Setting a spiritual goal can feel easy. Accomplishing the goal is a whole different ball game.

Setting a goal to read the Bible and finish it by the end of the year is no different.

For several years, I kept making a “New Year” resolution to…. set the goal of starting to read the Bible and finishing after a year. This goal kept backfiring. I wondered what else to do.

To cut a long story short, I eventually created a system around me through which I completed my first Bible round. I was elated and truly grateful to God.

As I write this post, I am just completing my 17th round of reading through the Bible cover to cover in a few weeks. By the grace of God, I’ll be getting to my 18th round on January 1, 2025.

How did I do this?

I want to share with you the system that has worked for me these past 17 years, that I trust will work for you too. The system may look simplistic but it works.

I’ve broken it down into 7 simple steps. Let’s get into the steps:

1. Pray

This is the most important step of your Bible reading journey. Praying is acknowledging that you need God’s help as you set out to read God’s Word.

Pray about your desire to read the Bible and finish in a year.

It is God’s will for you to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus and to know Him.

You’re getting to know God and his Son Jesus Christ when you read the Bible. God will answer prayer that aligns with his will. This is part of his will.

Pray, trusting him for help and grace to read through the Bible, then pray each time you want to read through the Bible each day.

We have an enemy, the devil, who opposes everything good. He fights your desire to read God’s Word so you might not know the truth, which is the Word of God, that will set you free.

Don’t just pray at the beginning. Keep praying each day. Trust God, the author of the Bible, to give you understanding to learn his commands. Ask him to help you align to his will.

Every morning, before I read the Bible, I’ve made it my custom to begin with prayer. Never underestimate the power of prayer. Pray about your Bible reading.

2. Strategically set aside time to read the Bible

When I talk about being strategic about setting aside time for reading the Bible each day, I mean that you will need to prayerfully put some thought into the time you set aside to read God’s Word.

Pick a time of your day that has the least number of distractions.

We live in a world that operates with routine. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west each day. If you work outside the home, your employer requires you to report to work at a particular time and to leave at a specified time. We sleep at night and work during the day.
Any other activity that doesn’t fall into this rhythm is considered an exception rather than the norm.

Any wise person wants to establish a predictable routine around something they value such as reading the Bible.

Once you establish the routine and rhythm, the probability of succeeding is higher than if you have no routine around it.

This is why I wake up early every day and read the Bible before I do anything else.

My husband has established this principle about his Bible reading: No Bible No Breakfast.

This has extended to the rest of us in the family. Except for exceptions, we must read through the Bible before breakfast.

I like recommending the morning hours for Bible reading and prayer because you will rarely, if ever, be distracted from reading the Bible in the morning.

I’m intensely convinced that early rising is biblical. I’ve written about why waking up early is biblical in this post here.

When you pick the early morning, the likelihood of succeeding is high because that time falls in the private time category. This means it has the least distractions from people, noise, and others.

3. Buy a journal to capture what you’re learning in writing

What does buying a journal have to do with consistent Bible reading every morning?

Well, it does, in every way.

Just reading through the Bible, especially when you’ve read for a month or more can get monotonous.

The Bible reading journey will become exciting when you learn to capture what God is saying to you specifically by asking how this applies to you.

You will look forward to reading the Bible as you begin to see a tangible transformation in your life.

There are days when what God is saying to you through his Word on a particular day won’t be very clear. Keep reading the Bible each day. God will reveal his will by and by.

Consider this verse:

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” (Deut. 29:29)

Don’t bog your mind with what God hasn’t revealed yet.

Journaling also helps us slow down and meditate on what God is saying.

Several methods have been developed to help us reflect and act on what God is saying.
My husband and I developed one called W.O.M.A.N.

This is basically an acronym that helps you capture an insight you are getting from God’s Word. The acronym guides you to apply the insight to your life.

The method also helps you capture highlights in your life from God’s perspective and your prayer requests.

I will soon link a free downloadable PDF explaining The Noble W.O.M.A.N Method of daily devotional journaling here.

4. Read 3 to 4 chapters every day as part of your Quiet Time with God

One of the reasons I struggled to finish reading the Bible each year was because I had separated my Bible reading from my Quiet Time with God.

I would reflect on a handful of verses during Quiet time. If I had time, I would read 3 chapters of the Bible.

It wasn’t until I combined the two and decided to meditate on the chapters I was reading as my Quiet Time that I finished reading the Bible.

I then decided to let the reflection on fewer verses be part of my Bible study or sermon preparation rather than my daily devotion unless I had a lot of time that day.

To finish reading through the Bible in one year, read 3 to 4 chapters every day.

