The score says it all. New Year’s resolutions: 25, Me: 0.

I hate New Year’s resolutions. The only thing they are effective at accomplishing in my life is proving that I can’t succeed in fulfilling any of them. I usually make it a week, maybe 2, and then fall flat on my face and get depressed, discouraged, frustrated, and start biting my nails again. (I was going to insert some classic Frank humor there with a different bad habit, but discernment has suddenly creeped into my life…  rest assured, for a very brief period of time.)

Isn’t that what happens with most of us when it comes to reading our Bibles? We start out like gang busters (what does that phrase mean, anyway?), and then, after a week, maybe 2, realize we are not on track with the plan we had picked out for the year, and instead of continuing on, give up. This post could go a very devotional, prophetic, confrontational direction, but instead, I want to make it uber-practical.

I am going to put some links below for some of the best Bible reading plans that I have found. I will throw in any details or specifics that I can think of along the way, but I would encourage you to visit each one until you find one that you like. Now, even though they are helpful, wonderful in their simplicity, and even come with a handy dandy printout with boxes you can check off to feel like you have accomplished something, they have a very real weakness. They can’t read for you. That means, there will come a day you don’t have the check mark (or for you radicals, an “X”). What you do next is incredibly important. Don’t give up! Simply pick up where you left off, and keep going. Spend an extra 15 minutes to catch up, instead of watching the re-runs of The Office. Seriously, the only bad reading plan is the one that gets tossed after your first empty box. Keep going!

Disclaimer: Not everyone needs a specific plan. You may use the Daily Bread, or a Bible reading podcast (which is cheating, in case you were wondering! ). You may have a plan that works for you. Stick with it! (And let me know what it is in the comments, would you?) This is simply to help those in need of help. Perhaps you would forward this along to someone else who needs a friendly kick-in-the-seat-of-the-pants. Emphasis on the word friendly. By all means, pass it along.

Ok, here it goes!

The A.D.D. 52 week plan – This is the plan that I am following this year. Every day of the week you are reading a different genre. For me, it helps me not get bogged down in history for 3 months, prophecy for 3 months, poetry for 3 months, etc.

The page-turner plan - This is the plan I followed last year. Every day, you are reading from 4 different places in the Bible. One of the obvious strengths in this plan is that it has “sick-days” built into it. They only plan on you reading 25 days a month. It is incredibly helpful for those of us who feel infinitely guilty for missing a day.

The page-turner-jr. edition plan – This plan is similar to the above one, but only sends you to 2 different places a day. Again, the extra days are built in for “reflection.” (A Post-modern word meaning “trying to catch up on the days I was just too lazy to read!”)

Gilligan’s Island plan – This plan is designed to take you 3 years to get through the entire Bible. The strength is that you can focus on smaller chunks of reading each day, really studying them out. Another obvious point – you can read more then they give you to read, and still be considered a good little buddy (Stupid joke, I know, but read the name I gave to the plan and you might actually understand it at least).

The chicken-then-the-egg plan- This is a plan I’ve never followed before, but am considering it as my next one. It has you read the Bible in a chronological order, tracing Biblical events in the order they would have happened. To be totally honest, I’m not sure how well this particular a plan accomplishes that goal, as, by simply perusing, it seems they might have missed the boat in Chronicles and Kings. However, the Gospels appear to be right. (Again, appears… I didn’t spend a whole lot of time looking at the specifics of this plan. I really like the concept though.)

The Barnes and Noble Plan – My wife is an expert at this one. There is no link, nothing to cross off, no calendar to follow. The plan is simply to read an average of 4 chapters a day, starting at Genesis 1, and ending at Revelation 22. If you average those 4 chapters, you will be done in less than a year.

So, get reading. And understand, this isn’t a New Year’s Resolution. This is obedience.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Joshua 1.8