So You Want to Read the Bible in 2021

by chadbrooksis@gmail.com | Dec 29, 2020 | bible, reading

It’s almost the beginning of a new year and many folks are making plans to start new practices in the new year to change things. After the year most of us have had, many of us are willing to start some drastically different things in life.

And I think daily Bible reading is the biggest change agent in anyones life. I’m not going to take the time to convince you of that, but trust me…nothing in my life has a more positive impact that a consistent, daily practice of reading and engaging the scriptures. And I don’t do it for the sake of knowledge, but because scripture consistently has served in my life as a pathway to lead me towards the presence of God.

Here are 3 super approachable ways to read the bible in 2021.

The Daily Office Lectionary.
The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer has a 2 year cycle of scripture reading as part of the Daily Office. I secretly think it is the hidden gem of the B.O.C.P. Over the last few years I have used it as my daily pattern of devotional reading. Each day has a couple of readings from Psalms, and one from the Old Testament, New Testament, and Gospels. It is designed to be a morning and evening thing. While it isn’t a traditional Bible reading plan, for folks starting off for the first time I think it is perfect. It keeps you in parts of scripture for a few days and lets you get a really wide reading path throughout the year. The easiest way to do this is picking up a copy of the B.O.C.P. The hardest part of this plan is figuring out which week of the lectionary you are on when you start. There have been times were I think I get off track (#OrdinaryTime) and have to google around to make sure I’m on the right week. Some of the biggest times of personal devotion and attention to the presence of God have come through using this resource.

Whole Bible Reading Plan
For folks who aren’t wildly familiar with reading scripture, often a one year Bible plan is a great way to get started. While I wouldn’t recommend it to jump start a daily reading practice, it is fantastic for some folks. If you want to go this route, I’d suggest using the classic One Year Bible because it jumps around each day giving you a few things to read. The only part I don’t like about this is it can get you bogged down in certain places that end up being tough for folks not familiar with scripture yet (can we say Leviticus!!!!). If you miss a few days it also sometimes turns into a bummer. You can also find a bunch of reading plans on the YouVersion Bible app.

Reading Books of the Bible at a time
For years I took a small piece of the Bible (generally all of the verses under one heading) and read one each day, slowly working my way through an entire book. I took down notes on what I was thinking and engaging with each morning. I liked doing this because it kept me focused on a single book at a time and let me slowly work through it. I was especially a fan of always answering a couple of the same questions each day. I’d suggest starting with a Gospel, then reading a letter from the New Testament and then reading through one of the historical books of the Old Testament. The only amendment I would make with this would be also reading from the Psalms each day, but that is just a devotional must have for me!

I hope these three ways help inspire you to jump into the Bible for the first time this year.

Looking for a bit more information? Here is the first in a video series I filmed on reading the Bible earlier in the year.