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24 Bible Reading Plans That Will Satisfy Anyone

Here is a diverse and pretty comprehensive collection of Bible reading plans. All of them are easy to follow and most include a printable copy you can keep in your Bible.

They range from two week commitments to year-long commitments, from reading straight through cover to cover, to topical readings, to a mixture of readings each day.

Let me know in the comments if you know of any other good ones. And if you’re looking for the best pen for highlighting in your Bible, check out my recommendation.

Click on an image to view the plan or download the PDF (if available).

Getting an Overview of the Bible

These plans do not go over every book/chapter of the Bible, however, they give the main people, topic and events of the Bible.

60 Day Overview

This one from Zondervan is nice because it doesn’t just give you the reading for the day, but also gives you the topic of what you’re reading. I consider that a nice cherry on top.

Zondervan_-_60_Day_Overview_of_the_Bible

Every Book in 61 Days

This reading plan walks you through key passages from every book of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, in just 61 days.

Bible_Gateway_-_Survey

Major Events and People in 61 Days

This reading plan introduces you to the major people and events of the Bible in chronological order, beginning with Creation, moving through the birth and history of the Israel nation, and ending with Revelation’s prophetic words.

Bible_Gateway_-_Chronological

90 Day Overview

Another one from Zondervan, this one goes a little more in-depth than the 60 day version.

Zondervan_-_90_Day_Overview_of_the_Bible

121 Days of People in the Bible

The advantages of this approach include ease in seeing the story of the Bible and becoming acquainted with the entire Who’s Who of the Bible.

180 Day Overview

The plan offers a kind of bird’s-eye-view. The daily readings consist of 180 selected passages, including at least one chapter from each of he Bible’s 66 books.

The Bible in a Year

Here is a diverse collection of different reading plans that take you through the Bible in a year.

Read by Genre

It divides up your reading into the main types of Genres (literature) such as Gospels, Law, Narrative (History), Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy, and Epistles!

Read From 4 Separate Places

This plan gives you a good mix of reading an Old Testament book, a wisdom book and two New Testament books for each reading.

It is also structured well enough that you could shorten your reading for each day by focusing only on Old Testament, New Testament or some other variation.

Since you’ll have several “free days” each month, you could set aside Sundays either not to read at all or to catch up on any readings you may have missed in the past week.

Read Two Books at a Time

Readings from two places in Scripture every day: an Old or New Testament book and one of the Old Testament wisdom books.

Read from the Old/New Testaments, Psalms and Proverbs

The One Year Bible daily reading plan consist of passages from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs.

Another option is this one created by Scott Carlson that has you read the the following each year:

  • 1x Old Testament
  • 2x New Testament
  • 2x Psalms
  • 4x Gospels
  • 4x Proverbs

Read from the Old and New Testament

This is a pretty straightforward plan starting from the beginning of the Old and New Testaments and working its way to the end.

Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s Reading Plan

There are two types of readings in this plan: family and secret.

The family readings are meant for going over with your family, in groups or at a Bible study whereas the secret readings are for your own personal devotional time.

The problem with this is that there’s really no difference in the two types. You could just as easily read the secret readings in a group and vice versa. In fact, M’Cheyne even points this out when he describes the plan.

So, *shrug*.

The whole Bible will be read through in an orderly manner in the course of a year. – The Old Testament once, the New Testament and Acts twice.

Read in chronological order

This plan is based upon the historical research of scholars as it compiles readings according to the order that the events actually occurred.

Read in the order each book was written

This plan is founded upon the research completed in regard to the dates each canonical book was authored. The books in the Hebrew and Greek Bibles are not in the same order as in our modern Bibles, and this plan restores that original ordering of the scriptures.

Read from cover to cover

The classic plan. Start at Genesis and end in Revelations.

Short-Term Commitments

These plans take no more than a month to complete and focus on a specific topic.

2 Week Guided Tour

This plan takes a look at various topics (eg. life of Jesus, teachings of Paul, the Old Testament, etc.) and condenses them each into two week courses.

There are 10, two week courses.

This is a place to begin reading the Bible. These two-week reading courses take you quickly into passages every Christian should know. […] they are frequently quoted or referred to elsewhere. Second, they are relatively easy to read and understand.

