Bible reading books

We have read the Bible for years and our reading is at times good, and at times terrible. We have so much to grow in reading God’s word and putting it into practise. And we have known countless people who struggle in many ways to read God’s word. This is why we have written these booklets and we pray it will help many to cherish God’s Word.

But maybe you wonder, why do we want people to spend their precious time reading God’s word? Well it’s because we have seen in our lives that it is something we desperately need. For the Christian, not reading and being transformed by God’s Word is like starving yourself to death spiritually.

Jesus knew this! When facing temptation in the wilderness, He says “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3b, Matthew 4:4b). The Christian life without God’s Word and prayer is like trying to live without food and water. Why? Because through them we have access to our all-powerful God who knows us best, cares for us and is the source of life (see Matthew 7:7-11, James 4:2). Furthermore, they spiritually nourish us and gives us wisdom to live, like Psalm 19 says. “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether” (Psalm 19:7-9). And so, because of this, “more to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward” (Psalm 19:10-11). Also, in the Bible, you hear from God and learn trust in Him. Through the Bible, surgery of the soul, spirit and heart occurs, “for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” And by it you will be driven to pray, and speak back to the God you have heard from.  

We need to see the importance of God’s Word and desire it more because it is truly precious. In Psalm 119, we learn that God’s Word is to be: meditated on, understood, applied, obeyed, loved, desired, remembered, sung, cherished, prayed over, praised, given thanks for, taught, believed, trusted and used to judge. It is shown to be our life, our guide, our comforter, our counsellor, what sustains us, where we are taught salvation and how we gain peace. And the natural response a person should have to this, is shown in Psalm 1:2 “his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law, he meditates day and night.” God’s Word is to be EVERYTHING to us, because His “word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).

Psalm 119 is the very middle of the Bible and the focus of this Psalm is the Word of God: its importance, benefits and how it should be studied. It is the largest chapter in the bible and it speaks about one thing. It seems God really wants to get across an idea that He knows we will neglect and forget. So, He repeats it over and over again to make us see it should be our focus. Will you listen to God? He made you and knows you best, and He tells you to make His Word the focus and centre of your life. 

This is why we this write booklet and reading plan and encourage you to use it. As Christians, without God’s word we have nothing, are nothing, can do nothing and will not survive.

Why should you commit to this reading plan?

Firstly, because of the reasons God has above in His word. But also, because practically, the reading time is less than 10 minutes. But if you set aside 30 minutes or an hour this will benefit you so much. It will give you time for prayer, Bible reading, planning how to respond to God’s word, Bible memorisation and growing in your relationship with God. How many things in your life do you put more than 30 minutes into that achieve none of the benefits we have mentioned that God’s Word does? We hope that because of all these reasons you will be challenged to not just give 30-60 minutes to growing in your relationship with God, but every spare moment. 

Also, we encourage you to commit to this reading plan and booklet, because 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” The Bible is GOD’S WORD! That alone should be enough reason. We need to read all of God’s Word for it is all profitable and will equip us for the work God has for us.  

Time with God will at times be glorious, just like a meal we love, though other times it will feel like a chore. However, persisting in it is critical for survival. Each meal provides the energy we need to sustain us through life and each brick in a house builds up to make something magnificent. We mustn’t get discouraged in the monotony of devotions, but realise God is using them to bring about something amazing and glorious in us. So, commit to reading God’s word consistently, even though it will at times be extremely difficult.

Finally commit to this reading plan because what this world and everyone in your life most need from you is that you become more Christlike. You need to be someone who people can recognise that you have been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). If you get this right (your relationship with God), it will deeply benefit all your relationships with family, friends, work, church and ministry.

The aim of this booklet is not to be a devotional or comprehensive resource that gives you all the answers. Instead its aim is to help you dig at God’s Word for yourself so that you grow in your relationship with God. This booklet won’t show every detail about passages, but it will seek to encourage you to mediate on God’s Word and seek the answers. God’s Word is so rich and so forgive us for the many riches in God’s Word that will not be brought out through this book. Our prayer is that God would open your eyes to many of these things so that you would see our magnificent God and the beautiful truths in His Word. 

However, we do recognise that often people struggle to read God’s Word because they find parts difficult to understand. Hence, this booklet will also aim to help overcome this and give resources and various things to help the reader understand the passage for themselves. It will aim to try to draw out helpful hints for understanding and applying the passage. However, before looking at the resources in this booklet we encourage the reader each day to first read and meditate on the passage for themselves. Then after this they can use some of the questions and hints given to help them dig at the passage and discover some of the key challenges from that part of God’s Word.

