It still surprises me, and indeed saddens me, when I come across Christians, sometimes of longstanding, who have never read through their whole Bibles. That simply ought not to happen!. I am a great advocate of the principle that when it comes to the Bible there should be no NO GO and no Not GONE passages. In other words, believers should make it their aim to become familiar with every part, passage and page of God’s Word, not least because “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable...” (2 Timothy 3:16)
I want to encourage you to adopt two practices at the start of this New Year that will, without a shadow of a doubt, greatly enrich your spiritual life. I’ll post one idea today and the second tomorrow.
First, resolve with God’s help that you will read through the whole Bible in 2023 – and every year that God spares you. This is a far more achievable task than you might think.
The best way to do this is to follow a plan, and below I have linked to a selection of good plans. My own favourite is the one by Robert Murray M’Cheyne, backed up by two devotional books by Don Carson – For the Love of God. In these two volumes, Carson follows M’Cheyne’s Bible-reading plan, taking you through the New Testament and Psalms twice and the Old Testament once. What Carson has done is to write thought-provoking comments and reflections to accompany one of each day’s scriptural passages. And, most uniquely, he offers a perspective that places each reading into the larger framework of history and God’s eternal plan, in order to deepen our understanding of his sovereignty and the unity and power of his Word. You can buy hardback copies of the volumes, or The Gospel Coalition have a really helpful digital version you could use.
Here’s a selection of Bible reading plans that will help you do this, thanks to www.ligonier.org
52-Week Bible Reading Plan
Read through the Bible in a year with each day of the week dedicated to a different genre: epistles, the law, history, Psalms, poetry, prophecy, and Gospels.
Duration: One year | Download: PDF
Chronological Bible Reading Plan
Read through the Bible in the order the events occurred chronologically.
Duration: One year | Download: PDF
The Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan
Four daily readings beginning in Genesis, Psalms, Matthew and Acts.
Duration: One year | Download: PDF
The Discipleship Journal Book-at-a-Time Bible Reading Plan
Two daily readings, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. Complete an entire book in each testament before moving on.
Duration: One year | Download: PDF
ESV Daily Bible Reading Plan
Four daily readings taken from four lists: Psalms and wisdom literature, Pentateuch and history of Israel, Chronicles and prophets, and Gospels and epistles.
Duration: One year | Download: PDF
Historical Bible Reading Plan
The Old Testament readings are ordered similarly to Israel’s Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament readings attempt to follow the order in which the books were authored.
Duration: One year | Download: PDF
Bible in a Year
This plan takes you through the entire Bible with two readings each day: one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament.
Duration: One year | App: Accessible on YouVersion. Download the app.
Professor Grant Horner’s Bible Reading System
Reading ten chapters a day, in the course of a year you’ll read the Gospels four times, the Pentateuch twice, Paul’s letters four to five times, the Old Testament wisdom literature six times, the Psalms at least twice, Proverbs and Acts a dozen times, and the Old Testament history and prophetic books about one and a half times.
Duration: Ongoing | Download: PDF
Robert Murray M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Read the New Testament and Psalms twice and the Old Testament once.
Duration: One or two years | Download: Website
Straight-through-the-Bible Reading Plan
Read straight through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
Duration: One year | Download: PDF
Tabletalk Bible Reading Plan
Two readings each day, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. You can also follow the Tabletalk reading plan through the Ligonier app.
Duration: One year | Download: PDF
The Legacy Reading Plan
This plan does not have set readings for each day. Instead, it has set books for each month and a set number of Proverbs and Psalms for each week. It aims to give you more flexibility while grounding you in specific books of the Bible.
Duration: One year | Download: PDF
The Bible As It Happened
My own one year chronological reading plan is available here, but unfortunately I can’t make it available for free.