If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am in love with God’s Word. His Word is so powerful and has changed my heart in more ways than I can express to you. Even on days when I don’t feel very eager to read Scripture {yes, those days do happen}, I never regret afterward that I took the time to read the Word of Life for at least a few minutes of my day.
What about you? Do you read the Word? And when you do, are you growing as a disciple of Christ? I recently read this article that talks about why many Bible studies leave the heart thirsty for more…
My hope is in 2013, we can be women who flourish from reading the Word. It’s my prayer that we would study the Bible with diligence covered in grace and watch with joy as God transforms us from the inside out. He has promised it. And His promises never fail.
Below is a list of some of my favorite Bible reading plans. I am copying the list I posted last year, but adding a few new ones to it that I’ve discovered during 2012.
If I could ask anything of you, sweet friends, it would be to pick a plan. Choose one. If not from this list, from somewhere else. Dive in to those life-giving waters of Scripture. Commit. Grow. His Word is our very life. His Word became flesh and dwelt among us…
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Two Year Bible Reading Plan – This is nice because you read the whole Bible, but it’s spread out over two years instead of crammed into one, which can be overwhelming. There are also “catch up days” built into the schedule in case you get behind because your toddler gets sick or whatnot. 🙂
For the Love of God – I am currently doing this one, but I’ve spread it out over two years. You read through the whole Bible in a year following the M’Cheyne reading plan {M’Cheyne was a Scottish pastor in the mid 1800s who came up with a Bible reading plan for his congregation that has since become the most-used plan in history.} Basically it’s 3-4 chapters a day from different places in the Bible. Then D.A. Carson wrote two devotional books to go along with the plan that have been transferred to the For the Love of God Blog. You do your reading for the M’Cheyne plan each day and then you read a short devotional on the blog that pulls the different texts together and shows how the Gospel works together in all of them.
Slackers and Shirkers – This is a super easy Bible reading plan. Basically, it just breaks up the year into days of the week, and then under each day there is check box with a few passages of Scripture next to it. You read for the first Sunday, check it off, and when the next Sunday rolls around, you do the next reading and check it off. Then it does the same for each day of the week. And each day of the week is a specific genre, so Sundays might be the Pentateuch and Mondays might be the Epistles and so on. Here a pastor explains why he likes it.
Checklist – This plan basically allows you go at your own pace. You can make up any reading plan you want, and this checklist has every book of the Bible listed with its number of chapters. You just cross them out as you go. My only fear with this is that it’s too open-ended and might be hard to stay on track. But then again, the freedom is nice and it will make it easy to honor the Bible instead of idolizing the schedule!
ESV Study Bible – Not sure if you have an ESV Study Bible, but here are a bunch of reading plans to go with that. When I read through the Bible in 2010, I also read all the ESV study notes with it and I have never learned so much from God’s Word in my life!
YouVersion – Do you have YouVersion on your iPhone? This list has all the different reading plans {some with devotionals} that you can do on YouVersion, and you read the Bible right on your phone!
Solid Joys – Desiring God came out with a new Bible app a few months ago that has a devotional reading from various John Piper books along with Scripture. This is what I plan to do in 2014 after I finish the Love of God blog.
She Reads Truth – What started as a handful of female bloggers holding each other accountable to read Scripture this past summer has turned into an international movement where women are studying the Bible together all over the world. God’s grace and goodness have been so evident in the whole ordeal. Now you can follow along with the current She Reads Truth plan through YouVersion on your phone.
Chronological Bible – The first time I ever read through the whole Bible, I used the Chronological Bible. It puts all the chapters of the Bible into their {most likely}chronological order instead of the order in which they are traditionally published. For example, when you read about Saul trying to kill David in the wilderness, you also read the Psalms that David most likely wrote, crying out to God, when that trial was occurring. The only difficult thing about this Bible is that you don’t get to the New Testament until September! But the awesome thing is that you will read the Old Testament with new eyes and gain so much understanding of the Gospel throughout history.
I hope this helps you choose a plan. Clearly, there are many options out there, but these are the ones I have researched. Please let me know if you choose one! And feel free to pass this on if you hear of anyone else looking for a reading plan for next year. Praying that God blesses you through His Word in 2013!
love all these!
my favorites devotionals:
– the youversion app
– my utmost for his highest
– jesus calling
🙂
I love all of these things. I'm so glad that I found your blog. I just moved to AZ myself. We live in Tempe. Would love to grab coffee with you sometime.
xo
Jessa
lifeofasportswife.blogspot.com
Some friends from community group and I are doing the 2 year plan…going to try to blog about it too!