Bible Reading Plans
The Flexi Plan – Recommended
It combines the benefits of continuity and cross-fertilization, while ensuring that if you skip a day you don’t have to read extra readnext day to catch up.
The Flexi Plan:
Sunday: The books of poetry. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs.
Monday: The Pentateuch. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
Tuesday and Wednesday: O.T. history. Joshua to Esther.
Thursday: O.T.prophets. Isaiah to Malachi.
Friday: N.T. history. Matthew to Acts.
Saturday: N.T. epistles and Revelation. Romans to Revelation.
Here’s how it works.
Sunday, start with Job, and read as much as time permits. Don’t rush. Pray, read, pray and apply to your own life. Keep asking “What is God saying to me today through this reading?” Next Sunday, continue from where you stopped. After Job, go to Psalms, then Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs in order. Return to Job to start a new cycle.
Monday, start with Genesis and read as much as time permits. Next Monday continue from where you stopped. After Genesis, go to Exodus, and so on till you complete Deuteronomy. Then return to Genesis.
Tuesday, start with Joshua. Wednesday, continue where you stopped.
Treat Tuesday-Wednesday as one unit. Each Tuesday, in this two-day unit, continue where you left off the previous Wednesday. When you have done reading Joshua, go to Judges and so forth, till you reach and complete Esther. Then return to Joshua.
Thursday, start with Isaiah. Read as much as time permits. Each Thursday, return to where you stopped, and continue. When you’ve finished Isaiah, go on to Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, and keep going till you reach Malachi. When you’ve finished, come back to Isaiah.
Friday, start with Matthew and read as much as time permits. Next Friday continue from where you left off. When you’ve finished Matthew, go on through Mark, Luke, John and Acts. When you’ve completed Acts, return to Matthew.
Saturday, start with Romans. Read as much as time permits. When you’ve through Romans, go to 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and so on, till you reach Jude. Then go to Revelation. When you’ve finished the book of Revelation, return to Romans
As you can see, the Flexi Plan divides the Bible into seven cycles, one cycle assigned to each weekday. On any given weekday you take off from where you left off the previous week. That’s continuity.
At the same time, during each week, you are reading from different sections of the Bible. This leads you to see connections between one part of the Bible and another as they come up. For instance, between the historical and the prophetical parts, or between the Old Testament and the New Testament, etc. This is “cross-fertilization”. The more familiar you get with the Bible, the more cross-fertilization will occur, not just with the passage you read the previous day, but during the week, or last week, or last month!
Also, you will find that God often orchestrates your reading (unknown to you) in such a way that the passage you are reading on a particular day speaks to your need on that day.
If you miss a day because of too much pressure on time, don’t worry. Say, if you miss a Thursday, the next Thursday you return to the prophetical book you were reading, and continue where you left off two Thursdays before. In this way, you don’t have a rigid schedule which causes you to fall behind and accumulate a backlog when you miss one or more days.
Many people start on a Bible reading schedule with every good intention of completing the Bible in one year. When they keep falling behind and the backlog becomes too large, they give up!
The flexible Bible reading plan I have suggested will keep you reading through the year, taking in your stride the days of high pressure, without feeling guilty about missing a day here and a day there.
Bible Year Reading Schedules
For those who prefer reading plans that assign specific portions for each date of the calendar year, we recommend one of these:
Daily Devotional:
ESV Daily Devotional (OT, Psalms and NT)
Menu of choices:
This is a row-by-column matrix of Bible Reading Plans compromising the following 5 types of reading plans, each in 19 English Translations, not to mention a number of other languages! The menu is provided by ewordtoday.com.
-
Beginning to End: Read the Bible from start to finish, from Genesis to Revelation.
-
Chronological: Read the Bible as its events occurred in real time. For example, Job lived sometime after the beginning of creation (Genesis 1) but before Abraham was born (Genesis 12). As a result, the Book of Job is integrated into the Book of Genesis.
-
Historical: Read the books of the Bible as they were written historically, according to the estimated date of their writing.
-
New then Old: A BibleYear.com exclusive! Read through the New Testament first, then read through the Old Testament.
-
Old and New: Each day includes a passage from both the Old Testament and New Testament.
Choose a translation, and a reading plan, click, and off you go. (There’s a version for mobile phones at BibleYear.com Mobile.)
Alternative Menus:
Four types of Bible Reading Plans at Bible Gateway
Comprehensive Reading Plan (365 days – recommended –
I strongly advocate studying the whole counsel of God – Acts 20:27.)
Use the following only after completing the Comprehensive Plan:
Biographical (121 days – Adam to Zechariah)
Survey (121 days – highlights from every book of the Bible)
Chronological (61 days – key Bible stories in chronological order)
Twenty-plus types of Bible Reading Plans at YouVersion
YouVersion has customization and support options to help you stay on track.
To explore the plans and options, click here
Bibloscope 