Bible reading is essential for growth as a Christian.
But it’s not as if you read it once and you’ve got it. We have an inexhaustible text. What’s more, we’re not always ready to understand it all the first time. Or the third.
(Photo: By William Hoiles from Basking Ridge, NJ, USA, CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
That’s why both Paul and Peter write about the value of repetition in reading Scripture (Philippians 3:1; 1 Peter 2:2; 2 Peter 1:13; 3:1-2).
Hey, let’s be honest. Bible reading can be intimidating. It’s a big book! But with only about 15 minutes a day, you can make it through the whole Bible in a year. Why not make this year the year you do it?
Here are 7 free resources to help you with your Bible reading this year.
1. Listen to the Bible. YouVersion allows you to listen to the Bible through a variety of reading plans that apply to many different translations. Cathy and I love the mobile app for our iPhones. I listen to God’s Word on my commute.
2. Print a Plan and Read Your Own Bible. The benefit of printing a PDF is that you get to read and make notes in your own Bible. Although you can find other plans, my favorite plan for many years was the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan. It offers four readings (5 days a week) from various parts of the Bible, allowing two days a week to “catch up” or to study a passage in more depth.
3. Try Something Different This Year. There are a number of creative online reading plans from BibleGateway.com (all taken from How to Read Your Bible by David and Renée Sanford), including:
- Comprehensive Bible Reading Plan (365 days)—in 15 minutes a day you can make it through the whole Bible in one year.
- Biographical Bible Reading Plan (121)—this plan is a Who’s Who of the Bible, allowing you to become acquainted with every character from Adam to Zechariah.
- Survey Bible Reading Plan (61 days)—take a look at the big picture from Genesis to Revelation in this survey of key passages.
- Chronological Bible Reading Plan (61 days)—this pan traces the key passages of Scripture in the order they occurred and will occur.
4. Read Online With a Trustworthy Commentary. The folks at Bible.org have made several plans available online.
- Each plan allows you to read the NET Bible in one column with study notes in the other.
- Another option is to read Dr. Tom Constable’s notes alongside the Scriptures. I have read all of these notes and they are trustworthy and excellent.
- The site also includes an option to read Greek, Hebrew, and various articles relevant to the passage.
5. Make Reading Convenient—Read the ESV this year with your choice of ten reading plans delivered to you via RSS, iCal, Mobile phone, PDF download, or Email. Pretty convenient!
6. Read the Bible on Your Kindle. The ESV is available as a free download to your Kindle or to your Kindle Reader for an iPad or mobile device.
7. Read My Posts on Bible Reading. If you’d like more encouragement on reading the Bible, check out some of the posts and podcasts I’ve produced about it.
- The Benefits of Reading the Bible [Podcast]
- How to Keep a Dogged Devotion to Bible Reading
- Connecting Cisterns, Rain, and Reading the Bible
- 4 Steps to Unwrapping the Bible’s Treasures
What’s the best resource or method? The one you’ll use. God had His Word written, preserved, and translated for you.
Read the Bible this year.
Question: What Bible reading plan or strategy have you used? Please share a link. You can leave a comment by clicking here.
WAYNE STILES
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