What to read during a 3-month Bible challenge
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This is the fourth in a series of articles on Bible reading.
Odds are, you know the value of reading your Bible every day, and you've struggled when you've tried. To turn your desire for daily Bible reading into a habit, you should consider challenging yourself to read the Bible every day for three months.
As I mentioned in my previous article, a good practice is to block off 15 minutes a day for Bible reading but choose a passage that takes no more than five minutes to read. This practice gives you time to pray before you start, read the passage not once but twice, take notes on or highlight key parts of the passage, and pray when you're done.
So, you need around 90 Bible passages that each take about five minutes to read. Which passages should you choose? Here are three potential approaches.
1. Read random passages.
The "random passage" approach is the approach of most devotionals.
Each devotion starts with a Bible verse or two. The devotion then uses a story or analogy to relate the selected verses, and possibly a few others, to a topic. The author's insight can help you not only understand the verses but apply the principles in them to your day-to-day life. Reading those selected verses in context—for example, reading the entire chapter in which each verse resides—can provide more insight and application.
The downside of reading random passages is that it's like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're gonna get. One day, a passage that you select (or that the devotional writer selects) may resonate with you and strengthen your relationship with God. The next day, a different random passage may fall flat with you. After a few days of frustration, you may lose your motivation to continue.
2. Read through some books of the Bible.
A more common approach to a Bible reading challenge is to read through a set of books of the Bible.
If you read at a pace of five minutes a day, then you can complete the following sets of books in three months:
- The Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and the first half of John
- Genesis, Exodus, and the first half of Joshua
- Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs
Whatever books you choose to read, you will benefit greatly by getting insight into what you are reading. But insight often comes at a cost.
For every book of the Bible, there are study guides available for download or purchase online. Free ones tend to be people's personal notes, and the quality and accuracy often are subpar. A published study guide typically costs around $10, and there are dozens or even hundreds available for each Bible book. (Here is a listing of published study guides for the Book of Matthew.) You'll have to wade through reviews to decide which one is best for you.
Terrific insight into every book of the Bible—and a whole lot more—is offered by The Bible Project (website, YouTube channel). And everything from The Bible Project is free.
Recently, I was slogging my way through the Book of Isaiah. I love parts of Isaiah, but I started losing steam, and interest, around chapter 25. And I still had 40 chapters to go.
Then I remembered The Bible Project. I found and watched a short animated video that gives an overview of the first 39 chapters of Isaiah and then another that does the same for the rest of the book. The two videos are anchored to a page that provides:
- A full transcript of the audio from the videos
- Background on who wrote the book, when it was written, its literary styles, its key themes, and its structure
- Links to additional information on the book, including an article and a podcast episode
After watching the videos and reading the materials, I had a renewed interest in the book, and my daily readings were much more fruitful.
I'll provide more details on The Bible Project in an upcoming article.
3. Do some topical Bible studies.
There are times when I really enjoy reading through a book of the Bible. There are other times when I want to see what the Bible has to say about certain topics that are important to me, such as anger, death, faith, fatherhood, fear and anxiety, grace, marriage, masculinity, politics, power, pride, salvation, suffering, and work.
Of course, the Bible is not organized by topics. If you want to do a topical study, then you need a resource that maps topics to Bible passages that discuss those topics.
One such resource is Nave's Topical Bible, which is available for free on BibleGateway. Originally produced over 100 years ago by Orville J. Nave while he served as a Chaplain in the United States Army, Nave's is a comprehensive digest of over 20,000 topics and subtopics with more than 100,000 associated Scripture references. With the BibleGateway Nave's tool, you type in a topic and tap Enter, and the tool responds with a list of subtopics and, for each, the references for all verses that pertain to that subtopic.
The tool is robust and comprehensive, but it's more of a reference than a topical Bible study tool. I offer a simpler approach in my book, 52 Weeks of Strength for Men. The book offers four studies, each lasting three months: The Nature of God, God in the Day-to-Day, Big Topics, and Tough Topics. Every week you get a topic, seven Bible passages on the topic, an insightful devotion, a prayer, and a set of application questions. A free online study guide makes it easy to read each day's passage, take notes, and track your progress.
If you're not sure which three-month Bible reading challenge to do, consider mine. For details, go to 3monthchallenge.com.
 | Chris Bolinger is the author of three men’s devotionals – 52 Weeks of Strength for Men, Daily Strength for Men, and Fuerzas para Cada Día para el Hombre – and the co-host of the Throwing Mountains podcast. He splits his time between northeast Ohio and southwest Florida. Against the advice of medical professionals, he remains a die-hard fan of Cleveland pro sports teams. Find him at mensdevotionals.com. Learn More » |
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