Furthermore, the desire of this booklet is to encourage you as much as possible to stick at reading God’s Word when it gets difficult. There are roughly 4-5 spare days each month that can be used for reflection, further study, memorisation or catching up. So, don’t be discouraged if you fall behind as you can use these spare days during the month or at the end. 

In relation to this, these days can also be used to memorise sections of God’ Word. This book will aim to grow your memorisation so that God’s Word will be meditated on all the time. Often there will be encouragement to memorise verses and these extra days should be used for this purpose. At the end of each booklet, there is tear off page that can be used to write key verses or things you want to remember each day. It is encouraged that you write the verse on this page, then tear it off, and take that with you in the day.

Finally, this book aims to grow your prayer life. As you read God’s Word it is essential that you pray about the things you read, and that it drives you to prayer. Also, the last pages of this booklet have a prayer section to help you write lists of who and what you are praying for. This is also a space to record how God is answering those prayers, as it is such an encouragement to see this in your life.

1. Proverbs throughout the year: This plan starts in Proverbs 1-4 each year to help you begin the year seeing the need for God’s Word and His wisdom. Also, each booklet contains a few proverbs each day to be challenged by, alongside the regular readings. This allows you to slowly complete the book of Proverbs every year which are full of rich challenges.

2. Read one book at a time: Reading several books at once is difficult and we normally don’t do it in other areas of life. So, this plan gives you one book at a time that you can focus on, so you see the purpose and flow of that book. It also means that all books of the Bible will be focused on when they are read. Sometimes when reading plans have readings each day from several books, we tend to just read and focus on our favourites. However, we shouldn’t neglect parts of the Word and the way this plan is designed should help you grow from all parts of God’s word.

3. Alternate between reading different types of books: The problem some people face reading the Bible cover to cover is that they give up somewhere in the Old Testament because it becomes a drag and the books of the Law or prophets just seem to keep going on about the same thing. This plan mix’s the Old Testament and New Testament books throughout the year. This gives you variety so that you are constantly reading different biblical books and it will hopefully stop you from zoning out in certain sections of the bible. Also having NT books after OT books will help links to be seen and will provide a freshness as you come to each book.

4. Read the chronological storyline of the Bible: The Old Testament books are laid out so that they come in the closest chronological order as possible according to the biblical storyline. This is at times difficult as some OT books cover large periods of time, however, in these cases, books have been kept together so that they are read as a whole as they were designed. Also, Luke and Acts are the put at the beginning of the plan to provide context for the rest of the New Testament. (Note: the five books of the Psalms have been separated and put as close as possible to their relating events. Also books like 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Chronicles and Ezra/Nehemiah which are all one book have been kept together).

5. Background days: Before reading each book of the bible, there is a background day that allows you to do an overview and study the context of each book. We encourage these days to be done, and for you to quickly read through the entire book that you are about to start. This allows for a different type of reading which is important to do as you will see different things in God’s Word when you do this. 

6. Each month starts fresh: This means if you are reading with others and fall behind one month, you can start again from the beginning of a book the next month in a new book of the Bible. Also, it means that each month you can encourage others to join the reading plan alongside you. 

7. Flexibility: This plan takes two years to read the entire bible twice, so it gives you time to study each book and apply each passage. If you want to read the Bible in one year, just read two readings each day so that you finish two booklets each month. Also, this plan is flexible at times giving shorter readings where the theological content is quite heavy (allowing you to dig) and longer readings for narratives, genealogies, etc. Finally, the 4-5 spare days at the end of each month can allow you to pick parts of the bible you enjoy and want to study. This can be helpful to stop our bible reading from becoming tedious and legalistic.

8. Readings are split according to the structure of the book: Instead of splitting passages chapter by chapter, they have been split according to the structure in each Bible book. Although sometimes sections need to be split as they are too long for a single reading.

9. Read the bible in different ways: Each month has different types of reading allowing you to study the Bible in different ways. First you will read the entire book, then section by section and then self-allocated focused readings of a few verses are recommended in the spare days (or you could do this every day). The overview days, allow you to quickly read the entire book of the Bible (Most books were written to be read like this). This will help you see connections you will miss when you read it slowly. Also in-depth studying is encouraged by going through books with heavier content at a slower pace. 

10. Finally, reading plans keep us disciplined: Some object to reading plans and say they can make our reading of the Bible legalistic. However, anything we do in life takes planning and discipline, and reading plans help with this. They ensure that all parts of the Bible are read and they help us to continue reading God’s Word in the moments we won’t feel like it and this is sometimes when we need it most. But it is better to be reading God’s word out of a wrong heart, than never reading it at all, God can correct you through His Word. Though there can be dangers in reading plans, the positives far outweigh them.