Start at Genesis, remembering that:

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2Tim. 3:16-17)

This includes the Bible books that don’t seem to make sense. God is at work even in those to fulfill what he has purposed in you. Don’t skip a Bible book, chapter, or verse.

We eat certain foods because they are healthy, not necessarily because we love them. The same goes for spiritual food. We read the Bible, not because it is exciting every time. Like physical food, every part of Scripture contributes to our growth and well-being in the Lord.

To finish reading through the Bible, I often read four chapters in the first three days of the week. I read three chapters for the remaining days.

When I follow this pattern, I have the bandwidth to finish reading the Bible leisurely especially considering the holiday festivities and travel in December. (I start on January 1st and end on December 31st)

This has worked for me for the past 17 years. This will work for you too.

Remember that your conviction to read the Bible grows as you read the Scriptures. Consider these verses:

“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” (Joshua 1;8)

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the sit of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (Ps. 1:1-2)

5. Accountability

This has been the second-greatest factor, next to prayer, that contributed to my continuing the discipline of reading through the Bible every day year after year.

Initially, I was in an accountability group where we kept each other accountable for reading through the Bible with a facilitator who helped us deepen our conviction towards Bible reading.

When I got married, my husband became my number one accountability partner.

My husband, my colleagues, and I have been able to read the Bible consistently for a few years.

We’re in an accountability group where we keep each other accountable for our growth in the faith.

One of the ladies surprised us by telling us she has now read through the Bible 7 times!

It is encouraging to know that a strong accountability structure in which all those concerned share the same conviction and desire can work beautifully to help us continue in the discipline of reading through the Bible.

Another accountability structure albeit by default has been the women I walk with in discipleship. The majority of these ladies are young women.
Knowing that I’m looking to God to set an example of godliness helps me keep the discipline of consistently reading the Bible.

As the adage goes, I want to be careful not to preach water and drink wine.

I look to God to be authentic because part of discipleship is consistently reading the Bible for growth.

Form an accountability structure around you in either of the categories I’ve mentioned above.

This could be with a spouse, peers, or colleagues. It could be with people you want to help grow and so they motivate you to keep reading the Bible each day.

Even if you feel like giving up, please don’t. Trust God to keep going in the discipline of reading through the Bible.

6. Share what you are learning

Don’t underestimate the effect of sharing what you are learning with others.

Sharing what you have learned from God’s Word and how you apply it where appropriate can be a wonderful motivation to keep reading the Bible.
This also serves to help clarify and affirm what God is saying to you when you share.

Thank God now we have various opportunities to share what we are learning.

My husband faithfully shares what he is learning in the Word on his status and Facebook. I know people who faithfully read what he writes.

I even know young people who tell him he helps them keep tabs on where they should be reading the Bible if they want to finish by the end of the year. He wants to expand these writeups into blogs for many others to be edified.

I on the other hand do little videos sharing what I’m learning.

God has often used what I’m learning as a basis for sermon preparation.

We also take turns as a family to share the Word of God during our family devotion. The sharing is usually what you have learned in your quiet time with God as you read your chapters for the day.

Don’t forget to trust God for opportunities to share what you are learning with others.

Not only does this please God, but you will receive more when you give:

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38)

The Dead Sea only receives. It doesn’t give. The result is toxic salty water. You don’t want to be toxic, unfruitful, and critical because you know so much. You want to give by sharing what you are learning with others.

7. Listen to Sober Wholesome Expositions on Bible Books

I know we agree that certain books in the Bible are just not easy to understand.

As we said earlier, we don’t read the Bible because we understand it fully.

We read the Bible because we want to know God. Bible reading is also necessary for our growth and transformation and in preparation for us to serve God.

In the spirit of learning from others, we’re not all at the same level of growth in the body of Christ.

Some in the body have been walking with God for a long time. They have read and studied the Scriptures for many years. God has given them an understanding of the Scriptures we may not have.

This is why I believe God “… gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service…” (Eph. 4:11-12)

God has led some of his children to prepare and share Bible expositions that have helped many of us understand some of the Biblical books better. This makes our devotion as we read the Bible more fruitful and impactful.

God has used them to help us shorten our learning curve as we seek to understand the Scriptures.

God uses others. He hasn’t reserved scriptural knowledge for just a few but for as many as would seek him and seek him with all their hearts.

Several years ago, I benefitted from Bible book expositions by the late David Pawson. You can now access these expositions on YouTube.

More recently, I would be blessed by Jon Courson’s journey through the Scriptures.

Such expositions help us read through books such as Leviticus and Revelation with greater insight and understanding, so we don’t get stuck in our Bible reading.

I’m hopeful that when you follow these 7 steps, you will be well on your way to starting to read through the Bible in the new year and finishing the entire Bible at the end of the year.

Read the Entire Bible in 2025: A Beginner’s Guide