Problems: The main problem with a prescribed plan is that most of them go by specific dates of the year. Another benefit of this approach is you don’t have to figure out a plan for yourself you simply follow a plan someone else created for you. The opposite is true as well: Christians must read the Old Testament through the lens of the New. We read the New Testament better when we not only understand the Old but also have it constantly in mind. Most of these are ‘Bible in a year’ plans, but you can also find ones that require less daily reading and take longer to complete.īenefits: The primary benefit of plans is that they typically keep you in both the Old and New Testaments. Most of these will have you reading chapters from both Testaments, typically three to five chapters per day, depending on a variety of factors and the methods of arrangement. A prescribed reading planĭescription: You can easily find prescribed reading plans online or in a study Bible (typically at the back). It can therefore be best to take this cover-to-cover approach just once or twice in your lifetime and then use one of the approaches below since they will keep you constantly in both Testaments. Also some chapters are very long, so reading three or four chapters can take up to an hour, depending on how quickly (or slowly) you read. Problems: Because the Old Testament makes up about three-quarters of the Bible, you will end up spending most of the year on it and only a few months in the New Testament. For this reason, just keep reading, even if you don’t understand. Reading this way will allow you to get a sense of the overall scope of the Bible without getting bogged down in the details. Doing so will get you through the Bible in about one year.īenefits: This can be a very helpful experience. Cover to cover in a yearĭescription: Read three or four chapters of the Bible per day from Genesis to Revelation. For this reason, the approaches below tend to be more effective overall. The risk then is that the reader eventually stops reading the Bible for long seasons or altogether. Many people who take such an approach admit that they end up reading in fits and starts, and the habit ends up waning. Problems: The main problem with this approach is that it tends to be less helpful as time goes on because there is no consistent system. This approach can be a good way to begin, especially if you’ve never read the Bible before or if there are certain parts of the Bible that are unfamiliar to you and you’d like to spend some time studying these territories. Read as much or as little as you can in any one sitting-anything from one verse for meditation to multiple books for hours.īenefits: You’re reading the Bible! This is much better than not reading the Bible. Follow your interestsĭescription: Just read the Bible, following your interests. Any of them will work, but as we go down the list the approaches tend to become more effective over the long haul for the lifelong reader. Here are four approaches people generally take when reading the Bible for themselves on a daily basis. If we want to hear from God, to know him more and more and to see his works in the world, we can do no better than regularly listening to him in Scripture for our entire lives. Often people ask for God to speak to them, to give them signs, or to make himself known to them while ignoring regular Bible reading. Because Scripture is the very word of God-“breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16)-as followers of Jesus Christ we ought to consider seriously the gift of daily Bible reading.
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