Bible Reading Plans

Girls, we must get on a good Bible reading plan and feed on the Word every day – our spiritual lives depend on it, and our physical lives will suffer without it.

Too often we bask in a few inspirational verses that we like and neglect to read the whole council of God. This leads to misunderstanding of the Scriptures we do read, as well as weakness in our walks as believers.

I strongly recommend that you begin a systematic Bible reading plan that will allow you to eat up all the Word – appetizers, meats, desserts, and vegetables.

As you embark, I advise you:

Read what you can. But do read something! If you can’t do a whole assigned reading, read part of it and pick up the next day where you left off.

Don’t give up. If the plan includes calendar dates, ignore them. Start at day one and just go a day at a time. If you miss a day, pick up where you left off on the next day. Don’t allow perfectionism or self-condemnation to stop you from feasting on God’s Word.

Here are my favorite Bible reading plans:

• Professor Grant Horner’s Bible Reading System – I’ve been using this system for over 2 years now, and what the article says is so true: once you’ve been reading in this way “you’ll wonder how you ever survived before on such a slim diet of the WORD”. Now, I do have a few practical caveats to insert here – 1.) this method of reading does not include meditation and study, I find I must also make time to study the Word more in-depth. 2.) sometimes when you have screaming babies or other life circumstances you do not have time to read 10 chapters of the Bible in a row. It’s okay to break it up throughout the day, or only as many as you can a day.  Just go in order, do what you can, chew on what you read, and pick up where you left off. If I have crazy day, I read 1 or 2 chapters in the morning, try to squeeze in 1 after lunch, and 2 more before bed when I also do my more in-depth Bible study. At first glance it may sound like a lot, but it’s really not bad and it has made a HUGE difference for me personally. I strongly recommend it. In my experience, the more you feed on the Word, the hungrier for the Word you become!
• The M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan – This one only has 4 chapters per day. My husband and I divided it in half for my younger children (ages 10 & 12) so that they read 2 chapters per day and take 2 years to read the whole Bible instead of 1. Sometimes our whole family stays on the plan together, doing 2 chapters in our quiet time and 2 at together family worship. Reading the same passages your kids are reading in their quiet time provides wonderful fodder for ‘as you go’ conversation with the kids! The M’Cheyne system is another simple plan to ensure that you read systematically through the whole council of God and not just lounge in your favorite passages.