How you could easily read the Bible in a Year

Twice. Even though I said you don’t need to.

Last time, I wrote that the challenge of reading the Bible in a year is not necessarily a helpful thing to do. Okay, I didn’t say that. I said that trying to read the Bible in a year is dumb for various reasons. And I stand by them. They were all bad reasons, but there are plenty of good ones. (And it turns out I’ve written about this before).

The truth is, however, you could read the whole Bible in a year quite comfortably. It only takes about 12 mins a day (according to Crossway). Of course, there’s the business of finding your Bible, sitting down, finding your place and reading without interruptions. But 12 minutes? That’s nothing. Most of us spend that long trying to decide what to watch on Netflix.

The Awful Truth

Go to ‘Settings’ on your phone or iPad and find ‘Screentime’. This will tell you how long you’ve spent on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, BBC Sport or Candy Crush in any given day. You can see where this is going.

This may not include the amount of time you spend watching TV. According to Statista, the average Brit spends about four hours watching TV or streaming. Four hours.

Okay, maybe you don’t watch TV for four hours a day. I don’t. I watch TV for about an hour or so in the evening (right now I’m loving Castle, an old ABC show now on Disney+). I listen to YouTube videos while I’m cooking or washing up. And stare at a screen all day for work so I can type stuff like this.

We all watch TV more than we like to admit. We could reduce that time and read God’s word. In fact, we probably should, in order that we read God’s word more. Better Call Saul might be good. 1 Samuel (which is about Saul) is better.

Make a Decision

Maybe you need to take a decisive step, like deciding that you need to switch off the TV at 10pm at night, so you can have an extra 15 minutes to read at bedtime – and you will read the Bible. If you live with someone, tell them that and they can hold you to account.

Maybe you need to add a limiter to your app usage. I quite like Instagram but it’s limited on my phone to 15 minutes as I get sucked in fairly easily, especially now there are so many videos. Of course, being my phone, I can override it. But it’s helpful to have a message that’s essentially saying ‘Don’t you think you’ve had enough?’ Or you can stop your phone allowing you to do certain things until a certain time (eg. No Facebook until 8.30am), so you’re not distracted from reading your Bible at 8am.

The overall point here is that you’re not going to read the Bible more by just trying to squeeze it into your everyday life. You need to make a deliberate change so that you can free up time to spend more of it in God’s word.

A Fixed Window

It’s hard to make a permanent change, so cheat. Make a temporary change by saying ‘I’m going to turn off the TV at 10pm every weekday this month’. That feels achievable, doesn’t it? This is why Lent is helpful for working on your habits and character. You’ve got a fixed window in which to make a change.

Read a Book in One Sitting

Read a book in one sitting. The chair you choose is also a factor. Photo by Taylor Vick on Unsplash

The first book of the Bible is one of the longest. It could take you three and half hours. Exodus might take nearly three. Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Numbers also take a while, and are tough going in places.

But you could read Esther in half an hour. Or Jonah in eight minutes. 2 Peter in ten. Why not decide to read a whole book in one sitting?

Rather than doing 12 minutes one day, you could decide to take 20 and read all of Galatians. Spend 20 minutes in Hebrews, make a coffee¹ and finish Hebrews after another 24 minutes. You might even understand it by the end. Reading whole books in a short period of time has an effect.

And what else were you going to do with that 24 minutes? Rewatch an episode of Friends you’ve already seen three times? Or more?

In fact, have you seen each episode of Friends more than you read each book of the New Testaments? Wait. No. Stop. We’re not going down that root of guilt and shame. That’s one reason I was against reading the Bible in a year last time.

Read Big Books in Chunks

Reading Genesis in 12 minute chunks will take you 17-18 days and might be quite hard to follow split up in that way. Why not read Genesis in bigger chunks? Read the first section to Noah and the flood; then to the Tower of Babel; then Abraham and Isaac; then Jacob; then Joseph. Do it in five days. It’s enthralling.

Where we’re going, we don’t need chapters

One thing that can get in the way of reading is chapter breaks. When a chapter ends, it feels like an invitation to stop. Why not get a Reader’s Bible like this one without big chapter numbers and breaks? If the story is really getting going (and it really does), why not just keep reading? And if you spend more money on a Bible than seems necessary, that might encourage you to get value for money out of it by reading it. I’m not sure I want to spend £135 on this six-volume ESV set, but if I did, I reckon I’d read it.

Change the Medium

Why not listen to the Bible? If you listen to podcasts or the radio, why not add the Bible into the mix? If you’re on a road trip, why not do a gospel in one hit? In about two hours, you’ve almost done Matthew.

Got 38 minutes? Why not 2 Corinthians?

You could listen to the woe and grief of the news for half an hour – or you could have proper woe and grief, listening to Ecclesiastes in the same time.

There’s an audio feature on the ESV app that’s free of charge. There’s also YouVersion and all kinds of other ways of reading the Bible with your ears as well as your eyes.

What’s more, the Bible was written to be heard. Most people in history either couldn’t afford a Bible, or couldn’t read. God knew this and so his word was written to be read aloud and experienced that way. Try it.

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Two Hours Well Spent

I just watched this brilliant documentary about the Welsh Revivals, written and presented by Jonathan Thomas and produced and directed by Dan Pugh. It’s out this week and well worth your time and money. Here’s the trailer:

You can get hold of it on DVD. Or why not watch even less Netflix and Disney+ and stream it right now HERE?

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I wrote about how the Bible was written to read out loud here:

1. Please note that I could have done a joke here about brewing coffee. He brews. Etc. But I didn’t. I cunningly disguised this as footnote.