Why You Should Read through the Bible in 2024

The spiritual dividends can't be found anywhere else

Thanks for taking the time each week to let me speak into your life in some small way—I don’t take this privilege lightly! If you know of someone who might benefit from my weekly newsletter/post/essay (I don’t know just what to call it), please note the SHARE button at the top and bottom of this post so that you can quickly and easily forward it on to someone who needs encouragment.

Last December my wife and I decided to read through the entire Bible in 2023. It wasn’t the first time either of us had taken on this kind of project individually, but it was the first time we’d done it together. So, beginning on Monday, January 2, we took our Bibles—Pam with her audio app and me with my worn large-print version—and began the journey. While we had looked at numerous options available online for a one-year Bible reading plan, we settled on the Five Day Plan because the readings were for Monday-Friday and left the weekends free. An additional feature that we liked was how it combined Old Testament passages with New Testament passages (unlike other plans that start at Genesis and go straight through), a considerable advantage when it comes to, say, the ceremonial rules of Leviticus or the tedious geneologies of Israel’s kings. I’m not trying to be disrespectful of any part of the Bible; but, honestly, there are passages that are hard to read without falling asleep. It helped that for every Old Testament passage filled with names I couldn’t pronounce and people I didn’t like there was a counter-weight of New Testament readings that were interesting and encouraging.

The twelve months weren’t always easy. For one thing, interruptions had a way of popping up on a regular basis, even at the early hour each morning that I set aside for the program. Many days I would begin reading the assigned passages only to have emails, texts or phone calls from staff or congregation jump into the gap between personal devotion and pastoral ministry and require my attention. Not to mention my adult children, since they assume that I’m on dad-duty 24/7 and expect me to drop whatever I’m dealing with in order to help them handle whatever they’re dealing with. Another problem was when I would miss a couple days’ assignments and had to play catch-up. Like the time I had to read twelve chapters of Jeremiah in one sitting in order to compensate for not doing the previous days’ readings. I lost count of how many curses the prophet heaped on his Jewish people, but it was enough to make me feel depressed for the rest of the day.

Now that Pam and I are almost done (we finish up this Friday with the last two chapters of Job, the last chapter of Psalms and the last chapter of Revelation), I can look back over the journal that I kept along the way and see how God spoke directly into my life. For example, the reading on January 6 included Genesis 12 and its call to Abram to leave his homeland in modern-day Turkey and travel to the land in Canaan that God promised to him and his descendants. Verse 1 says, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” I noted how even at an advanced age (he was 75 years old at the time), God had a new adventure for him. Two months later, on March 17, I read the first three chapters of Deuteronomy, a passage that promises God’s blessing on Israel as long as they live within the borders of the land that he gave to them. When we move beyond the limits that God has established for our lives, I reminded myself in my journal, we put at risk our purpose, our stability and our future.

On May 8 I came to Acts 18 and its account of Aquila and Priscilla, a married couple in the city of Corinth who carried out a joint ministry complimenting that of the apostle Paul. I couldn’t help but to view their ministry alongside the current conflict in my own Southern Baptist Convention regarding women in leadership positions and wondered if there would be a place in today’s SBC for couples like them. Probably not.

One of the many helpul features of the Five Day Plan is how it integrates the book of Psalms with many of the other readings, a practice that puts a spotlight on the Psalms as the main resource for the practice of prayer. My notes from June 27, for example, include Psalm 44:3 and its reminder that whatever success we enjoy in life is due not to ourselves but to God: “…for not by their own sword did they [Israel] win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them.” In the Old Testament, the “arm” of the Lord represents his power while his “face” represents his presence. While we want the Lord’s power to be exercised on our behalf, what gives him the greater delight is when we simply seek his presence in prayer.

A note from September 13 focused on the day’s reading in 1 Corinthians 16:9. There, Paul points to obstacles to his ministry not as reasons to stop but as incentives to press forward: “A wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” This verse spoke directly to me, coming as it did in a moment in my own ministry where obstacles were looming regarding a large project that the Lord had laid on my heart.

Ezekiel 47 and its description of the River of Life flowing from the Lord’s temple was part of the reading for November 14. Verse 9 of the passage makes clear that the prophet is actually seeing the future ministry of the Holy Spirit for believers: “Everything will live” the verse promises, “where the river goes.” I read this verse in a season of personal exhaustion and fear, and it encouraged me in a way that nothing else could. But isn’t that always the way of God’s Word?

