A Few Reasons You Shouldn't Read the Bible in 365 Days

And one or two reasons it might be great

I sat down on the morning of January 1, 2024 with my Bible open to the first chapter of Genesis. TheBible reading plan suggested I read the first three chapters, so I did.

In the beginning…

An hour and a half later, having not yet prayed or devoted time to silence or thanksgiving or any other day-launching spiritual discipline beyond reading, I found myself wondering a lot of things, prime among them: “Can I actually commit to this every single day?” and “Is this really the healthiest approach?”

Let’s get this straight right at the start: I am a huge fan of committed Bible reading, and I am rooting for every Bible teacher out there helping God’s people read God’s Book. Full stop. I’m excited to see you sharing your Bible Recap, Bible Project, and She Reads Truth reading plans—remarkable troves of resources created by thoughtful teachers. And I am over-the-moon excited for the men and women in my feed who did the hard work of showing up every day to read their Bibles in 2023.

This is not a post to bash read-the-Bible-in-a-year plans; they have their place. This is a post (a relatively lengthy one) to say that the majority of people, especially Bible beginners and seasoned veterans, should not read the Bible this way. Reading the Bible in a year is a sophomore level course. Take the course when you’re ready, and then move on.

A few reasons you shouldn’t read the Bible in 365 days:

The goal of a year-long Bible reading plan is to read the Bible in a year. While these reading plans often achieve beautiful things (they are especially effective at personal discipline and big picture understanding—more on that to come), the established goal (hitched as it is to pace) is in itself vacuous and unnecessarily difficult. 365 days is a completely arbitrary number, leaving almost no margin for missed days, rest, or holy interruption and setting most people up for failure.

Consider the adult population of the US:

• 50% of adults haven’t finished a book in the last year. Not one single book (Some studies suggest the number is more like 15%, but those studies count any book read—even just a few pages). 22% of American adults haven’t finished a book in three years.

• The best-selling book genre in America (by miles) is romance/erotica.

• Only 17% of American adults read a poem this past year.

• Approximately 20% of Americans have a reading disability that impairs their ability to read quickly and in large quantities.

• 54% of adults have a literacy below sixth-grade level (the NIV Bible is written at an 8th grade reading level).

According to the National Endowment for the Arts, “Reading itself is a progressive skill that depends on years of education and practice.” If Americans aren’t practicing the skill of reading, we cannot expect them to be competent, efficient Bible readers.

And studies show they’re not. Among declared Christians, 23% have never read more than a few sentences of Scripture.

If you (like most Americans) are a person who doesn’t read much, a year long Bible reading plan will bury you.

Before we go any further, let’s acknowledge something: You, reader, are probably not like most Americans. You subscribe to email essays (probably several), and likely have books in your home. Most people who subscribe to my email list have a college degree. A huge portion of you have graduate degrees and Goodreads accounts and post on Instagram about the 50 books you read this year. Because of that, you may bristle at the idea of reading as difficult. You may say, “People could read more if they were disciplined.” That’s true. But most people will never be able to read like you do—not as quickly, not as much, and not as well. You are good at something other people struggle to do.

Having said that, even you might struggle to keep up with the rigor of a year-long reading plan. Remember, we’re not just talking about a long book written (translated) at a higher level than most people can read. We’re also talking about a particularly difficult type of book. 33% of the Bible is poetry, something most readers have little experience reading and almost no training in understanding. The rest is broken up between narrative and what we might call prose discourse (letters, speeches, and essays). While the narrative portions of Scripture are probably the most engaging reading, they carry their own set of hurdles: an obscure geographic setting most Americans have never visited, a historical time period about which most people know little to nothing, names English speakers struggle to pronounce, and customs that sometimes seem outdated or even cruel. I would suggest the discourse portion of the Bible is the easiest to understand, but then I remember Romans.

The Bible is a hard book to read.

Does that mean we shouldn’t read it? No! It just means that maybe we shouldn’t encourage people to bite off more than they can chew.

The biggest problem with year-long reading plans is that most people quit them. And for most of the quitters that means not just quitting the plan but quitting the practice of daily Bible reading. Unrealistic goals lead to much less actual Bible reading than simple, small goals like “Read the Gospel of John.”

Another effect of failing at a year-long reading plan: shame. Several years ago I traveled across the country asking women what was keeping them from reading their Bibles more. The top answer: guilt/shame. Not reading their Bibles led to shame, and the shame kept them from reading their Bibles. I met elderly women absolutely crippled by the embarrassment of decades of not having read their Bible the way they thought they were supposed to.

Given that the Bible is a book about the endless grace and mercy of God, this is an especially frustrating hurdle. Any plan, schedule, or discipline that leads people deeper into shame and further away from God isn’t working.

There are other reasons year-long plans are problematic. We’ll get to them. But let’s camp out here for a moment: Reading the Bible in a year is too hard for most people, and even for the people with the capacity to complete the plan, the success rate is dismal, leading to shame that impedes future Bible reading.

Does that mean we do away with the plans? No. It means we create more doable plans and celebrate their achievement. For example:

Three (Achievable) 2024 Bible Reading Goals:

1. Join a Bible study group and fully participate, reading the assigned text and provided resources with the help of a leader (If your church doesn’t have a Bible study group or if you don’t attend a church, just Google “Bible studies in my city”—I did this and found twenty weekly women’s studies with 30 minutes of my house).

