Can AI Help Write a Christian Devotional based on a Worship Song?
What Happened When I asked ChatGPT write a devotional based on Misty Edward's Summer Girl Lyrics
I was part of an online Christian writing group who recently published a devotional called Unexpected Treasures. We wrote it the traditional way where we shared our drafts, read and edited them for one another. Now that Artificial Intelligence (AI) apps are readily available, can it help us write a devotional? Let's find out.
Prompts Inspired by a Worship Song
Misty Edwards is a gifted worship songwriter and singer. Her album is in my worship playlist that I shuffle every morning to let God speak to me through whatever song the algorithm spits out. For the first time in months, it played Misty's Summer Girl. I realized the following lyrics have an important message to women:
“Life is not what we thought in teenage dreams...you’re stronger than those childhood games, just don’t give up. Love is in living and moving on. Romance is a tiny part of a bigger show. The tapestry of perfected love, of pain and glory, it’s woven of beautiful threads of old divine, a love that lasts not the fading kind, there’s a love that lasts, not the fading kind.” - lyrics from Misty Edward's Summer Girl
What ChatGPT Generated from my Prompt
Using the free version of ChatGPT, I prompted it to brainstorm a devotional based on Misty’s lyrics. Below is a screencast of what it generated with the exact wording of my prompt.
Did you see what it gave me? ChatGPT, instead of brainstorming ideas for me, gave a copy with an Introduction, 4 Reflections and a Conclusion. It just expanded the ideas on the lyrics I quoted. To make the output more useful, I asked ChatGPT to:
give me scriptures aligned to the reflections
list 5 hypothetical situations of women experiencing romantic pain where this kind of devotional will help
ChatGPT actually gave a good list of scriptures and situations as shown below.
I chose the last example: Jessica’s painful break-up with the following prompt: “Can you write a devotional about Jessica, example number 5 and the last reflection you wrote above.” ChatGPT surprised me with a 5-day devotional plan for example number 5.
I asked it to rewrite without Days 1 to 5 and convert it to just an inspirational devotional for the day and it generated the piece below.
My Opinion About ChatGPT’s Output
Yes, ChatGPT was able to speedily write a devotional. However, I think the final output is so far from the heart of Misty’s lyrics. I admit, my prompts need improvement. However, notice:
I did not prompt it to write a 5-day devotional. I only told it to develop a devotional for example number 5.
The final piece did not include Jessica’s situation. I only told it to rewrite without Days 1 to 5.
It lacked authentic human pain and corresponding encouragement that most Christian devotionals deliver through scriptural insights
Personally, I do not like making AI write for me. If I will publish the piece above, it will undergo a lot of editing. In the end, it will be easier for me to write the piece myself. In the next post, I will attempt to write a piece from Misty’s song myself and use AI editors to improve it.