As recently as last week, on Christmas Eve, the Old Testament reading gave direction regarding the importance of simple kindness in the life of every believer but maybe especially for pastors: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

My point in sharing at least a little of the impact of different readings this year isn’t to claim that the Bible is about me and that in its pages I somehow found a magical explanation for personal success or a secret code for history. In fact, it’s just the opposite. What I discovered was how the narrative of my little life is embedded in the larger narrative—meta-narrative may be a better term—of God’s redemptive plan for the world. It re-calibrated my life to the deeper and richer purposes of God.

There are many good reasons to believe the Bible. The historical events it portrays are generally in line with what contemporary records tells us. Archaeologists have been able to substantiate enough of the biblical accounts of people, events and locations to not only give the Bible a firm foundation but also to set it apart from the myths and legends of other ancient literature. Textual studies demonstrate the accuracy of the Bible down through the ages; indeed, no other ancient sacred or secular texts are so well attested as is the Bible. To make the matter even more clear, Judaism (regarding the Old Testament) and the Church (regarding both Old and New Testaments) are consistent and reliable in the witness they give to the Bible’s authenticity.

But I already knew all of that information. What the year of reading the Bible showed me was that the best reason for believing the Bible is because the story it tells is true, not just in a historical sense but in the lived experience of people like me. I know what it’s like to hear God’s call at the burning bush. To walk throught the desert provided for only by God’s providence. To fail like David. To go into exile because of disobedience. To kneel at the foot of the cross along with Mary and John and watch Jesus die, knowing that something happened there that altered my reality and the reality of everyone else who ever lived. And, finally, to realize with a wild hope that the Savior who died returned from the grave and now invites me, even with all my brokenness and shame, to rest in his love for eternity.

Melissa Kruger gives seven reasons for reading the Bible through in a year. I think she’s on point.

When you read the Bible through, you go places you nomally wouldn’t go. In other words you’re forced to dive into hard passages and read dense accounts that you’d prefer not to. That’s a good thing.

When you read the Bible through, it helps you see the big picture of what God is doing in the world. We all have a tendency to spiritual myopia. Reading the entire Bible has a way of clarifying our spiritual vision.

When you read the Bible through, you learn new and unexpected things about God. We all know what it’s like to put God into our own little box. The denominational box. The past experience box. The expectation box. The respectable box. The family box. The consumer box. It’s a long list. But when you take a year reading through the Bible and allow its truth to soak into your mind and heart over time, you begin to understand how much we limit God when we expect him to act in pre-conceived ways.

When you read the Bible through, you stop reading it as a self-help manuel. One of the common ways we read the Bible is to cherry pick which verses or passages seem to offer simple fixes to whatever we’re struggling with. We’re Americans, after all, and we want things fixed. But following a year’s reading plan forces us into a different kind of posture, one that says, “What do you have for me today?” to God instead of saying, “I need you to solve this problem for me.”

Reading the Bible through makes you come down from your theological hobby horse. We all know how this works. We focus on our personal theological convictions to the point where we ignore larger biblical teachings. Those people, for example, who are Reformed in their theology become experts in passages that support their view while ignoring passages that refer to free will. Those who call for resisting the government about certain issues skip over the passages that call for submission to government. But when you don’t get to pick what passages you read—as is the case with a year-long Bible reading plan—you have to deal with the whole counsel of God instead of just those verses that you’re comfortable with.

Reading through the Bible in a year helps you learn to enjoy the surprising ways God meets you. Any thorough reading of the Bible reveals one thing so clearly that you can’t get away from it. God works like he wants to work and not according to our expectations of him. He continually surprises people. Just think of Pharaoh in his confrontation with Moses. Or the selection of young shepherd David to be king over Israel. Or the choice of a young Jewish woman to be the mother of his Son. Or the whole book of Acts, which is little more than a description of all the ways and means by which the Holy Spirit surprised just about everybody in the early church.

Reading through the Bible in a year helps create a healthy habit of daily Bible reading. None of us knows what the upcoming year will hold. For some, it may be health and success. For others, illness and failure. Many others will fall somewhere in between. But wouldn’t it be awesome to know that whatever happens over the new twelve months, we have a true guide and promise in the Bible? What better way to get ready for 2024 by committing to reading God’s Word?

I hope that you’ll take the time and effort to find a Bible-reading plan for 2024 and carry through with it. Nothing else yields such rich spiritual dividends. Nothing else so prepares you to deal with whatever life brings your way.