30 Days for New Christians

New to Christianity and never been through the Bible? This plans for you!

30 Days in the Psalms and Proverbs

Take 30 days to go through the main themes in the Psalms and another 30 days to go through all the Proverbs.

30 Days with Jesus

Consider this a short biography on Jesus. ;)

30 Stories You’ve Probably Never Heard

These are some interesting stories that help make the Old Testament a little more fun to read.

New Testament Reading Plans

In case you find the Old Testament dry and boring, you can focus on the New Testament instead. Just be sure you go through the Old Testament sometime. ;)

5 Days a Week, 5 Minutes a Day

5 minutes per day, 5 days per week, 5 ways to dig deeper. Takes you through one chapter each day.

With Psalms and Proverbs

Get the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in one year.

New Testament in a Year

Featured Download: Didn’t find the type of plan you were looking for? I pulled together 46 PDF Bible reading plans into one easy download. Download them now.

Sources and Other Reading Plans

226 replies on “24 Bible Reading Plans That Will Satisfy Anyone”

I have a plan that I’ve been using for a number of years. It has 2 readings in the OT, a reading in Psalms and then Proverbs consecutively end then one reading in the NT. I really enjoy it.

ahh, great suggestion. i read the NT bible project plan this year. the videos are terrific!

By Post Author

We have a reading schedule that goes through the old testament in one year, the new testament twice, psalms twice and proverbs 12 times. Do you know where I might be able to find this? I could only find if I purchase 50 copies. I don’t know that many people that read the bible at all.

Hey, I am thinking about reading the Bible in the year, but is it going to make sense if I start in Genesis and then jump to Joshua and then Psalms and I’m jumping around in the different books? I started reading the Old Testament and it was okay but it gets a little boring. Then when I jump to the New Testament I’m wanting to make it all tie together with the OT… so then I think I need to find a good reading plan to make it all make sense. Thx.

Definitely consider doing the m’cheyne plan. Don’t worry about trying to coordinate the readings to be same theme or topic, the LORD will be helping with that. Reading in this way is very extremely good way to do it. I like to recommend that people sit down and read one section at each meal and then one at bedtime in order for it to be more spread out and spiritually digestible for the day. I can’t speak highly enough of following a good plan and asking the LORD to be your teacher as you follow along. Don’t worry about not understanding everything, if you don’t understand something, stop, pray and tell HIM that and then keep going. HIS word is very powerful, I equate it to taking a vitamin for your soul, so you understand what all that vitamin is doing as it breaks apart and travels from cell to cell? Same with HIS WORD, be reading, dont worry about understanding everything, consistently show up, ask HIM to be your teacher and helping you connect the dots and growing spiritually in relationship with HIM. Trust HIM to do just that! Have great expectations for what HE’S going to be doing! GOD bless you! ??? oh, p.s. (you can feel free to find me on fb “matt jen neff” and post any comments or questions you may have. I’d be honored to be an encouragement on your path!

that’s why i really like the plan above under the “Read From 4 Separate Places” section. it has you read both in the NT and OT simultaneously so you’re not always in the OT for long stretches.

By Post Author

Alex just wanted to give you a huge thanks! Love the work you’ve done to provide this great resource of reading plan options at our fingertips. It’s a good and kind service for building up the body. Thanks for what you do!

I have just finished a read the Bible in a year program and I would like to do a Bible reading program that breaks it down a little more. Something still in chronological order but with commentary maybe fewer chapter readings at one time. It doesn’t have to be a one year program. Any suggestions?

Mailchimp is not delivering the document or the document is not in the dropbox anymore. Something is wrong. We get the email but can’t access the document. Kindly do backend check for us and resend. God bless you sir.

Hello Alex, thanks for what you are doing. I tried downloading the printable version of the plans to no avail. Could try to rectify this Please.

sorry about that. what issues are you running into so i can try and troubleshoot? everything appears to be working on my end?

By Post Author

Would you have these plans in a spreadsheet? I need a spreadsheet version so I can handle some distribution using my social media

[…] If you are a Christian family, and you say that you believe the Bible, you should read it through at least once! Of course you won’t understand it all without further study, but you will certainly appreciate in a richer way God’s merciful work with His people through history. Take the challenge and read your Bible cover to cover with a one year or two year Bible reading plan.  […]

I find 3 year plan most helpful. It is one verse a day for the most part. Just getting finished but hard to find another 3 year plan on line.

