APPLICATION – adopt a Bible Reading Plan
A Bible reading plan can really help you grow spiritually and as a follower of Jesus. They take over the selection process in guiding you through the Scriptures to help you realize your reading goal. Committing to a plan helps you also develop a Scripture reading discipline that you can incorporate into your daily life. It supports a healthy cadence of reading, studying, meditating, and applying God’s Word to your life.
Be careful not to make the reading plan the goal because then it is just another thing on your to-do list rather than your time to hear from God. After all, our goals should always include life change and spiritual growth. And don’t forget you’re meeting with your Savior, your Father, and the one that uniquely created you with Kingdom purpose. How could that be anything but awesome!
There are lots of tools today to help you find a reading plan that will fit your goals. Don’t worry about finding the “perfect” one. To be quite honest there isn’t a poor choice when it comes to reading the Scriptures regularly. The most important thing is to get God’s Word in front of you in a systematic and consistent way. The Holy Spirit will take it from there.
JUST DO IT – This is The Way
Here’s a brief overview of a few plans that might work for you and some links to resources that are available online. The You Version online Bible resource has many Bible reading plans available. You can check them out at www.bible.com/reading-plans/. They also provide tools to help you stay on track and monitor your progress.
Through the Bible in a year
This plan takes you through the entire Bible in canon order (how our Bible is normally published) reading a selection each day for 365 days.
Through the Bible in 90 days
This intensive plan takes you through the entire Bible in only 3 months. It will take at least 30 minutes a day just for the reading but it gives you the panorama of God’s Word the quickest. If you’ve never read the entire Bible before, don’t pick this one. To be successful with this one make sure you have an audio version of the Bible that you can use while walking, exercising, driving, or commuting.
The One-Year Classic
This type of plan has selections from the Old Testament and the New Testament every day taking you through the entire Bible. You’ll read through the Old Testament once in the year and the New Testament and the Psalms twice.
The One-Year Chronological
This plan takes you through the Bible’s grand narrative in date order, so that you follow the storyline chronologically. Have you ever tried reading the Bible and gotten bogged down in certain parts, like the prophets? This reading plan makes sure you understand where all the prophets come in the Bible’s overarching story. It puts the Psalms in their context as well. It helps you see how the Bible fits together to tell one big story that points to Jesus Christ. The strength of this reading plan is that it takes you through the Bible at a leisurely pace over the course of a year, helping you see the Bible’s big story. The only weakness in this plan is that, due to the New Testament being so much shorter than the Old Testament, you won’t get into the New Testament books until the last quarter of the year.
This is a favorite of mine. There is even a printed version of this type of Bible, called “The Daily Bible” that is particularly helpful in two ways. 1) The calendar date is printed on each page so it is easy to quickly go to the passages for the day. 2) All the passages that are overlapping (ie Kings and Chronicles or the four Gospels) are combined into a single passage.
Stay-On-Track Plan
This is a good plan to read through the Bible in one year. In this plan there are only readings on the weekdays, with weekends left free to catch up or get ahead of the next week.
Audio Bible Versions
The entire Bible on audio is usually about 75 hours (or 4500 minutes). If you commute to work 5 days a week, that’s about 260 days a year. And if it takes you, say, 17 minutes to commute each way to work—and if you listen to the Bible on audio during your drive each way—you’ll get through the entire Bible twice in a year. This probably isn’t the only way to do Scripture intake—but it’s one most of us should take advantage of more. And if you are a techie, check out the You Version “Read to Me” plans:
- Whatever your daily routines look like, you can make hearing God’s Word a habit by having Scripture read to you. It will help you complete your daily devotional and Scripture readings without having to even touch your screen. Simply select a “Read to Me” Plan, press play, and let the truths in God’s Word speak to you –– wherever you go.
- Also try YouVersion Bible for Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung Bixby:
- Google Home – Ok Google … ask YouVersion Bible to read Psalms.
- Amazon Echo – Alexa … ask YouVersion Bible to read my Plan.
- Bixby – Hi, Bixby … ask YouVersion Bible for the Verse of the Day.
Links to Bible Reading Plans
You Version – https://www.bible.com/reading-plans
Bible Study Tools – https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-reading-plan/
Gospel Coalition – https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/devotionals/read-the-bible/
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/melissa-kruger/my-favorite-bible-in-a-year-reading-plan-2/
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/bible-reading-plans-3/
ESV – English Standard Version – https://www.esv.org/resources/reading-plans/
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