how to read the Bible in 180 days

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Read through the Bible in 180 days:

In recent years, I've made it a practice to read the Bible through in 180 days. Last year, I decided to open this experience up to anyone who wanted to join me - reading and learning together as a community in a private Facebook group. It was such an enriching experience that I've decided to do it again. We already have people signing up for the next round, so I thought now would be a great time to share some survival tips for anyone who wants to read the whole Bible in 180 days!

Why read through the Bible?

The first time I ever read through the Bible from cover to cover, I did it in one week - as part of what we called "the Bible Experience" at the beginning of my year of Bible school. Seven long days of reading was definitely a bit much, but it served to get me and all my classmates on the same page before we jumped into classroom study. We all needed to start with the whole story.

I think this principle is important for all Christians everywhere - not just a handful of students getting ready to go deep into the Scriptures. If the Bible is the story of who God is, then we all need to build our faith on that foundational story. We all need to keep that narrative top of mind. We all need to operate from the common ground of God's character and His purposes.

Why 180 days?

And I think we all know this, but we struggle to actually do it. It's not easy to read through the Bible, regardless of the timeframe.

But for me, 180 days is the sweet spot. It's long enough that the reading chunks are manageable (less than an hour a day), but short enough that the goal is always in sight. Unlike my experience with year plans, I don't feel the need to quit after the first few months because it feels never-ending, and I don't forget the beginning of the story by the time I get to the end. Six months is specific and limited enough that it feels attainable.

Three steps to read the Bible in 180 days:

1. Have a plan.

I don't know about you, but reading my Bible is something that just won't happen if I don't have a plan. I want to do it, and maybe I even sit down and try to do it, but usually I just end up flipping mindlessly through the pages looking for the "right" thing to read, or I get distracted and give up. I need a plan in place so that I can easily make it part of my schedule, and know that when I sit down, I'm not going to waste a lot of time looking for something to read.

I adapted and developed the Bible180 plan from a couple of other plans I had used or seen. The entire six months is mapped out from the beginning in a loosely-chronological reading order, and each day includes one Psalm, regardless of what else you're reading. Every week there is a scheduled day of rest.

There are probably plenty of other six-months plans to choose from online, but the point is, you need to have one - no matter which one you choose.

2. Have a support system.

I mentioned this briefly at the beginning of this post, but it truly made a huge difference to do Bible180 with a community of friends around me. Doing it all alone, I could make a lot more excuses, but when you know others are putting in the work alongside you, you stay a lot more motivated to succeed. 

This year, I'm excited to be sending out weekly emails with accountability, encouragement, and a little extra education for those who want to dig in deeper to the readings, along with our private Facebook group! If you need a community to read with, you will be welcomed in ours. :)

3. Have a lot of grace (and flexibility).

Here's what reading through the Bible in 180 days shouldn't look like: Rigidity. Stress. Legalism. Guilt.

I've purposely tried to put a lot of room for flexibility in the Bible180 plan because I know firsthand how crippling legalism and guilt can be. I know how crappy it feels when you can't follow a schedule exactly, or when something comes up and you miss a few days. So personalize your plan! If you need to use your weekly rest day as a day to catch up, do it! If you need to take a little extra time to get through all the material, the world won't end if you don't finish in exactly six months! Maybe you want to read your daily Psalm in the morning to start the day with worship, or in the evening as a closing prayer - or maybe it would work better for you to read all six of the week's Psalms on that day of rest. The best reading plan is the one that works for you.

And one more note about grace: Don't expect yourself to dig deep into every day's reading, to get a lot of life-applications out of it, or even to understand it. Some days (maybe a lot of days) you will just feel like you're flying through the passage with no time for reflection. That's okay. Reading the Bible in 180 days is meant to give you a big-picture view, not a detailed study. It's meant to whet your appetite for more later.

You can do it!

Reading the whole Bible in six months sounds overwhelming, but it's so doable - and so good for the soul. You can read some of my reflections from last year's readthrough here, and join us in the journey by entering your email in the box below!

how to study the Bible (step one)

I think I know you.

You know it's important that you spend time in the Bible. And you know that you want to - you have the desire to know and understand God's Word, to abide in it with day by day consistency, to study it for yourself.

But life hits you the moment you get out of bed in the morning, and somehow it just doesn't get done, or maybe you sit down with your Bible open and all the great intentions of the world just to discover that you have no idea where to begin.

And believe me, you're not alone.

I have gone to Bible school, earned a certificate in Biblical Studies, taught the Bible to others, and studied the Bible on my own for the past five years since - and it still happens to me.

There are still so many days when I have every intention of studying and learning and hearing from God, only to find that it slips out of priority when regular life hits. Or days when I find myself sprawled in bed with my Bible, flipping aimlessly through the pages overwhelmed by the sheer size of it, wondering where on earth I should start.

The first step:

This week, I've been pouring my spare hours into organizing the systems that I personally use to study the Bible and its different genres of literature on my own. These are the systems that I fall back on almost automatically when I'm reading, the steps I take to make sure I'm understanding and not just skimming a lot of words. And even though each system is different depending on which book of the Bible I happen to be reading, they all have one thing in common: the first step.

Every single one of my Bible study techniques starts like this:

Step One: Start at the beginning.

The very beginning.

The "in the beginning" beginning.

The study of every single book of the Bible should begin with your understanding of the whole story of the Bible.

You can't hope to interpret Exodus accurately if you don't know where the story started. You can't begin to understand the teachings of Christ in the Gospels if you don't have a grasp of the long history of Israel in the Old Testament. You will be lost (and probably afraid or depressed) in Revelation if you aren't aware of the epic spiritual saga that has preceded it.

There's a reason I had barely hit the ground in Florida to start Bible school before we spent a solid week reading the Bible from cover to cover. (Yes, one week.) You simply can't start an in-depth study of the Scriptures any other way.

The Bible is a story.

It's not a moral handbook, a self-help guide, or a church rulebook.

It's a story - the incredible story of who God is and what He has done.

And you don't read a story by skipping around from chapter to chapter, cherry-picking here and underlining there. You start at the beginning and read it as a whole. And then you can dive deep.

So if you've never read it like that, that's where I encourage you to begin.

There are a lot of plans and tools out there. You can do the one-year plan, the chronological plan, or just sit down and start. I prefer the Bible180 plan that I've done a couple of times now, because it moves quickly enough that Genesis is still pretty fresh in my mind by the time I hit Revelation - and because it helps SO much to know that there are others doing it alongside me!

Join us

I'm starting Bible180 again this coming January. If you do want to know the Bible, if you want to feel comfortable studying it on your own (and a lot deeper than "what stands out to me? how do I feel about this?"), this is where I recommend that you begin - with a clearly outlined daily reading plan and a little bit of accountability. :)

(And if I can survive reading it in a week, then you can definitely handle 180 days!)