Should I Have a Bible Reading Plan

Welcome to the start of a new year. The season when we set goals for change in our personal lives and change of our habits with the hopes of things lasting longer than 2 days.

This year we are starting off the new year with a series on Luke 9 & 10 and addressing the question, ‘What does it mean to follow Jesus?’ Probably, if you have thought about following Jesus in 2020 and you have thought about habit change, you have thought about reading the Bible.

This year more than ever I’ve seen pastors debating the Bible reading plan goal. On the one side you have people saying, ‘Start a plan! The Bible is God’s word and we need it in our lives daily. If you are not reading you really need to start, and a plan is the way to go!’

Then you have the other side that says ‘Plans are dangerous. It makes reading the Bible more about the goal than it does intimacy with God, and we should be reading the Bible because we want to know God more intimately’.

I have to admit, both are good arguments, so maybe the answer for you this year is to find a balance of both. Start a reading plan that is a little more substantial than what your plan was last year… So if you didn’t read much at all, try something that is one chapter a day, like just the New Testament this year. If you were regularly in your reading try something that would be 2-3 chapters a day.

There is an awesome app, the You Version Bible, that provides all kinds of reading plans. I’d strongly encourage you to go find one and try it! Our family is reading the New Testament in a year from the Bible Project! And, at the same time… every time you read, or forget to read, preach the gospel to your heart. You are not more loved by God because you read your Bible. So when you read, remind your heart that the goal is to know God more intimately. If you miss a day, don’t beat yourself up, pursue God and intimacy knowing that He loves you just as much as if you had being reading.

And let’s pray that God will use our time with Him in the word to grow us in maturity and fruitfulness.