Bible Reading in 2026

Scripture Reading: Malachi 1-4; Revelation 22

Rather than focus on one particular text this morning, I want to start by pointing out the obvious. Today we wrapped up a year of reading through the Bible by reading the last book in the Old Testament, Malachi, and the last chapter of the New Testament, Revelation 22. Congratulations are in order. If you’ve never read through the entire Bible, or you’ve never done it in a year, good job!

I hope that it has been a blessing to you and I do hope that you will make it an ongoing practice. There is no one right way to do it, and it isn’t a biblical command that you do. But Bible intake and study is crucial for your spiritual life. Jesus said that we don’t live by bread alone but by every Word of God. The analogy there is important. We need bread – food – to sustain our physical life. We need God’s word to sustain our spiritual life.

Tomorrow you begin a new year. I hope you have a plan already in place for Bible reading in 2026, but if not here are some possibilities to consider. After you look them over, a the end of this, I will share the very best Bible reading plan in existence.

There are a lot of different ways to approach reading the Bible through in one year. For many years I took the approach of starting in Genesis and Matthew and reading one chapter from the Old and New Testaments until I went all the way through and then I would start over. I also read a chapter from Psalms and a chapter from Proverbs. What that meant is I would read through Psalms twice a year, Proverbs 12 times a year, the New Testament about 1 ½ times a year, and the Old Testament took more than one year.

So, technically I wasn’t reading through the whole Bible every year because I wouldn’t get through the Old Testament in a year. Nevertheless, it was a simple way of working through the Bible consistently. All I need to do it is four ribbons to mark my spot.

Now, here are ten examples of reading plans for you to consider. I have included links to help you with more detailed information. Many of them are links to printable PDF pages. Just print them out and keep them with your Bible to help you keep track.

1. Read straight through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation

2. Non-traditional reading plan that is more randomized but gets you through the Bible in a year

3. A Chronological reading plan (With all Chronological reading plans, there is some interpretive challenges. For example, we don’t know for certain what the context was for authorship of all the Psalms. So where they fit chronologically is not always going to be agreed upon)

4. A Historical reading plan (Reads through the Old Testament in the order of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in the order the books were authored. The dates of authorship are not universally agreed upon, so I assume they use the scholarly consensus)

5. Old Testament once and New Testament twice (Similar to my method I mentioned but more systematized and organized and it doesn’t do the Psalms twice and Proverbs 12 times)

6. Old Testament and New Testament once (Generally reading from both Testaments but some days it may be only the Old)

7. Now for those of you who are up to a challenge...Professor Horner’s Bible Reading Plan is just that. It is more complicated (in my opinion) and more difficult without question. You will read through the Bible in 8 months if you use this system.

This person kindly made a printable set of bookmarks designed for Professor Horner’s Bible Reading Plan.

If you are interested in Professor Horner’s plan, here is a more detailed explanation of how it works.

8. McCheyne’s Bible reading plan has been around since the 1800’s, so it must have been found useful to a lot of people. And here is the same plan laid out in printable bookmarks. That was nice of someone. You can print them, maybe on card stock, and keep them in your Bible.

9. If you want to read the Bible through in a year but don’t want to have a daily reading plan, this one might work for you. It simply assigns books for each month which you read as your schedule allows.

This might be good for someone who likes to read large

10. This one is fun. It is what I used to come up with the reading plan I used in 2025 on this Substack. You can input certain perimeters that you want to include and this will generate a reading plan based on what your own goals are. It is a DIY Bible reading plan. Pretty cool. Check our the Bible Reading Plan Generator.

That is a lot of choices and there are many more out there for you to pick from. Maybe you will come up with your own. These plans are simply helps.

Now, for what I promised. What is the very best Bible reading plan available? It is the one you will use.