When I was first given this challenge, I thought that this was impossible! I mean, most Bible reading plans are for the whole year and a lot of people don't even make it through that. And besides, if I were to read the whole Bible in two weeks, that probably meant doing nothing but reading for 12+ hours a day, right?
But I started off...wanting to see if it could be done. Others in the group had said that they had done it before and I wanted to see if it was possible. The first year it took me about 6 weeks to read the Bible. The next year I was more focused and was able to read the whole Bible is just 2 weeks.
If you do the challenge, you are approximately reading 85 chapters a day, which took me about 3 to 3.5 hours a day. Don't think that you have enough time? Let's look at some daily activities that we do where someone could listen/read the Bible while doing those activities or activities that a person could cut out of his or her day to get the Bible read in 2 weeks?
Regular daily devotions - 30 minutes Getting ready in the morning - 30 minutes Driving - 1 hour Exercising - 45 minutes Eating - 30 minutes Waiting for someone or something - 30 minutes Watching TV and YouTube/Gaming/Entertainment - 1 hour Getting up a little earlier - 30 minutes Reading before bed - 30 minutes Recreational reading - 30 minutes Reading/watching the news - 30 minutes to 1 hour Browsing the internet/social media - 1 hour
Already we have counted up over 8 hours (more than twice as many as the estimated time needed) where a person could listen/read the Bible while doing his or her normal activities or where something could be given up in order to read the Bible. Sometimes the issues is not that we don't have time to read the Bible, but that we don't make time.
Why should you try and read the Bible in two weeks?
This challenge isn't so that you can brag to your friends that you have accomplished this or to earn extra points with God. Reading the Bible at this quick pace helped me to see the overall picture of the Bible and how Scripture tied together throughout the Bible. Often when we read the Bible over a year or jump around we loose the flow, key events, or ties in the Bible. But when we've just read Genesis not long before reading Revelation we get a better picture of God's master plan communicated throughout the Scriptures. You see how people, places, prophecies, and events overlap and connect to each other by God's hand.
Why we don't read the Bible quicker?
How many thick books have you read... and how fast did you read them? Or how many books do you read a year? And how many times have you read the Bible in your life? (let alone how many times a year?) The issue isn't that we don't have time to read the Bible, but that we don't prioritize it. A dad once challenged his son to spend as much time reading the Bible, as he did reading his adventure novels. What if we changed that to listening to the Bible for as much time as we listen music, or reading the Bible for however long we also watch TV? When we think about it like that, we realize how much time we spend on other things. It's not necessarily a time issue, it's a desire issue. Now I am not saying that we can only listen and read the Bible and not enjoy other activities; but sometimes we should pause to evaluate our priorities and whether or not we delight in God's Word like we do in other things. Also, I wonder if Satan gets us to believe that the Bible is some huge, daunting book that must take at least a year to read (maybe more!) to keep us from reading it, when we gladly read other books in no time at all.
How to read the Bible in two weeks?
Have a plan of how many chapters you are going to read each day and to what point in the Bible you need to be at each day. Break it down day by day and also where you need to be at the end of 7 days. Write all these down so that you can feel good about crossing them off when you accomplish it each day. (929 OT chapters + 260 NT chapters = 1189 total chapters in the Bible) divided by 14 = 85 chapters a day. Chapter Count for the Books of the Bible.
Prioritize your life so that you can accomplish this goal. We re-prioritize our life when our friends come over, when we go on vacation, something special is on TV, or we have an event to go to that we want to attend. So make it a goal to read/listen to your allotted verses every day and re-prioritize your time so that you can do it (it's hard to catch up if you get behind because of the amount of chapters you need to read each day). Remember you can listen to the Bible while you are driving instead of listening to the radio, read the Bible while you are eating lunch instead of viewing your social media, or find some other ways to utilize your time to accomplish your goal.
Get a notebook and write down questions or insights. Don't get bogged down in answering questions right now. Just jot them down and come back to them later. The goal is to get through reading the Bible to get a big picture, not have an in-depth study at this point.
Don't stop here. Once you have finished reading the Bible in 2 weeks, don't stop! (It's not like you have reached your yearly quota of reading the Bible in 2018). Study a book of the Bible in depth, answer the questions that you wrote down, or pick another Bible reading plan that will take you through the Bible again at a much SLOWER pace. (See resources below). And if you don't make it in 2 weeks, I would encourage you to keep going as fast as you can until you finish. This will help keep the flow of your reading and what you are learning.
Enjoy reading through God's Word. I hope that you are blessed by this challenge, like I was, so that you can get an aerial view of the Bible, quickly. Enjoy!
