERY topic you could think of. You can also listen to the bible in audio as you go about your day and it’s available in several languages. I typically have a bible plan going in YouVersion as well as my daily quiet time in my physical bible. You never really know when and how the Lord is going to speak to you, or if He is going to give you something to later encourage a friend. You can even share your reading plans with others and read along with friends for added accountability! There are bible reading plans for reading the bible in a year, advent, families, children, men, leadership, ministry, entrepreneurship, you name it, there is a bible reading plan for it.
I just finished a bible plan below called Well Done: the pursuit of a life well lived on YouVersion by Grit and Virtue and I really loved it. I’m loving everything to do with practically living a Christian life and this hits that perfectly!
Blue Letter Bible
DOWNLOAD IT HERE: For Apple For Android
I LOVE this app. I’m a verb girl. This app makes it easy to look up words and verbs in the original Greek or Hebrew. There are also tons of commentaries available that relate to whatever passage of scripture you’re delving into. This one is available as a desktop version as well. You can cross-reference things, compare translations, access the concordance and more. This one (In my opinion) isn’t as user friendly as YouVersion to use but it is SO GOOD, has tons of other in-depth, amazing features and it’s worth the slight learning curve.
Spotify
DOWNLOAD THE APP HERE: For Apple For Android
I love a good worship music station. Worshipping God is one of those things that I HAVE to do to steady and quiet my heart on a near daily basis. Pandora is good too (I have one for there too). But what I love about Spotify is that your playlist can include specific songs (played on shuffle in the free version), whereas Pandora chooses songs based on your preferences.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m on a Lauren Daigle/Young&Free/United kick, that’s all I want to hear and worship with. I’ve used the free version from the beginning and haven’t had a need to upgrade.
My current favorite worship station right now is that of CityAlight. It has been a HUGE help in getting us all through long days and weeks at home.
You can check out my personal worship playlist here
Evernote
DOWNLOAD IT HERE:For AppleFor Android
I use this app for so many different things. As multitaskers the number of thoughts we deal with on a daily basis are amazing. It’s inevitable, when I’m reading my bible or in prayer, I remember something important (that if I don’t write it now I WILL forget). Therefore, to avoid getting too distracted, I brain dump all of those things into a “note” in Evernote, then I can get back to business with the Lord. Taking thoughts captive…? Yeah, that’s where I put the important ones, Evernote 😉 I also write important scriptures the Lord lays on my heart during my study. I have notes for everything; Gift ideas, prayer requests, blog post ideas, finance, marriage, you name it. I can link it to my desktop and sort through those thoughts to organize and make them useful when I have a few minutes. I’ve had the free version for nearly 8 years and have NEVER really seen a need in my life to upgrade.
I do use the Notes app on my iPhone, but I love that I can access Evernote on any device! I haven’t gotten around to syncing all of our apple devices 😉
BONUS: For those of you who have kiddos!
Bible App For Kids
DOWNLOAD IT HERE: For Apple For Android
My younger kids love this one. They’re able to watch bible stories, answer comprehension questions, and be exposed to the Word of God in a pretty neat way. As much as I avoid handing technology over to my kids, this one is perfect (in moderation) for my 5-year old who can’t read yet. The app itself reads the stories to her. She enjoys narrating them back to me and I’m pretty impressed at what she grasps! Find out more about teaching children the bible here.
In this fast, technology driven age, it can be easy to get overwhelmed with all of the different apps out there. I’m a 30-something year old woman and I still don’t know half of the techy things available. While some will jump on the “every app” bandwagon and just download everything “Christian” in sight, some go for the extreme opposite and will just not getting ANY OF THEM for a long time (guilty). Fear of commitment anyone!? Or maybe just overwhelm!
