In this series of posts we are considering how we can grow in God’s Word in the New Year. In the previous article, we looked at why we should spend time in the Scriptures in the first place. Now we turn to the first step in our journey: reading our Bibles. Every good Christian knows the importance of regularly reading God’s Word, however, we often fall short in our goals of making it through the entire Bible. In this post, I hope to give you some encouragement that reading through your whole Bible might not be as difficult as you think, as well as to provide you with some tips to help you do so in 2026.
Read the Bible as a Book
The Bible is more than just a book, but it is certainly not less than one. Therefore, we must first come to the Bible on bookish terms. I am convinced that one of the reasons we struggle with reading God’s Word is because we struggle with reading in general. Because of the many distractions competing for our time and attention these days, we have forgotten how to do the hard (but necessary) work of reading. Reading takes focus and effort; it requires our active participation. As Christians we generally have a high view of our Bibles, and yet we often have a far lower view of the work required to read them. As such, we open our Bibles with an expectation that God will do something remarkable for us, while we practice fairly unremarkable habits in our reading. The Bible is not a Magic 8 Ball and it isn’t a fortune cookie. To be sure, there are riches to be found within its pages, but we must go digging first to receive them.
Read the Bible as a Story
Not only is the Bible a book, but it is also a story. More specifically, it is a collection of stories that, taken together, form to create one, unified story that points to and finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Perhaps one of the reasons why we struggle in reading the whole Bible is because we’ve come to see it as a series of random and disjointed stories – we’ve “lost the plot” so to speak. Bible reading becomes considerably more profitable and enjoyable when we learn to read it as one sweeping narrative of God’s plan of redemption. The book of Leviticus may be tough slogging, but it makes a lot more sense when you see how all of the laws and sacrifices fit into where Israel is in God’s storyline, and how they are ultimately fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus. Reading the Bible like this takes time and practice, but one of the easiest ways to grow in this habit is to read the story repeatedly and in large portions at a time (more on this later).
Read the Bible for Comprehension
Remember from your school days when you had to take standardized tests? One part of these tests always consisted of reading a short passage and then answering questions about what we just read. This portion of the exam was meant to test our reading comprehension, or our ability to recall key details and pieces of information from the text. Once again, I fear this is something we’ve forgotten how to do as our reading skills have waned. Case in point, have you ever read a portion of Scripture only to forget what you’ve read just minutes after shutting your Bible? Me too, and one way we can combat this forgetfulness is to read our Bibles for the sake of comprehension. That is, read your Bible as if someone were about to give you a short quiz about what you’d read after you’re finished. It is important to note that this isn’t the ultimate goal of Bible reading. As we discussed in the first post, the final goal of Bible reading is that we would glorify God by becoming more like him. The ultimate goal of Bible reading is nothing short of transformation. But before we can be transformed we must first be informed. Therefore, an instrumental end of our Bible reading is general comprehension. This is different from Bible study, which we will address in a later post. Instead, the goal of comprehension is just basic recall. For example, if you’re reading a narrative part of Scripture you might ask yourself what setting did this story take place in, who were the characters, and what were the main plot points? Or in a letter, what were the author’s main themes, to whom was he writing, and why? These types of questions are basic, but fundamental in our reading of the Bible. Remember, comprehension is the first step of our ultimate goal of being transformed by God’s Word.
Tips for Better Bible Reading
With the above principles in mind, here are some tips that might help you be a better Bible reader in the future.
Read Large Chunks of Scripture at a Time
My favorite professor in seminary, Dr. Jim Hamilton, knows his Bible better than almost anyone I know. One day I asked him for some recommendations on how to read The Bible like he does. Here is what he said: (1) memorize large chunks of Scripture, like chapters and books (which we’ll address in another post) and (2) read big chunks of Scripture, like all of Genesis, at one sitting. Most of us have grown accustomed to reading the Bible in small tidbits, but Hamilton (and I) suggest that to grow as a Bible reader you should grow the amount of Scripture you’re covering each time you read. You may not have enough time to read all of Genesis, but next time you open your Bible, try tackling more than you normally would in a single reading.
Don’t Skip Around
Many Scripture reading plans take you to multiple different places in the Bible in a single day. While this method might be helpful to someone who already has a high degree of Bible literacy, I’d suggest that skipping around to various books of the Bible actually hinders our ability to read it well. Imagine with me that you have a goal of reading through the entire Lord of the Rings series in the New Year, and let’s say that you come up with a reading plan to help you get through it. Now imagine that your plan has you reading one chapter from the first volume, then another chapter from the second volume, and still another chapter from the third volume – how utterly confused you would be! While the Bible may not follow a traditional structure and chronology like the Lord of the Rings, it still has a flow–a storyline, as we’ve already discussed. And the closer we’re able to follow this flow of Scripture in our Bible reading, the better we will come to learn it.
Have a Plan
Finally, it’s important to have a plan. Reading all the way through your Bible doesn’t happen by accident. A plan provides you with a roadmap and some accountability on the way. Over the years, I’ve come up with my own reading plan that implements the above principles and tips and takes you through the whole Bible in 120 days. That number is somewhat arbitrary – you could do it in 90 days, or six months, or even a year. But I’ve found that 120 days is a great pace without requiring too much effort per day–it takes less time than you might think! According to Crossway, if you listened to the ESV Bible audio version all the way through it takes a little over 74 hours, which comes out to 37 minutes a day. Most people read faster than this, but even if you’re a below- average reader you can read (or listen!) to the entire Bible in four months with just about half an hour each day. If you start at the first of the year, you’d be done with the whole Bible by May! Then what should you read after that? Might I suggest starting all over again. I think you will find that the story only gets better and better each time. So, tolle lege – take up and read!