I Want to Live These Days with You: A Year of Daily Devotions

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This collection of inspirational writings from Dietrich Bonhoeffer is drawn from his many works and presented here as a series of daily meditations to last throughout the year. Organized under monthly themes, these prayers, sermons, meditations, letters, and notes offer readers a new glimpse at how Bonhoeffer understood the meaning of faith and discipleship. Featuring selections from classic works such as The Cost of Discipleship and Letters and Papers from Prison , this set of writings follows the church year, making it ideal for year-long devotional use by readers seeking to be challenged and enlightened by Bonhoeffer's call to find God at the center of their lives.

Genres: Devotional, Christian, Spirituality, Theology, Religion, Christianity, Nonfiction

408 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Protestant theologian of Germany, concern Christianity in the modern world; for his role in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, people executed him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer served as a Lutheran pastor. He, also a participant in the movement of Resistance against Nazism and a member, founded the confessing church. Members of the Abwehr, the military intelligence office planned his involvement, which resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and his subsequent hanging in April 1945 shortly before the end of the war. His secular view influenced very many people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietric...

Reviews

[Neil R. Coulter · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s been a good year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His insights into all aspects of life have challenged and encouraged me as I read a little bit from him each day. The only problem with this book is the same problem all such books share: the author is meant to be read in long form, not in short, page-long excerpts of longer works. Some of the excerpts (and connected series of days’ selections) are fine, but others feel too choppy in this format. For that reason, I’ll be doing something different for my daily readings next year.

As I looked through pages that I’d marked along the way as being particularly insightful, I liked this one, from August 16 (p. 239):

Human beings are not supposed to sleep but to be awake. Being awake means being sober, living not in dreams and wishes but in stark reality. Being awake means loving the day and its work. It means being without illusions, because illusions idolize the world for us and veil our vision of the one God of whom one is to make no idols; illusions let us see the world in the colors of our own wishes and prejudices. Being awake means seeing the world as it is before God, without judging it. Being awake means being open, being ready for the future, looking it in the eye and not fearing it. It means seeing God’s clear day as it is, loving his creation and his work, but at the same time seeing the suffering of creation, the misery and helplessness of other people, hearing their petition even where it remains unspoken. And it means knowing about eternal guilt. This being awake is not something we can give ourselves. Rather, God must call us to this being awake. . . . Live before God as the one he has made you to be! But this word “live” cannot be a command; it is the word of God himself as Creator.

[James Klagge · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, I finished it a bit early. But that's not surprising b/c I read it in spurts anyway--usually falling behind and catching up in spurts...in this case reading ahead b/c I expect the end of the year to be busy. I have now read a daily devotional book for 4 years. I enjoyed this one the least. I guess I could have expected that Bonhoeffer would be the least inspiring. He's too...German, I guess. He did inspirational things by resisting the Nazis. But that doesn't mean that he necessarily had inspirational thoughts. This just did not engage me, or feed me.
I did like a poem that was selected for the reflection for December 29:

I believe
that God can and will produce good things out of all things,
even out of the most evil.
For this he needs people who let themselves serve all
things the best they can.
I believe
that in every plight God wants to give us as much power
of resistance as we need.
But he does not give it in advance, so that we will rely
not on ourselves, but on him alone.
In such faith all anxiety about the future would have to
be overcome.
I believe
that even our errors and mistakes are not in vain, and
that it is not harder for God to deal with them than
with our presumed good deeds.
I believe
that God is not timeless fate, but that he waits for and
answers sincere prayers and responsible deeds.

Every thing that we read by Bonhoeffer we read in the knowledge that he died for his beliefs. That makes it easy to take him seriously. And also makes it easy to see him as a saint--someone beyond us. But it does not make him easy to engage with.

[Andrea]

I was very motivated to read this book. I finished The Cost of Discipleship a few months ago so I knew Bonhoeffer was not going to be easy, but I thought the short daily readings might help break the big ideas into smaller chunks. However, I feel like the format is the opposite of helpful. Not only are the readings short, but they are only tangently related to each other on subsequent days. They are just too short for me to follow the trail of ideas through the book. I plan to return to Bonhoeffer in a format that gives longer pieces and preferably with some editorial footnotes that clarify the context. I think this might be suited to someone who had read and understood a lot of Bonhoeffer already and used this to revisit ideas.