2. Read a book of the Bible you’ve never read before. If you’re brand new to Bible reading, try the Gospel of Mark. If you’re more advanced, try something you haven’t tried before like an Old Testament prophet or an epistle. Consult resources as you read to help you understand (The BibleProject is a great start). When you’re done, read it again. Look with fresh eyes. Ask new questions.

3. Read a book of the Bible with a friend. Make a goal to text each other every weekday with questions and things you notice.

For most people, achieving one of these three accessible goals would be huge progress in their walk with God. Just because the goal isn’t big doesn’t mean it’s not worth pursuing. If our desire is for people to read their Bibles in a way that leads to deeper relationships with God, let’s start with something that has a higher probability of success.

Which leads us to a few of the other potential problems with year-long reading plans:

They value quantity over quality, disincentivizing note-taking, meditation, holy interruption, conviction, question-asking, and Scripture-inspired prayer. On any given day your time in the Bible ought to lead to spontaneous praise, consideration of your life and priorities, confession, a curiosity-led excursion into ancient languages, geography, or history, or meditation on big questions like God’s goodness, the problem of pain, whether or not God condones war, how to walk in grace, or what the second coming might entail. The Bible is Pandora’s Box—open it and all kinds of things spill out (out of the book and out of you). Reading it means so much more than reading it—but not if the goal is to read a certain amount in a certain amount of time. When that’s the primary goal, questions go unanswered, convictions go unexamined, and prayers go un-prayed.

They can make it difficult for us to let God lead. Yes, reading plans put us on the dance floor with God, but sometimes they have us stepping on one another’s toes. One of the most important things I’ve learned in the last five years is to stop making plans for God and start accepting plans from God. If God has prompted you to do a year-long Bible reading plan, quit reading this article right now and get to it. It’s exactly what you need. But if you’re feeling like you need to do something to “be better” or earn God’s favor or enable your own transformation—that’s sticky territory. Bible reading is a place to meet God, to get to know Him, and to listen to Him. It’s where we submit and surrender. So I don’t like the idea of bringing your own agenda to your time together. You don’t read the Bible to reach your goals. You read the Bible to receive your goals.

• They can lead to overwhelm. I read all of the New Testament epistles last summer and pretty much couldn’t function. There were just too many things to think about, too many ways to change or do better, too many messages. The Apostle Paul actually apologizes to the Corinthians for the effect of his first letter; it’s just so convicting. For us to try and process every one of these letters in two months (November and December, according to the plan)—that’s a huge task.

• They lack balance. Books like Philippians that are extremely practical and encouraging to the modern day Christian, packed tight with insight and hope, get 2 days’ attention. Jeremiah (a beautiful book but far less accessible and actionable) gets 15. You’ll spend 13 days in Numbers but only 9 in Luke. Some plans do attempt to provide balance by having readers in both the Old and New Testaments at the same time. I appreciate that; it helps. But still.

• They can lead to a Bible-heavy diet. If you are taking your time with your Bible reading plan, attending to questions, processing, embracing conviction, etc. you’re likely spending a huge part of your day devoted to Bible reading. That’s great as long as you’re also leaving room for other ways of spending time with God. Think of your spiritual disciplines like a food pyramid—Bible-reading is one of the main food groups, but spiritual health requires a number of practices and rhythms including prayer, loving your neighbor through service, praise and worship, taking care of your body, and disciple-making. In the past I’ve found myself so devoted to Bible reading that I ignored my kids’ need for breakfast or skipped prayer for a few weeks. That’s not the absolute worst thing (there’s grace for us over-readers, too), but it’s certainly not ideal. It’s like skipping leg day. IYKYK. (Some years do demand focused attention on a single discipline. I concede: this might be your Bible reading year.)

• Last (and surely expected): they can lead to a checklist mentality. Here’s the thing—I actually like checklists. I think they help us make our priorities a priority. I write Bible reading on my planner every single weekday. So I’m not in favor of dumping reading plans just because they’re plans. Plans reveal our hearts. The problem comes when we only do the thing in order to check the box or when we enjoy checking the box more than we enjoy doing the thing. This happens for some people when they commit to year-long Bible reading. If that’s you, maybe these kinds of plans aren’t good for your heart.

Having said all of that, sometimes a 365 day Bible reading plan is just what you need. If you’re a skilled reader, if you’ve read most of the Bible but keep avoiding some of the trickier parts, if (more than anything right now) you really need to grow in discipline and routine, if you’re not sure you know the overall plot and theme of Scripture, and if you have a healthy relationship with Yahweh and thrive in high-accountability environments (and by thrive I mean, if your heart thrives), go for it. If you think God’s calling you to this—dive in. You’ll probably love it.

If you fail, please don’t give up. Just slow down. Let your time in Scripture be marinated in grace.

Full transparency: I’ve read the Bible in a year three times. Twice I loved it.

These days I read more slowly—though with just as much commitment. I go at the pace of grace. Last year I read the New Testament alongside a popular commentary. I read Luke three or four times (I’m studying it with my small group). And I read the Psalms two or three times through.

This year we’ll see what happens. I’m in Genesis with Jacob and Esau and Isaac.

And Yahweh. Always with Yahweh.

May He find you in your reading. And may you be made radiant.

-JL