2023 Reading Plans as You Plan to Read

by  on 

I hope your planning to read in 2023. Specifically, I hope you are planning to read your Bible and good theology in 2023.

From my experience, most people won’t do either without a plan.

Read this for a challenging encouragement to get started – You Have More Time for Bible Reading than You Think

Here are some helpful plans for you Bible reading:

Just pick one and plan and get started in the New Year. Even if you tried last year and didn’t make it very far, it is worth your time and effort.

Or just start in Genesis chapter 1 and read straight through until you get to Revelation chapter 22.

  • Bible = 1,189 chapters
  • 5 chapters/day, 5 days/week for 50 weeks  = the whole Bible in a year (actually less than a year)
  • This is what I have done for several years by reading 10 pages per morning with my ESV Reader’s Bible. I’ve enjoyed reading my Bible this way more than any other “approach”.

Don’t worry yourself about getting through the Bible in one-year. It is far better for the Bible to get through you than for you to get through the Bible. If getting through in a year seems daunting take a plan and follow it over two years. A plan will still help your reading to be systematic.

How about reading some good, solid theology in 2023 as well? I generally try to read a large theological work each year, one that I need to plan and pace myself in so that I can get through it in a year. Yet, similar to the above, without a plan I probably just wouldn’t do it.

Francis Bacon, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few are to be chewed and digested.”

5 pages/day, 5 days/week, 50 weeks/year = 1,250 pages/year = Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology

10 pages/day, 5 days/week, 50 weeks/year = 2,500 pages/year = 2 Vol. Edition of Calvin’s Institutes

15 pages/day, 5 days/week, 50 weeks/year = 1,250 pages/year = 3,750 pages/year = Bavinck’s 4 Vol. Reformed Dogmatics

As a suggestion why not give Calvin’s Institutes a go! If you need some encouragement on why check these links out:

If you don’t already have a copy of this magisterial work here are some suggestions:

Here is a pre-made reading plan for Calvin’s Institutes:

Another idea is to read Jim Hamilton’s God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology along with your Bible. You can find some helpful tools to do this here.

I plan to read through this new edition of Stephen Charnock’s The Existence and Attributes of God: Updated and Unabridged (1,760 pages = 7 pages/day)