An Organized Bible Reading Plan for 2014
Last week I shared why I don’t make New Year’s resolutions anymore. I set goals and create an action plan instead. I mentioned at the end of my post that I would be sharing about some of my other goals this week.
Today I want to talk about the plan I’m using to read the Bible this year. I’ve read through the entire Bible twice in my life. The first time was in 2011 when I followed the Bible in 90 Days plan. The second was in 2012 when I used a chronological Bible to read each day of the year.
Both were great experiences, and I learned a lot from reading through the whole Bible. This year I wanted to try something a little different. When I have read through the Bible before, I had the mindset of just learning how all the parts of the Bible fit together. And to be honest, some days when the reading was tedious or difficult, I just wanted to get through the assigned reading!
I have had the desire to study the Bible more in depth. But when I try to add in-depth Bible study to reading through the Bible and participating in a Bible study at my church, I get overwhelmed.
So, this year I’m going to combine in-depth Bible study with my daily Bible reading. I ran across this article a few weeks ago that talks about a Bible reading strategy. You can read it for yourself, but I want to point out some things that I’ve taken away from the article.
I like the author’s idea of picking certain topics to study throughout the year. I don’t necessarily agree with buying a new study Bible each year. That can get costly and can eventually add up to clutter if you’re not using all those Bibles on a regular basis.
I have decided to study about Christian living, marriage, and parenting. As I read through the Bible I will be highlighting verses that speak to these subjects. I have a different color highlighter for each one. If I do this next year and in other years to come, I will find different colors of highlighters or come up with some other way of marking the topics for those years.
I’ve written the subjects in the front of my Bible and have highlighted each one to remind me which colors I’m using. This is what that looks like:
As I highlight verses I am also making note of them on loose-leaf paper, which will eventually go in my Bible study binder. I write down the verse and anything I think God is saying to me through the verse. By the end of the year I’ll have a whole collection of verses that speak to these specific subjects.
The Bible reading plan I’m using is a chronological one. But instead of using my chronological Bible, I’m using my ESV study Bible and working off a chronological plan I found online. You can download it here for free.
I like the idea of reading through the Bible chronologically because it helps me to put the Bible into a whole perspective. Everything makes more sense to me. But, I wanted to be able to study the passages more in depth, so my study Bible will come in handy for that purpose.
If you haven’t started reading the Bible yet, it’s not too late. In fact I just got started this morning! Any day is a good day to begin reading the Bible.
Are you reading the Bible through this year? If so, what plan are you using?
I plan on reading the Bible this year! Your post is perfect! I’m heading over to check out the list now 🙂 Thank you for sharing! 🙂 Fellow Arkansas Woman Blogger <3
LeSha, I hope you found this reading plan to be beneficial! Thanks for stopping by. I love to connect with other Arkansas Woman Bloggers!
For several years I have used a plan from Discipleship Journal, which I like because I read for 25 days each month and then have the last few days to.catch up if I have missed a day or
want to reflect on what I’ve read. It works for me.
Sandy, that sounds like a great plan! Sometimes it’s hard to commit to read through the Bible because it’s difficult to read everyday. I like that you have a few days to catch up each month.
I was looking for a way to study the Bible in the c2015, and just downloaded your plan. Thanks Dear!
Sharon, I’m glad you found this plan. I just finished last week, and I can say reading through the Bible chronologically has helped me understand things so much better. Praying you will enjoy reading through the Bible this year!
Thanks for the awesome post! Does your chronological bible plan go through the entire bible in one year? Or just certain parts? Hoping to do that this year for 2015. Please let me know, thank you!
Alissa, yes, this plan goes through the whole Bible in one year. Some days there is a lot to read, and other days it is lighter reading. I just finished it and am so glad I did this plan. Let me know how it works out for you!
I tried to get to the article but there is NO article. It just states the title and there is nothing else. Thanks anyway. God Bless You.
Linda, thanks for bringing this to my attention. Apparently they changed their link. I found the article and changed the link in my post. If you click on it now, you should be able to see the article. Thanks again!
You describe exactly my problem. Over the past 9 years I read through the Bible twice – once using the 90 day read through plan though that ended up extending out to 2 years. Anyway, it was with that intent you mention of getting a more holistic sense of the whole, and I was truly amazed at the timing of meeting certain verses or events, as well as how things fit together in very different ways than I expected. After the 2nd time through though, I thought, instead of reading through I’d try to do some kind of in depth study… but I found myself rather adrift for regular reading/study and missing the parts-fitting-into-the-whole of a read through and I keep trying to do different things and lapsing. I like the idea of trying to balance the different ways of reading. Will check out these links, and think about whether my journal can help me keep going on something a bit different in set-up.
Teresa, I’m glad you found this post. I hope it helps you out. Let me know how it goes!