“Have you ever read the Bible once through, completely?”
My brother-in-law was talking to the kids in the room. He was met with blank stares and hushed, “No, not really.” It was Christmas Eve 2024, and the question was lingering in my mind for the next couple of days. He had finished the conversation, talking about how he enjoyed doing it as a teenager and the lessons he had learnt from that exercise.
I was 42 at the time, and I had not even read the Bible through once. I had completed a master’s degree in theology and was teaching theology to middle school students, yet I had never attempted to read the Bible from beginning to end. I kept thinking about why I had not done it. What was stopping me from trying?
The first excuse I gave myself was that I would never be able to complete it. The task seemed too daunting, and I would feel overwhelmed, give up, and feel like a loser.
The second excuse I had was that it might become boring. I really did not want to read through Numbers, Deuteronomy, or Leviticus. I felt like I already knew a lot about the Psalms and Proverbs from reading them during childhood. I was familiar with the Gospels and Epistles and thought it would be boring to re-read those parts.
The third excuse was that I would not have time every day to read through the entire Bible systematically. I’m a busy mom, a schoolteacher, a pastor’s wife; there’s no way I would have time for this kind of elaborate reading plan.
Before I could come up with any further excuses, I decided to look up the YouVersion app to see if it had a one-year plan to read the Bible systematically from Genesis to Revelation. Lo and behold, they did! They had multiple plans, and I picked a plan that suited my reading speed and my time constraints. I picked the plan from My Daily Bread.
The reading plan was to complete five chapters a day, five days a week. That seemed doable, and it was. The weekends were designed for meditation and reflection. I’m glad I had that wiggle room to catch up on days missed or meditate on the passages I had read.
But man alive, the struggle was real. All my excuses came into play. I did feel overwhelmed on some days. Some days, I felt the passages were boring. Some days, I felt like I was trudging through this exercise out of pride or to check it off my list of accomplishments.
The spirit was willing, but my flesh was weak. But God worked through my excuses and brokenness, and He showed me truths from the Bible that I had completely missed for all those years.
I could not have done it on my own. Equally stirred by my brother-in-law’s question was my 14-year-old son. We decided to hold each other accountable while we read through the Bible. It helped greatly to have a gentle teenager remind you to catch up or not give up. Some days, we had great discussions about what we read; on other days, it was just one question or one word that stood out to us. Some days we had nothing, but we still read on. But it was good to do it with my son.
When I finished reading the Bible from beginning to end last year, I was reminded again how it is one big story. There are many books and many chapters, but every story points to Jesus. Like every good story, there is a setting, characters, rising action, falling action, main events, a climax, and a central theme that runs through the Bible.
The setting might change from the garden to the new heavens and new earth. The minor characters may differ for each story. The main events might be a little different as we move along the plot line, but the main character or hero of every story is Jesus.
The theme that I saw running throughout the Bible, that one central theme that stood out for me, was God’s love—His faithful, unending, never-stopping, never-giving-up love for humankind. As I ended the year, I could bask in that love and look to the new year with confidence.
The benefits of reading through the Bible were also numerous.
1. Big-picture understanding: Reading the entire Bible helped me see how the books connect—how themes like creation, covenant, redemption, and restoration unfold from Genesis to Revelation and connect to the central theme of God’s love.
2. Spiritual discipline and consistency: This one-year plan encouraged a daily habit of reading Scripture and being consistent.
3. Balanced exposure to all of Scripture: It prevented me from focusing only on my favourite passages and helped me engage with both familiar and challenging sections, leading to a fuller and more mature understanding of the Bible.
And so, all my excuses were counteracted by the benefits.
At the cusp of the new year, I was pondering what to read next. I had finished the Bible once through, so what now? Well, I decided to start all over again and read the Bible again, from Genesis to Revelation. I still feel I have so much to learn from God’s word. I’ve picked another plan from the YouVersion app, from the Bible Project, and I’m already enjoying digging into the Word. My son has picked another one-year plan, and we’re holding each other accountable again.
In conclusion, if you are like me and nervous about starting a plan like this, I would encourage you to try it for just some time. There are no failures with Jesus and whatever our flawed reasons are for reading the Bible He still faithfully shows up and meets us at our point of need.
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
