Five Great Bible Reading Plans
If you want to hear the voice of God the best place to start is the Word of God. And the best way to read the Word of God is on a consistent, daily basis. To do that, I would recommend using a Bible Reading Plan.
There are many possible ways to read the bible and there are many possible plans for doing this. You may already have a means of reading the bible that works well for you. But if you don’t, if your commitment has waned recently, I would suggest taking on one of the following reading plans to rebuild some day in and day out consistency in the Word.
1. Read the Bible for Life ‘Start Here!’ Reading Plan
This is a great introductory reading plan. Whilst many reading plans aim to read the entire bible in a year, the “Read the Bible for Life ‘Start Here’ Plan” pulls back on the amount of reading and covers selected highpoints in the story of scripture. Download it here.
Read the Bible for Life is written by George Guthrie and he has other plans on his site.
2. Plan for Slackers and Shirkers
This title will either encourage you greatly or put you off, but the Bible reading plan for Slackers and Shirkers is an adaptable and varied reading plan anyone can pick up.
It removes the “pressure” to keep up by removing dates, but remains based on the days of the week. Each day focuses on a different genre of the bible, e.g. Sunday – Poetry, Monday – Penteteuch etc. Here is an explanation of the plan, and you can download the plan here.
3. The Bible Reading Record
One of the first means of reading the bible I had was to mark off the books of the bible in the contents of my bible as I read through them. Of course, once I had done it once I needed a new method!
Don Whitney has put together a simple reading plan that enables you to print off and mark off each chapter of the bible as you read it. PDF with explanation can be downloaded here.
4. ESV Bible Reading Plans
ESV Publishers have a range of plans available, including some more challenging ones. The other benefit is that you can receive them via a wide range of media – RSS feed, iCal file, Mobile device, email or printable PDF.
One I recommend is called the Outreach Bible Reading Plan – a New Testament, Psalm and Old Testament reading each day.
5. YouVersion
One of most popular iPhone Apps is the YouVersion Bible App. YouVersion has a range of reading plans that you can access remotely. You will need to have a login to access them, but it’s free and if you have the app chances are you already have one.
There is a wide variety of plans, one of which is the hardcore read the bible in 90 days plan. Yes, 90 days! Try it here.
Which bible plan do you use? Or which one do want to try? Let me know with a comment below!