Bible Reading Schedules

Getting on a regular schedule for reading your Bible is very important. The main reason is that few of us are disciplined enough to read the Bible every day if we do not have some sort of schedule to follow. Another great reason is that it can take you through the Bible faster than you probably would have read without a schedule.

There are many types of Bible reading schedules. I will try to list just a few here to help you in making your decision of what schedule to use.

Mark Roberts’ Five Day Bible Reading Schedule is what I am using in 2013 (I’m still using it in 2020). Having the Old and New Testaments together is something I really like in a schedule and having a two day cushion every week has made it much easier to stay on track.

BibleGateway.com has several nice reading schedules you can use.

• The comprehensive plan is simply a schedule to read from Genesis through Revelation in about 15 minutes a day for a year. This can be very useful, although I personally prefer readings in the Old and New Testament every day (see The One Year Bible Online below).
• The biographical plan is a schedule to help you learn about the Bible characters without reading the whole Bible. It takes 121 days.
• The survey plan is a schedule to help you see the overall picture of the Bible without reading through it all. It takes 61 days.
• The chronological plan is a schedule to help you see the order in which events actually happened. It takes 61 days.

The people at The One Year Bible Online have provided a good schedule that I used for a couple of years. I am not a fan of the New Living Translation, but the schedule is good. It takes you through the whole Bible in a year, but every day, you read from the Old Testament, the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. It only takes about half an hour each day.

There are many other places you can find good reading plans — just search for “bible reading plan” in Google or any other search engine. Choose a plan and use it. If you decide to start in the middle of the year, maybe you should try one of the shorter reading plans, then start on a plan that takes you through the whole Bible at the beginning of next year. I just want to encourage you to read! That is the only way you can grow to the full knowledge that God wants you to have.