Tips for Your Bible Reading Plan

As you begin the new year, you are likely hoping to start a new Bible Reading plan. Here at Pleasant Grove, myself and several other members will be using this reading plan, and we’d love for you to join us. I know it can be daunting to begin a new plan, especially if you haven’t been in the habit of reading the Bible daily up to this point. I hope these tips can help you make this commitment to reading the Bible daily and working through it in its entirety on a yearly basis part of the rest of your life.

1. Scale your Plan

   The reading plan I use (here) takes four different readings from four different sections of Scripture every day, usually a chapter per section. It is made so that you will read the entire Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice in the course of a year. The man who made the plan intentionally split it into two halves so you can read it personally and with your family. But because it’s split up in this way, scaling the difficulty level and time commitment required to complete the plan is easy to do. I’m not a very fast reader, but reading all four sections every day will usually take me between 15-20 minutes. It shouldn’t take anyone more than 30 minutes on its longest day. But if that’s too much to commit to, don’t be afraid to scale your plan to meet your current ability.

   • Reading columns 1-3 each day will cut between 3 and 5 minutes from the total and you’ll still read the entire Bible through one time in a year.

   • Reading columns 1-2 each day will cut your time in half and you’ll still read the entire New Testament and Psalms as well as half of the Old Testament. After 2 years, if you switch to columns 3-4, you will have read the entire Bible once and the New Testament and Psalms twice.

   • Reading 1 out of the 4 sections will only take 2-3 minutes every day and after 3 years you will have finally read through your entire Bible.

2. How to Catch Up

   The hardest part for me of reading through a plan like this is trying to figure out what to do when you miss a day (and you probably will miss a day sometimes, and that’s ok). Particularly if you’re reading all 4 columns every day, missing a day and catching up now probably means you have to find between 30 and 45 minutes to sit down and read. That can be hard to come by for a lot of people. Here’s my advice if you miss a day:

   • If you miss 1 day, do what you can to catch up. Maybe reading in the morning and night on your catch-up day can help break it up so that the time commitment is easier to manage.

   • If you miss 2 days, this is a judgment call on your part. If you’re a fast reader, you can probably still catch up, especially if you split up your reading throughout the day. Don’t be afraid to scale here and focus on the sections that are narrative so you don’t lose the story or passages you are less familiar with so you can keep getting a good sense of the full counsel of God. If you don’t think this is possible, use the advice for when you miss 3+ days below.

   • If you miss 3+ days, just skip to your new spot. You’re not likely to be able to catch up in the one day, and feeling behind over several days will usually make you more likely to never pick it back up. Your Christian life and Bible reading is a marathon and not a sprint. Missing those few chapters this year may mean you didn’t read every word in one calendar year, but over a lifetime of reading, you’ll hit those words again many times. Don’t be afraid to skip a few chapters in March so that you’re still reading in October.

3. Use Help

   Everyone gets confused sometimes reading the Bible, especially if you haven’t read that passage before. That’s ok, some parts are less clear than others. You have 4 good options in your daily reading when that happens:

   1. Use a study bible. If you’re reading from a study Bible every day, there are probably notes that go along with that passage of Scripture which will help clear up your confusion. Remember the study notes aren’t inerrant and the Scripture passage is, but those notes can still be helpful when you get confused.

   2. Use a helpful commentary/devotional. Using a helpful book which will succinctly explain the importance of different passages can help you not lose the forest for the trees in your daily reading. I use DA Carson’s For the Love of God which follows this reading plan and gives a quick one page devotional thought on one of the texts (Volume 1 or Volume 2 is fine; I switch between the two each year). Another option is the NIV Compact Bible Commentary which is small enough to almost fit in your pocket but will help explain the text as you read it.

   3. Study. If it’s a particularly sticky subject or it’s something that keeps nagging at you, then study it. Ask your pastor if he can help clear up the issue. Look in commentaries or at blog posts from people/places you trust. You may never get a perfect answer, but learning how to find a better answer is always helpful.

   4. Don’t worry about it. If you come across something you don’t immediately understand, then likely it will either be explained later in the rest of Scripture or it isn’t a major point or doctrine which should concern you. Everything in Scripture is important, but some things are more important than others. Trust that you’ll be able to understand the important parts.

4. Something is better than nothing

   Just read. Even if you only read a chapter each day, even if you fall way behind on your plan, even if you don’t understand everything you read, just remember that something is better than nothing. It’s never too late to begin reading your Bible and making it a crucial part of your day. I hope this helps when the going gets tough.