My Plan for a Reading Plan

As far as I can remember, I've always been trying to follow a Bible reading plan. It was the same old story: I will try one, get along with it for a while, then lose steam. You can say I pretty much know how it's NOT supposed to be done. The latest attempt I can recall was when a friend sent me a link from Grace to You about a 9-week reading plan to jumpstart a person who is either new to the Bible or have not been reading it regularly. It is designed as a weekly schedule, which should allow a person to catch up within the week should he missed a day or two of reading. I've gotten through 2 weeks before I ended up a week late and ultimately I dropped off the system.

It was around this time that I discovered Youversion. It's essentially a site that provides a couple of Bible versions that one can use in one or more of its recommended Bible reading plans. Once more it kindled the spark in me, and after trying one or two plans, I settled with a plan that would take me through the Old Testament in the order of the books as they are arranged (the plan is for one year but I intend to finish in two years). I managed to finish Genesis before I, once again, got myself behind and behind that I eventually lost interest in continuing.

By this time I was beginning to understand some things. My idea of going through the books as the original readers might have gone through it (meaning, finishing one before proceeding with the next) might not be actually the real case. Regardless, going through one book after the other gives me a feeling of monotony. I then start to wish to go through the other parts of the Bible. Which makes me even less inclined to proceed with my current reading plan. Until I realize I'm already behind too much that I need to restart or try something else.

And so it was around this time that I learned of a reading plan by Professor Grant Horner. It calls for reading 10 chapters a day, with one chapter for one of the ten books for the day. The premise behind the reading plan is to have an interplay of the different books and through that provide a clearer picture and interpretation of what one is reading.

The reading plan makes sense, but I think that for myself 10 chapters a day might be too much to chew. A weekly reading plan like that of Grace To You also makes sense, but I feel I need to improve on it by providing some sort of a daily goal, with a way to catch up within the week should I have some backlog. Plus I need one that provide some variety.

Since Bible books can be categorized into different type of materials, I thought of a plan to go through the Bible. My plan calls for reading 3-5 chapters per day for 6 days, from one of these categories:

1. The Law - from Genesis to Deuteronomy

2. History books - from Joshua to Esther

3. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs

4. The Prophets

5. The Gospels

6. The Letters

Since Revelation doesn't exactly fit or feel like one of the Letters, I can choose to include it with the Psalms.

The minimum should be 3 chapters a day for all categories except for History books at 5 chapters per day. The 7th day is intended to help me catch up. That would allow me to go through all the books in at least a year, and most of the books I will be able to read more than once during the year.

Of course, there's a lot more than a system and human will to go through the Bible in any given length of time. Even more the ability to understand it. May God bless me with the knowledge and understanding of His Word this year.


p.s. check out here how I improved my reading plan..