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite collection of daily readings by Bonhoeffer. But get a hard copy. The dates are in the footers next to the page numbers. In the Kindle edition, they're missing, so you have to guess what day it is. Also, the sources in the end notes reference the German edition of DBW. That was unavoidable at the time, but since then it's been translated. I hope a future edition updates the notes to cite the English translation.

[Glen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful devotional. A good blend of challenging and uplifting material. His thoughts are as true today as the day they were written. Timeless.

[Jeff Danhauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one that will be read again, and again.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review title: A year of days with Bonhoeffer

This was the year I learned more about Bonhoeffer. Last Christmas I was given this book as a gift by my wife, and I did use it as intended, keeping up with the daily readings. I also read the biography Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy which was an excellent and eye-opening introduction to this powerful and enigmatic and important 20th-century theologian. He even merited a major movie release which I haven't seen yet (had to read the book first!) but will stream soon.

This daily devotional was compiled and selected from his writings. There is an index with the volume and page number from his 17-volume collected works where the writings are found, and an index of scripture references. Each day is one page or less, usually a couple of paragraphs that can be read in five minutes. I also had a small notebook that I filled up writing down quotes that really struck me on some days, and some thoughts of my own on them. The best days' readings stuck in my mind all day and sometimes longer as I looked back at my notebook. Bonhoeffer saw straight through to the truth of the Bible in ways that strip the "easy" down to the essential.

This is definitely a classic. I don't typically use a daily devotional like this, and I don't believe I have ever recommended one, but I'll strongly recommend this one.

[Emma Lönnqvist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jag har alltid imponerats av Dietrich Bonhoeffer och inspirerats av hans tro, leverne och texter. Nu har jag insett att han också är väldigt skarp och analytisk och det var flera gånger jag faktiskt inte förstod dagens betraktelse i den här boken.

Andra gånger var det reflektioner som kändes riktigt berörande och som jag även hängde med i! 😉 Läsvärd andaktsbok om du vill ha något som inte bara är lättläst och självklart. Jag läste boken på svenska: ”Med dig vill jag leva alla mina dagar” (älskar titeln 🙌🏽).

[Tammie Gitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Introduction

The daily readings in this year-long devotional form a good introduction to the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The writings are classic and well-suited to the different seasons of the year, but the book would have been improved greatly by identifying the source of the material in each daily reading and by putting dates or day numbers on each entry.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Word’s From a Man Who Knows his Lord

Bonhoeffer’s life, the struggles, he pain and the joy is shown in almost every word. This book was written in his last days awaiting the Nazi hangman.

[Eric Swanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes hard to understand

Overall I enjoyed the devotion, however, sometimes the reading was hard to understand. I would have enjoyed the readings if I understood more of the context. Maybe longer passages?

[Somersghent]

I read this as a daily devotional in 2025 At the recommendation of a good friend. Sometimes I was able to absorb the wisdom and other times his wisdom seemed so very clear. Words written by a theologian in Germany in the early 1940s seem so pertinent to 2025 in the US.

[Steve Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book of daily readings reflects the depth of Bonhoeffer's thought. I suggest reading through it slowly so that you can plumb the depths and mine the wealth contained here.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great start for my day.

These daily quotes from the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer help to focus my day on and understand basic spiritual principles.

[Lou Florio · Rating 5 out of 5]

The start of the book drew from lectures on Genesis and other early sources. There were some good things to find there to be sure, but I put it aside for awhile. With the pandemic lockdown, I brought it out again. I’m glad I did! As you get more deeply into the year, you encounter a pastor’s heart and prophetic vision. I highly recommend this book. It gave me a helpful sampling of Bonhoeffer’s writings and a lot to consider. It inspired my sermons on several occasions and me as an individual over and over again.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is part of my daily diet. Without hesitation it comes to you highly recommended.