Hello and thank you. Is there a template or spreadsheet, with regards to a bible reading plan, that will allow the end user to edit the chapters to be read in each book?
I wanted to read each book in a year but sometimes I wanted customize my reading selections.

i’ve always thought something like this would be handy, but alas, i’ve never found something like it.

By Post Author

I made one for myself using a table in Microsoft Word. I wanted to be able to read from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs each day. I made a chart with columns for each of those areas and the date. It took a little work, but I went through the Bible page by page to see how long the chapters and books were so I could divide the reading up somewhat evenly for each day. I’m not very tech savvy, but I’ll see if I can copy and paste it here so you can see what I mean. Once you have saved your chart on your computer, you can go in and change the readings around however you want to.

Yearly Bible Reading Plan
Created by Donna Long

This reading plan takes you through- Old Testament 1 time
New Testament 2 times
Psalms 5 times
Proverbs 3 times –in 1 year.
You will be reading about 5-6 chapters per day. I takes me about 20-25 minutes. If you like, you could split it into morning and evening, by reading the Old Testament and Proverbs in the morning and the New Testament and Psalms in the evening. This would take about 10-12 minutes each session. I usually have a bookmark in each of the places I am reading, Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. This saves a lot of flipping around to find your spot each time.

Well, that didn’t work. It wouldn’t format the table, just the text above it. Told you I wasn’t very tech savvy. I would be glad to share if anyone is interested and can talk me through how to get a Word file to you.

Hi! Thanks for compiling! I used a resource a long time ago that was mailed to me monthly, I think called The Daily Walk but I’m not sure that’s exact. It had OT/NT/Wisdom each day but it also had an overview of what was going on that was extremely helpful. It made it worth slogging through some of the harder parts when there was a REASON for Leviticus, for instance. Do you know of any like that? I just see lists, not guidance. I’m willing to buy a resource, I just am not seeing such a thing as I’m searching. Thanks!

that does sound helpful, but i haven’t found a printable plan that provides commentary. but you might want to check out some of the plans online here:

https://www.bible.com/reading-plans

a lot of those plans include some type of devotional/commentary.

By Post Author

Hello Alex!
I used to have a Bible in a Year plan which read through Proverbs monthly as well. I haven’t been able to find it in the past few years and my grown son was asking for it. Please, are you aware of such a plan by any chance?

i vaguely think i’ve seen one like that, but i couldn’t find it. however, it wouldn’t be too hard to take an existing bible in a year plan and add whatever proverb corresponds to the day of the month.

for example, read whatever the bible in a year plan has for january 15 and then read proverbs 15.

By Post Author

Do you know of a current 6-Day Bible Read Through Plan?

The DAILY WALK group had one in the 1970’s

i haven’t seen one that’s specifically six days a week. however, the one i list above under “Read From 4 Separate Places” might work. that plan only has you read 25 days each month. that essentially averages out to about six days a week.

basically, you would ignore the month and day and just view it as one giant reading list. the first week read the first six rows then the next six rows the following week.

By Post Author

Looking for a through the Bible in a year daily reading plan with Sunday reading in Psalm. Have one from 1985 bought in a Christian book store. Have read through the Bible several times using this guide. It’s coffee stained, torn & taped and filled with check marks and dates; it’s time for a new one. May just need to re-type this list if not able to find the same format

unfortunately, i haven’t seen that type of plan. your best bet might be to recreate the one you bought.

By Post Author

This plan is so directional I am very grateful for putting this together I have always wanted to go through the Bible but I have been lazy about it because I had no plan but with this now I think I can miss it anymore. Thanks once more.

Thank you for having such a wide variety! I am a second year teacher and this will be my first year in christian school and I was looking for a bible challenge for homework that I could do with them. I loved your 180 days challenge and was wondering if you thought it would be a good idea to use with them. It will be 6th graders so the more challenging passages might be hard to get them to read.

i think the 180 day overview plan would be a good one for 6th graders. however, it might be worth removing the more challenging passages and finding alternative ways to get the story/idea across.

