(Day 17 of this series called “23 days to a better devotional life.” I’m posting daily this month on devotions.)

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of reading through the whole Bible. I promised to give you my personal Bible reading plan.

Step 1: I pick a Bible book and start reading it.

Step 2: When I finish it, I put a check mark on the first page of the book showing I read it. Also, I type the name of the book in a text file that keeps track of the books I’ve read. (I have a bad habit of losing my Bible).

Step 3: Then, I choose a new book and repeat steps 1 and 2.

Pretty simple, huh?

Sometimes I modify the plan by reading 2-3 books at the same time. I will do this if I’m reading a book that’s either not very interesting or hard to understand. I remember having a hard time reading Ezekiel. So I added two other books (I think John and 1 Samuel). I would read one of those two books whenever I really felt like not reading Ezekiel.

Using these steps in the last couple of months, I’ve read through these books:

Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 2 Kings, Nehemiah, Esther, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, John, Galatians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus

Obviously, my reading plan is not based on getting through the Bible in a certain amount of time. I’ve seen other reading plans where you read through the Bible in a year. I read too slow for those plans. Those plans require you to read a couple of chapters a day. Many days I don’t even read a chapter. I like taking my time. If I find an interesting, relevant verse, I’ll stay on that verse for a couple of minutes and try to understand it and apply it to my life.

I may use one of those yearly reading plans later in my life. (The One Year Bible looks like it has a good reading plan). I think there’s value in getting a quick overview of the whole Bible. But for now, I’m taking my time in order to understand the Bible better. I figure with my slow pace, I’ll finish the whole Bible in four years.