Earlier this year, after one of our church meetings in Chicago—before the virus hit!—some of the younger saints and I were talking about the importance of reading through the Bible. I happened to mention that, in general, audio Bibles are about 75 hours long. (That’s if they are reading-only. Dramatized versions take a bit longer.)

That made me think: by doubling that speed in my own reading, I could get through the Bible in roughly 40 hours. So, with a little time and effort, I could read it, not just once, but several times in one year.

I decided to give that a try. My initial goal was to read through the Bible eight times in twelve months, that is, once every 45 days. I was using The Bible in 90 Readings card above as my guide, so to do that I needed to do two readings a day. (That’s one of the advantages of using the Card, i.e., it gives you the flexibility to go through the Bible at the pace you desire, whether fast or slow.)

As it turned out, I didn’t quite reach that goal. But, the good news is that so far this year I have gotten through the Bible five times, and I’m on track to finish it one more time before the end of December. (I just finished Mark.) That means I will have read through the entire Bible six times in 2020.

The point is (and this is true for just about anything you really want to accomplish), it’s good to set a goal and have a plan for your Bible reading next year! Even if, like me, you don’t quite meet your original goal, you’ll make much more progress than you will if you don’t have a goal at all.

And, as this year draws to a close, now is a good time to plan for next year’s Bible reading.

My situation allows me to give more time to be in the word than most have, so the schedule above may not be realistic for many people. Still, I hope that this report may help you become a little more ambitious in regards to your own Bible reading.

And it’s so important for God’s people to be in His word! Without such an exercise—especially with all the craziness currently going on in the world—there is just no way for the Lord to sanctify us and prepare us to meet Him as His spotless, holy Bride (John 17:17; Eph. 5:26-27).

As for me, this coming year I plan to focus more on the New Testament. I still want to go through the entire Bible once (this time using a chronological Bible), but my main focus will be to go through the New Testament once each month, and possibly the Psalms and Proverbs as well.

So, what about you? Do you have a plan yet?

There are a lot of different ways to read through the Bible, and different schedules too, but if you would like to try The Bible in 90 Readings card, click on the image below to go to the Download page for the Card.

In Christ, Your Brother….

P.S.: Here is a very practical Bible-reading tip from Watchman Nee. Each time you finish reading through the Bible, write down the date in your Bible. Keeping track of how you are doing will really motivate you to do more!

Sent to our mailing list on
— 20 December 2020 —
Re-sent on 9 January 2021