By Post Author

Hi Alex,
I left my email twice and have not heard from you would like to receive the complete Bible Reading Plans if they are still available.. Thanks.

:Lou

Thank you so much for this! I’m really struggling with doing my daily devotional, and I know that this would really help me a lot. Thank you, again! God bless you!

Hello! Do you know of a plan to read straight through the Bible in a year, broken into 52 weeks/5 days per week (i.e., 260 days total)? Thank you!

yup, what you’re describing is one of my favorite plans! it’s the one listed above that’s under the “read from 4 places” headline. download the PDF.

By Post Author

Thank you, Alex. I’m trying to find one that goes straight through the Bible … 52 weeks, 5 days/week. (Am wanting to teach straight through the Bible on my daily radio pgm each weekday for one year, with listeners reading along with the daily teaching. Haven’t been able to find this breakdown yet. So grateful for your encouragement to people to read the Bible!!

when you say straight through, do you mean chapter-by-chapter from genesis to revelations? if that’s the case, i haven’t run into any plans like that. however, you could always adapt the plan i linked to in an earlier reply. it would take a little work on your end to re-arrange it to be in book order, however, it’s broken down perfectly to do five readings per weeks.

By Post Author

Hi Alex

Thanks for your work. It’s sorely needed. I’m looking for a 5-day, 2 year plan with links to each passage because I want to use it on my computer.

i haven’t run across any of those types of plans. however, if you’re wanting to read from your computer, i would recommend you look at the hundreds of plans available at https://www.bible.com/reading-plans. if you create an account, the website will let you know what to read each day.

you can also download the app and read from your smart phone!

https://www.bible.com/app

By Post Author

unfortunately, i haven’t come across a chronological plan that’s is just a chapter a day. my best suggestion for you is to take one of the chronological plans in a year and make your own plan from it.

By Post Author

Hi, this is a really good resource, and I’d love to share the link with people – however…..I’m just too embarrassed to because of the comment about ‘a white guy disguised in an Asian body’. I’m not sure why you’ve described yourself like that?

welp, i intended that to be funny. but i’ve had enough people over the years say something about it. it appears it doesn’t work as well online as i’d hope, so i removed it!

thanks for your comment.

By Post Author

Alex,
Thank you very much for compiling this. Our church has used different year through the bible reading plans over the past two years. I was looking for something different that we could use this year. This is a wonderful resource and is an answer to my prayers.
God Bless you!
Paul

Hey there, Alex.
Thanks for compiling this list. I’ve been a Christian for awhile, but 3, nearly 4 years ago decided to read my Bible through. 2018 will be my 4th year. I’ve used a couple of different plans, and was looking for a 2018 plan and found you. Thanks for compiling these and giving an overview of each. I know you invested a bit of time for all of us. It is not unnoted or unappreciated. Thank you for serving the Body of Christ and those who are seeking Him.

that’s a unique plan request! unfortunately, i haven’t stumbled on any plan that follows the church year.

By Post Author

Looking for a daily bible reading plan for my junior high student (age 11). Our youth pastor sent him home with a Read the Bible in one year plan, that has 3-5 chapters to read daily, but it is hard to keep up with all his schoolwork! Any chance you have made one for younger readers….say maybe 1-2 chapters daily? We would rather see him keep up with it, than throw up his hands in despair because he gets so behind,

It’s amazing how fast you seem to fill the bible with colour, and some places like Romans and Ephesians it gets a bit much! Everything vies for attention and you can no longer pick out the special bits because it’s all special in something way! I’ve come to the conclusion it’s also good to have a bible you determine to keep plain, as an uncluttered reader, while your annotated one bears the congested notes. It is possible, despite starting in pencil, to regret a comment, move on and improve your understanding, so I think it’s ok to have a workbook bible and one for best, as ’twere. So that’s three bibles!
BTW rubbing out pencil on cambridge bible paper stretches it, especially laterally. Vertically not so bad, but it looks like water got on the paper. It’s a grain thing.

yup, it’s definitely helpful to have multiple bibles for different purposes. while i now just carry my phone (with the youversion bible app), i used to have one for travel and a nicer wide-margin bible at home for note taking.

By Post Author

Alex I was looking for a plan reading in 2 places. Splitting the Bible in half one read starting in Gen. Other Starting at Ps. 118

Hey Alex. Are these plans public domain such that I can reproduce my favourite on my website/blog?

