This Bible reading plan will take you through the entire Bible in one year.* You’ll read completely through the Old Testament once, but twice through the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs.** This is because the New Testament is so much shorter than the Old Testament (260 chapters compared to 929 chapters).
My goal is to provide a balanced view of the Scriptures each day. You’ll having some readings from the Old Testament (typically two chapters), some readings from the New Testament (one chapter if you’re reading a gospel since they tend to be longer chapters, or two chapters if reading a letter), one chapter from either Psalms or Proverbs, as well as one “verse focus” taken from either Proverbs or Psalms. Each day will also have a brief introduction to the day’s readings.
I personally have looked at quite a number of different Bible reading plans (and I’ve done a few of them, too). But in the past year I came to desire creating my own “perfect” Bible reading plan. One that would take me through the Bible in a year, but one that has enough variety in the readings to give scope for God’s Spirit to speak to me no matter where I am in my spiritual journey.
It’s not that any plan reading the Bible is bad, but a number of them are quite similar. In many plans, you only have two different readings for the day: one from the Old Testament, and one from the New Testament. You usually cover all the books in the Bible in the order that they appear within the Bible (even though each book is a separate book and they can be read in any order you please). This means that for the Old Testament, you will read all the Torah at the beginning of the year, followed by the history books, poetry and wisdom books, and then major prophets and minor prophets. Likewise, with the New Testament, many reading plans follow a similar order, so that you read all the gospels in the first part of the year, followed by the Pauline letters, then other letters, and finally Revelation. As I’ve said, there’s nothing wrong with doing this. But I personally like to have a little more variety in what I read and when.
The order of books we cover through the year was chosen deliberately so that you will encounter of variety of different kinds of writing throughout the entirety of the year. So although we do start with Genesis and Matthew, the next books are both quite different. After Genesis, we jump to Isaiah, and after Matthew we do some of the letters before returning to a gospel again. After completing one book, you will find that the next Scripture book you read will be a very different type of reading (with the exception of some of the paired history books and some of the paired letters).
Some reading plans like to divide the Scriptures by verses, in order to create a more “even” total number of verses that you read each particular day. This plan, like many you will encounter, divides the readings based on chapters. This provides logical groupings of ideas and logical breaks between readings and does not try to create an artificial length to the day’s readings. It does mean, of course, that some days will take longer to read, simply because the chapters of that book are lengthier than chapters in other Scripture books.
The number of chapters in the Bible doesn’t fully divide evenly into the number of days of the year. So although most days you’ll read either 4 or 5 chapters (depending on whether you’re reading a gospel or not), there are a few days of the year when you will read 6 chapters. I’ve tried to pay attention to how long the chapters are so that when we need to get in one “extra” chapter, it will be a grouping of chapters that are shorter than some of the others in that particular book. Likewise, when we cover Psalm 119 (at 176 verses, the longest chapter in the Bible!), we will omit doing other Old Testament chapter readings on that day in order that the burden of reading by chapter groupings will not be so heavy. It will also give you the room to appreciate the beauty of reading Psalm 119 in its entirety!
For those of you who are starting this plan on January 1st, please note that you will cover the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs completely within the first half of the year (January 1 through June 30) as well as in the second half of the year (July 1 through December 31). This is true even though each “half” is of a slightly different length because of the month of February.
And speaking of February, I have accounted for leap years and provided readings for February 29th.*** However, you don’t have to worry that you will need to squeeze in readings from February 29th on non-leap years. The chapters you read on February 29 are repeats of what you will read at other times in the year, but it is a grouping of particularly beloved Bible chapters from the Old and New Testaments. So for non-leap years, feel free to skip the February 29th readings or add them to your February 28th or March 1st readings as you desire. (Those wishing a copy of the schedule of Scripture readings may download a PDF copy of the schedule using the download link above.)
Finally, I believe God speaks to you as you read through His Word. But not every type of Scripture will resonate at every point in your life. Some that resonate now may not capture you in the same way next year, and some that seemed dry and difficult to read in previous attempts will suddenly be revealed as very profound and impactful. This is because God’s word is living and active; He will use the writings of Scripture written thousands of years ago to speak to what you are going through this very day.
I encourage you to pray before each day’s readings that God will speak to you through the Scriptures and that He will open your eyes to spiritual truths that you may put into practice.
About the daily meditations…
Each day’s readings will have a brief introduction to the readings. These are not intended to be commentaries, nor do these introductions give in-depth coverage of the spiritual truths found in this particular grouping of chapters. Instead, it will provide a brief overview of the day’s readings along with a bit of personal commentary as to what I found significant when I was reading these chapters. The primary goal of these meditations is to encourage you in your reading as you hear what another believer has to say.
My prayer for you…
I pray that the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of your heart as you read the Scriptures so that you may know the depth of God’s love for you in Christ Jesus. I pray that each and every day you will discover new treasures in the Word. I pray that God will make your life fruitful, abundant, and full of thanksgiving and joy. And, finally, I pray that 2021 will be a year of walking closer and closer with God.
Footnotes
* Please note that this Bible plan is based on a Protestant canon of Scripture; books of the Apocrypha are not included.
** A word about terminology… The terms “Old Testament” and “New Testament” are used throughout this Bible plan as they are common reference terms for a majority of Christians. The names actually refer to a theological view of the two covenants that God made with mankind: the first, with Moses, when He set aside the Israelite people to be his own; the second, when Christ died to reconcile all nations to God. For Christians today, this terminology can have the unfortunate consequence of implying that the Old Testament is outdated and without relevance to people of faith today (when, of course, nothing could be further from the truth!). Additionally, most Jews find the “Old Testament” terminology offensive, as do many Messianic Christians. I apologize for causing offense by using this terminology, but feel that its familiarity to large portions of the audience makes its use warranted.
*** February 29th translates to Day 60 of the plan, should you not happen to begin on January 1st.
I forgot to mention the most important “rule” — Always read the current day first.
This rule comes from bitter experience. Although my devotional times are stable now, it wasn’t always that way. There were years when I really struggled to put God first, and struggled to read the Bible every day. Many times when I would embark on a year-long reading plan, I would sabotage myself by insisting that I had to “catch up” if I missed a day of reading. It doesn’t take too many days before the burden of “catching up” becomes so heavy that you simply can’t do it. And I would fail at that point: I would give up entirely.
Eventually, I learned to stop trying to “catch up” on missed readings and just go on being as consistent as I could. That in turn developed more consistency. So you missed a day. So what? It happens. So you missed a week. So you’ve missed a month. It doesn’t matter. Just join us where we are and start reading from there. And if you really feel like you need to “catch up” on what you missed, do that another time. That can happen later. For now, just join us where we are right now. 🙂