As 2025 begins, many people all around the world set their sites on things they want to change. As I scroll through my personal social media accounts, things such as physical, mental, and emotional health seem to be at the top of the charts for goals in 2025. There’s also spiritual health. In fact, according to a recent study, Bible sales are up twenty-two percent this year. With so many uncertainties in life and things happening around the world, many people are turning to God’s Word and hoping to find some peace there. And if peace in this troubled world is what you are looking for, there’s no greater place than Scripture to find that peace.

I’m not really one for New Year’s resolutions or setting goals for the new year. Sure, I could certainly lose some weight and focus on being more intentional and present in the lives of those around me. The only concrete goal that I have set is the same one I begin each year on January 1st: reading the Bible all the way through. I am currently doing two reading plans; one is chronologically through the Bible and the other is book by book. For those who didn’t know, the Bible as we have in English is not arranged in the order it was written. Unless you have a chronological Bible, the books are arranged in order of themes, and not by date written.

For those who are beginning to read the Bible this year, whether this is your first time through or you’ve read it numerous times, congratulations. There’s nothing we could read that will impact our lives in a greater way than God’s Word. For this reason, I want to offer some really basic insight as we begin reading through the Bible this year.

The Bible tells the story of the greatest rescue mission ever carried out. Indeed, it is the greatest humanitarian mission ever launched and completed. It begins in Genesis 1:1 where we are introduced to the main character of the story: God. The setting for the story takes place here on this earth where God placed His creation: humankind. God only spends two chapters writing about creation, but there is so much we can learn from these two chapters. God is relational. He is sovereign. He is powerful. God desired us to have a relationship with Him. He walked with Adam and Even in the garden of Eden, He instructed them, and He guided them. But in Genesis 3 something happens to that perfect relationship God intended to have with humanity. Sin enters the world.

You can read commentaries and many websites that will do a deep-dive into the first few chapters of Genesis. I am not writing this post to provide that. Rather, I am laying the basic groundwork for what you will read in the first few chapters and how it all ties to the final chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22. From the moment sin entered the world in Genesis 3, God knew there would need to be a cross. There would need to be a final sacrifice for the sin that severed the perfect relationship He once had with man and woman. That final sacrifice? Jesus Christ. Jesus is even spoken of in Genesis 3:15. From that point forward, everything is pointing to and paving the way for the Messiah to enter the world, redeem us of our sins, and make a way to enter back into the perfect union we once had in the garden of Eden before sin plagued mankind.

In short, beginning with reading the Bible, God introduces us to who He is in Genesis 1:1. He is the Creator. He lays the foundation for His story that will be told in the sixty-six books of the Bible, and gives us our first glimpse of who He is in relation to man. He desires to walk with His creation, have a relationship with them, and to be worshiped by them. In Genesis 3, the devil is introduced to the story and deceives the man and woman. He questions the authority of God by mixing a lie covered in half-truth, the man and woman are deceived, and sin enters the world. From that point on, as we will read throughout Scripture, everything is pointing to Jesus and the need for His sacrifice through His death on the cross.

I’ll check back in periodically and provide some more input as we continue this journey. I would also love to hear your own thoughts as you begin. Why are you choosing to read the Bible this year? What do you hope to gain from reading the Bible this year? How can someone like me help you and encourage you as you read? Please comment below!