Do you have a plan to go thru the Bible in one year, but once a week have a study for a group to review the past weeks reading. Maybe with a video to view before disscussions.

while it’s not necessarily a bible in a year plan, biblex does provide videos and discussion questions you could use in a group.

By Post Author

Hi Alex,

I would like a 1 year chronological of old and of new at same time, red letter of new. I can’t seem to find that anywhere. Am I over looking it in what you have to offer?

unfortunately, i’m not aware of any chronological plans that do the OT and NT at the same time.

By Post Author

There is at least one. The Olive Tree Bible App has one “Chronological OT/NT” reading plan by Urban Scholar which does it.

Thanks Alex for SOO many different reading options all compiled together – blessings to you!

as with anything, it requires a commitment to make reading your bible a daily habit. pick up a bible in a year plan and start reading. and don’t get discouraged if you miss days and fall behind.

set the expectation that there are going to be days you miss. let that be okay and what you view as “normal.” the key is to avoid missing multiple days in a row. that will ideally keep you from letting yourself keep missing days until you get so far behind you quit.

and even if you do…pick it back up. you may not finish in a year, but that’s okay. the goal is to read the entire bible and see how God uses that in your life. it’s still a win if it takes you 18 months or even two years.

By Post Author

Hi Alex, thank you for all that you have gathered here. I was curious to see how others read the Bible…so many plans sound like a race or a challenge….When I read my Bible I want God to use it to speak to me, so I use a mixture. I start with the 1st chapter from Genisis, a psalm, the 1st chapter of Isaiah, the first chapter of Matthew and the first chapter of Romans and I read as much as I want to each time and then stop and mark my place. When I finish the psalms, I start over again. When I finish the gospels, I start over again. I was debating adding a proverb a day….As I finish the other sections, I start again. God always manages to use those readings to touch me that day with whatever I may be going through and often He links the readings together. Best of all, I never finish, and I keep finding motivation to keep reading.
I hope you don’t mind me saying that I was sad to read your second self discription; God doesn’t make mistakes, He created you exactly the way he wanted you to be .Satan uses society and culture to try to make you dislike how God created you, Remember you are God’s child and perfect Jesus in God’s Sight! God bless you, Bethani Ann

unfortunately, i’ve gotten into the bad habit lately of just reading to cross the reading off my list. i like your approach in that you have a structure to your reading, but you allow yourself to read as much or as little as needed.

and i appreciate the encouragement. know i love the way God created me and my tagline/bio is meant to be funny more than anything else. i don’t view it as a mistake more just a funny observation about myself. while i’m chinese, i have more american tendencies than asian.

By Post Author

What a great idea. I’m going to try this. Thank you
Any excuse for multiple ribbons in my bible!

Hello Alex! Awesome job with these reading plans!
I had a question about one of the reading plans, “30 Days For New Christians”. On day 20 the Theme is, “Christ a Sacrifice for All”, and the passage states, “Hebrews”, with no chapter or verse. Is that a typo, or does it mean to read the whole book of Hebrews?

Hi,
Thank you Alex, great work. Do you have reading plan that you read different book everyday but same story? Thank you

as a matter of fact, i just started a new reading plan that goes through all the major stories of the bible—looking at them from different verses.

sounds like it might be what you’re looking for. it’s called one story.

By Post Author

Hi Alex, You have done a great work, God bless you.
Can you provide us with a 2-year bible reading plan (Mixed OT & NT), as we plan to start as a family (with scattered members in USA, and other countries) to read the bible together starting 01.01.2017.
I appreciate that very much.
Blessings

i’m not sure of one that’s two years long. but you could easily take one of the one year plans and only read half the readings each day. that would lengthen it to two years.

this works easiest with plans that have you read in four different places. for example this one.

the first day says to read matthew, acts, psalms, and genesis. instead of doing that, read matthew and psalms. then the second day read acts and genesis.

By Post Author

Thank you so much Alex. This resource is great and I’ll be using one of the Bible reading plans.

I am looking for a two year plan that sends daily reading to email or app. I have been doing the one chronological for 10 years and want to slow down and absorb more. I see 1 year everywhere but not two year. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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