The Benefits of Using a Bible App

It’s a new year, full of new opportunities and new possibilities. Why not start the new year with a new Bible? These three benefits have hooked me on YouVersion’s Bible App.

Now, maybe your Bible is just sitting on a shelf, looking nice and keeping track of important life milestones. Or maybe it’s so well-used, with every verse underlined or highlighted, that the spine is falling off.

Either way, I encourage you to try something new this year, if you haven’t already, and get this new Bible application.

And the best part? It’s FREE. Yes, free. Thanks to lifechurch.tv and youversion.com, the Bible is now an app that can be downloaded onto your mobile device, smartphone, or tablet. (You can download it HERE.) I think you can even just use it in your standard browser.

I’ve had this Bible application on my iPhone for a while, but never really used it until I discovered the amazing power of having the Bible at my fingertips.

What is it that’s got me excited about this? The audio readings of the Bible, the great selection of reading plans, and the audio time length bar.

1. THE AUDIO READINGS

The first thing I really like is the option to listen to an audio recording of the passage I’m reading.  

I finally discovered that having the Bible read aloud to me, while I read along with the words, helped open up a new world of meaning for me. It’s as if the Bible has come to life. It’s a dramatic reading.

I personally listen to the NIV84 version (just select this as your version to read, see the top left circle in the screenshot below). (I also like the NLT for more modern language.)

I love having the actor Max McLean read the NIV version of the Bible. He used to occasionally do the scripture readings at one of my former churches. And, I’ve even seen him act onstage in C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters. He’s great.

I’ve told several people about this audio function. They gave it a try and have loved it too!

By listening to the audio recordings, I’ve really found myself craving to hear more of God’s word each day.

2. THE READING PLANS

The second thing I really like about the Bible app is the great selection of reading plans they have. Last October, I wanted to start a yearly reading plan. I’d been kind of stuck in my devotions, after having read Psalms and Proverbs. I was looking for a way to get engaged again daily with God’s word that would also get me through the whole Bible.

This app from YouVersion has a great selection of plans out there. You can browse them online HERE. They’re not all yearly plans. Some are longer, some are shorter, some are geared for topics or specific times of the year, like Christmas.

I’m personally reading the M’Cheyne One-Year Reading Plan. It’s a little ambitious, but I’m enjoying it. There are four readings a day. In a year, you go through the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice (see below).

I’m currently on day 70 of 365, or 19% of the way through!

What I like about doing the reading plan on my mobile device (I prefer using my iPad) is that I don’t have to keep up with my place in my reading. When I tried this the old-fashioned way, I had to keep 4 bookmarks in my tiny Bible and keep it with me all the time. It was messy and complicated, and I eventually gave up.

Now it’s so easy to just click on my plan and have the daily readings automatically populate, and then I can read right through them without having to do any page-turning or place-finding (see below).  It’s great!

3. THE AUDIO TIME LENGTH

The third benefit of this app is knowing exactly how long my readings are going to take each day.

A lot of the time, when just reading straight from my book Bible, I would see a long chapter and think, “This is going to take too long…” With the Bible app, when I click on the audio to play it, there’s a time counter at the bottom telling me exactly how long it will take to listen to that selection (see below).

Usually each reading is around five minutes. I have five minutes in my day that I can devote to listening to the Bible.

When I’m looking at just reading it though, I usually think it will take twenty minutes to read it, so I procrastinate and get behind.

Okay, well, this isn’t meant to be a pitch for YouVersion or anything, and they’re not paying me a dime 🙁 I just wanted to share with you all a resource that I’ve found truly helpful and explain the benefits I’ve found to it.

It’s a great tool and a great way to jump into God’s word! Many blessings in the New Year.

How successful have you been in doing Bible reading plans?Any secrets or great tools you’d recommend?

You might also like: How to Pray Through the Lord’s Prayer and Why Prayer is Important