Over thirty years ago my pastor challenged our entire church to read through the whole Bible in the next 12 months, and I took him up on it. It turned out to be one of the best goals I’ve ever set, and God has enabled me to keep it up pretty faithfully ever since. I can assure you that the benefits are incalculable! Simply put, I do not know of a single habit more productive, more stabilizing, or more life-giving than daily time in God’s word. Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (Jn 6:63).
This year I’d like to invite all of you to join me. Believe it or not, it takes only about 20 minutes a day to read through the whole Bible in a year. We have made several different reading plans available on a table in the lobby (and of course you can find dozens of others online). One takes you through the Bible in roughly chronological order. Another follows the order the books are arranged in our Bible. A third bounces around a bit from book to book. And a fourth has you reading in 4 different places in the Bible every day, to help you notice themes and connections that run through the whole story. There are also 2 reading plans that are more aggressive, covering the whole Bible once and certain portions of it twice.
Needless to say, if you’re not reading your Bible much at all on a daily basis, zero to twenty might be too ambitious; you might be wiser to select a reading plan that requires less time. If this is your situation, we’ve made two plans available that will give you a greater chance of keeping it up through the whole year. One takes you through the New Testament, reading just 5 minutes a day, 5 days a week. The other is every day, reading through the NT, Psalms, and Proverbs.
Whatever you decide, please take up this challenge to read God’s word every day! Get a reading plan. Then select a daily time to read and anchor it into your schedule. And finally, decide what 20-minute activity you are going to amputate from your current schedule—because you can’t just keep adding commitments indefinitely. Who knows what God will do in our church if we get in the word together in 2022!