As I grew up, I had a persistent sense of “reading” the Bible. When I entered high school, I wanted to read the entire Bible and failed several times. The norm for me was that everything ignited in Genesis, but collapsed somewhere around Leviticus. Then, when I was 18, I read a book about how to study the Bible. It had the key needed to unlock the door to read the Bible well every day. It was over 25 years ago, and I haven’t missed a day reading the Bible ever since. In those 25 years, I found an additional key to distinguish between those who succeeded in reading the Bible and those who did not. This is what I found.
1) Most people will fail when trying to load each cover from the first page. It’s possible, but it’s important to admit that Leviticus and numbers aren’t the most compelling books and can be a hassle to get through. In my experience, people have not established a solid pattern of daily reading by the time they read these tough books. So they either lose interest or begin to resist Bible Reading Plans. Solution: Choose a plan that begins with the New Testament, or one that has reading material from both the New Testament and the New Testament, so that you can overcome the tedious nature of reading hard-to-read books.
2) Those who choose the pace that suits them will succeed. Some plans need to read only a few verses a day, others need to read several chapters. I don’t think one approach is necessarily better than another, but it really depends on your personality. I’ve found some sections that aren’t really enough to get my attention. I wanted more, so I decided to read four chapters every day. For someone else, they may feel lost in many of their chapters. As soon as you start reading your plan, you’ll know if you have too many or too few blocks to read. Divide the measurements, combine the measurements, or make a whole new plan and adjust accordingly.
3) Choose a plan that will keep your interests. This is very subjective but important. Some plans include reading from multiple parts of the Bible at once. For example, you may read Old Testament chapters, New Testament chapters, and Psalms daily. Some people love diversity. Others feel jerky by being in so many places in a single reading. Again, there is essentially no right way to do this. Especially important at an early stage is to choose a plan that is a comfortable reading style for you so that you do not start to resist it.
4) Some people need a break to succeed. The number of Bible Reading Plans is 5 or 6 days a week instead of 7 days. With these plans, you can look back and catch up with the day. We strongly recommend that you do not create exceptions from the beginning unless you have a plan. We strongly recommend that you do not take a break for the first 30 days as we want to establish a solid foundation for daily reading.
5) Successful people plan not only the content but when and where to read it. If you enter your day thinking I’ll read it someday, you’ll keep pushing it around your schedule until it’s pushed out of the page. Include in your plan when and where to read. Consider linking your reading to an already established job like eating breakfast or going to bed.
We hope that these tips will help you choose an effective Bible reading guide. There are many online options to choose from. Just choose wisely and you will succeed.
