I know it's a month away, but I'm starting to think about certain goals I like to have for myself on January 1st.
And one of the goals I had for myself, when it came to my Christian walk, was to read through the bible....Multiple times.
Over the past few years, I've been taking part in a community reading plan with The Kingdom Bible Study group on the blockchain, and this will be the third year that we've read the bible from front to cover. It's been so rewarding! But this year I decided to push myself and not only read through Scripture with a group, but also a personal read-through as well!
So I started the 'Old & New Testament' reading plan on March 31st, 2025. And it took my 211 days to go through the entire bible, as I finished the plan on October 28th of this year. Every day it went through some old testament chapters and then some new testament chapters. It wasn't in chronological order, which I enjoyed, because it kept me on my toes....Knowing the context and setting for each page I was reading.
And with the community plan, we're into our last month of readings. So on December 31st, I would have read through the bible twice this past year. God willing :)
While I plan on once again reading through the bible again with the Kingdom community, I do want to also read through it on a personal challenge as well. But in 2026, I think I'm going to do something, a little bit different...
You see, I tend to stick to two translations when I'm reading and studying the bible:
The King James Version
The New King James Version
And while I'm reading through Scripture, I enjoy listening to the audio of it from YouVersion's Bible App. So this year I want to read through the bible using a different translation....
Here's the catch, I don't own many other translations....I have an MEV (Modern English Version) which doesn't have an audio version in YouVersion. And a NET Version (New English Translation) which again, isn't featured in YouVersion as an audio bible.
All I have is this...
The New American Standard Bible is a fairly popular translation that my good friend absolutely loves. And she's been reading this version for years. So I'm leaning towards this one.
I have no desire to read the NIV, but I'm also thinking about the ESV perhaps...I'm just not sold on one version yet! I need it to be both featured on YouVersion as an audio version and more on the word for word spectrum, rather than thought for thought.
Here's the spectrum if you are curious...
What is your favorite translation?
And what are your plans to read through God's Word in 2026?