A Well-Balanced Biblical Diet
A couple of weeks ago on episode 10 of the church podcast, The King’s Table, Jonathan and I discussed the topic, “What Are Best Practices for Reading the Bible?” If you haven’t listened I would encourage you to do so below, and to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app as it is a great resource.
During that episode one of the suggestions was to have a Bible reading plan to follow. Since “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) then it is important to not pick and choose parts of Scripture to read.
In the podcast, we mentioned how a reading plan serves a role similar to a course of study for a major during college, or even a syllabus for an individual course. These exist to make sure that all of the necessary content is covered. Similarly, reading all of Scripture provides the Christian with a balanced spiritual diet. There is protein, vegetables, fruits, and other vitamins. Think of the Gospels as the meat. Hearty. They tell us of the Person of Jesus, which is foundational. Consider the rest of the New Testament the grains and breads—strong and sustaining. That makes the Old Testament fruits and vegetables. This is arbitrary labeling. The point is that some parts act as sweet encouragements and other parts may not naturally be our “go-to” but we need the whole counsel of God and a well-balanced diet to keep our soul healthy. Bible reading plans provide a systematic way of reading all of God’s word in order to be equipped for every good work.
Below are a selection of several different types of Bible reading plans. If you don’t currently have a plan that you use, then I strongly encourage you to find one that you would like to try and get started. Once you finish, consider doing it again or perhaps come back and pick a new plan. If you currently are following a plan that’s great! I hope this encourages you to continue. Consider these plans when you finish the plan you are currently following.
Most importantly, the goal isn’t to check off a list to say that you have accomplished something but instead it is to hear from God as he speaks through his word and grow in relationship with him. May these plans help you accomplish this goal.
Discipleship Reading Plan
In this reading plan, there are four separate places in the Scripture every day. Think a balanced plate for reading. By using this plan, you should be able to better grasp the unity of the Scriptures, as well as enjoy the variety of seeing four different viewpoints. You can begin at any point of the year. To prevent the frustration of falling behind, which most of us tend to do when following a Bible reading plan, each month of this plan gives you only twenty-five readings. Since you’ll have several “free days” each month, you could set aside Sundays to either not read at all or to catch up on any readings you may have missed in the past week.
Duration: 1 Year Link: pdf
Book-by-Book Reading Plan
This reading plan takes you through the entire Bible in one year. It provides two readings for each day. The first reading alternates between Old and New Testament books. The second reading takes you through a chapter of the wisdom literature and Isaiah. There are five or six days each month with no designated reading to allow time to catch up on missed readings or to spend extra time in meditation.
Duration: 1 Year Link: pdf
The Story of God
This reading plan is composed of selected readings from Scripture that help you to see the over-arching story line that is found throughout Scripture. If you are new to reading the Bible or you want to refresh yourself on this story, then this is a great plan.
Duration: 76 Readings Link: The Story of God
Chronological
This is a variation on reading straight through the Bible, but instead of reading in the order found in the Bible, stories are arranged in the order that they likely happened. For example, you read about King David in the history books of 1 and 2 Samuel, but various psalms that David wrote are mixed in at times in the story when the psalm was likely written. Later in the Gospels, you read the stories from the different gospel writers together when they were writing about the same event.
Duration: 1 Year Link: pdf
5 Day Bible Reading Program
If you are like me, then there are some days when you don’t do any Bible reading. It happens! When you are following a plan that has you read every day, those days can eventually stack up to where you are really far behind. The 5 day reading plan accounts for that, and only schedules 5 readings each week. The creators of this plan give an Old Testament and a New Testament reading for each day. In addition, they have placed the Old Testament readings into chronological order and the Gospels are spread throughout the year to keep you coming back to Jesus. If you did read all 5 days, then on the days you don’t have a reading schedule you could read from somewhere else that you want, or spend your normal reading time spending more time in prayer or practicing other spiritual disciplines.
Duration: 1 Year Link: pdf
Robert Murray M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
M’Cheyne was a 19th Century Scottish minister that created this plan for his congregation. The plan has you read the Old Testament once each year and the New Testament and Psalms twice. It does so by having 4 readings each day. M’Cheyne originally intended that the first 2 would be read in family devotions and that the other 2 readings would be done privately as an individual. This could be a great way to involve others in reading the Bible with you.
Don Carson modified this plan to expand over 2 years by only doing 2 of the readings each day. In this format you would read the New Testament and Psalms once each year and would complete the Old Testament once every 2 years.
Duration: 1 or 2 Years Link: website
Genre Reading Plan
The Bible consists of various genres each with its own purpose and contribution to scripture. This plan assigns a different genre to each day of the week, which results in you reading the whole Bible in one year. The genre groups are the Epistles, the Law, history, psalms, poetry, prophecy, and Gospels. This plan helps provide a lot of variety to your reading and will also have you read from both Old and New Testaments each week.
Duration: 1 Year Link: pdf
Professor Grant Horner’s Bible Reading System
I will begin by stating that this plan is intense! Horner divided the Bible into 10 different lists. Examples of these are the Gospels, the Law, Epistles, Psalms, Proverbs, and one list he put just the book of Acts. Every day he suggests reading one chapter from each list. When you finish a list you start back at the beginning of that list again. What is fascinating about this plan is that every list is a different length- some are 89 days long, the History books list is 250 days long, and Proverbs is 31 days. What this means is that every time you read you are reading different passage combinations than you have read at any other time! The benefits of this plan are certainly the amount of Scripture that you take in, but it also helps you see connections between different passages as you read. In addition, it is an ongoing plan so if you miss a day, or only complete part of it one day, you can simply pick up at that spot the next day. If you are up for a challenge I would encourage you to try it even for just 30 days and see what you think. I have followed this plan before and consider going back to trying it again.
Duration: Ongoing Link: pdf
Choose Your Own Plan
Sometimes, none of the plans seem exactly right to you at the moment. In that case you can still make a plan for reading all of Scripture. A simple way is to just have some sort of checklist or chart and mark chapters off as you read them. Move through at your own pace and record what you have read. This would be a completely flexible plan allowing you to move at your own pace but you would read all of the Bible.
This is not an exhaustive list and a search of the internet will result in many more options. Also, many Bibles include several reading plans as a part of the resources so you could see if one is available to you there. In addition, Bible apps such as YouVersion have a large number of reading plans to follow straight from your phone as well.
Do you currently follow a plan when reading the Bible? If not, consider picking one and beginning today!