This Bible reading plan takes you through most of the Holy Scriptures each weekday of the year. Each day has three Bible readings:
You're welcome to read one, two, or all three of the readings every weekday. And if you fall behind, don't worry! You can either use the weekends to catch up or you can simply dive in to the reading for that day, even if you've missed a few days, weeks, or even months!
You can download a foldable bookmark here: 2026
10:1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. 2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;1 4 Simon the Zealot,2 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’3 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers,4 cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. 9 Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics5 or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. 11 And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. 15 Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant6 above his master. 25 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign7 those of his household.
26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.8 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?9 And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
40 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. 41 The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”
[1] 10:3
[2] 10:4
[3] 10:7
[4] 10:8
[5] 10:10
[6] 10:24
[7] 10:25
[8] 10:28
[9] 10:29
(ESV)
The famous news commentator Charles Osgood, host of "CBS Sunday Morning" on television and "The Osgood File" on radio, penned this "Poem on Responsibility":
There was a most important job that needed to be done,
And no reason not to do it, there was absolutely none.
But in vital matters such as this, the thing you have to ask,
Is who exactly will it be who'll carry out the task?
Anybody could have told you that everybody knew,
That this was something somebody would surely have to do.
Nobody was unwilling; anybody had the ability.
But nobody believed that it was their responsibility.
It seemed to be a job that anybody could have done,
If anybody thought he was supposed to be the one.
But since everybody recognized that anybody could,
Everybody took for granted that somebody would.
But nobody told anybody that we are aware of,
That he would be in charge of seeing it was taken care of.
And nobody took it on himself to follow through,
And do what everybody thought that somebody would do.
When what everybody needed so did not get done at all,
Everybody was complaining that somebody dropped the ball.
Anybody then could see it was an awful crying shame,
And everybody looked around for somebody to blame.
Somebody should have done the job,
And Everybody should have,
But in the end Nobody did,
What Anybody could have.
Maybe this has happened to you too. There is a job to be done. And everybody agrees that somebody should do it. But in the end, the job gets left undone because nobody steps up to the plate.
I can remember, as a teenager, how my father would divvy up a list of chores between my two siblings and me. One would wash the dishes, another would vacuum the living room, and still another would clean the bathroom. One evening, however, my father decided to let us divvy up the chores amongst ourselves. "You decide who's going to what," he told us. So we did. We all decided that none of us wanted to do any of it. And the chores didn't get done. My father never tried that again.
At the end of Matthew 9, Jesus says to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field" (Matthew 9:37-38). Jesus is here employing an agricultural metaphor to push an evangelistic imperative. "There is a great harvest of people," Jesus says, "on the cusp of being converted to the Kingdom of God. All they need is for someone to tell them about me. So pray for people to go to them and tell them about me."
I can almost imagine the disciples' reaction: "Will do, Jesus! We'll be praying away! We're sure someone will answer the call to share the gospel. In fact, we might even donate some money to a mission society to help out in the cause. Can you recommend a good one, Jesus?" This is Jesus' response: "He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: 'As you go, preach this message: The kingdom of heaven is near'" (Matthew 10:1,5,7).
Jesus ends Matthew 9 by praying that the Lord would send someone to preach the gospel. At the beginning of chapter 10, we learn that "someone" is the disciples themselves.
When it comes to sharing the gospel with others, many of us, at least tacitly, live with this attitude: "Someone will do it." We, like Jesus, may pray that God would send out missionaries, those brave souls who professionally preach the gospel in far away lands, but sadly, too many of us read the end of the Matthew 9 without also reading the beginning of Matthew 10. Because the beginning of Matthew 10 is the answer to Jesus' prayer at the end of Matthew 9. God does indeed have "someone" in mind to share his gospel. And that "someone" is you.
Will you answer the call of God to be his "someone"? It doesn't have to be complicated, you know. It can be as simple as a prayer for a sick friend, a note of encouragement to a distressed coworker, or a helping hand to someone down and out. The chances to share your faith are legion. So, will you be the "someone" who shares your faith today? I sure do hope so. For someone needs to hear what you, as God's "someone," have been called to share.
39:1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city. 3 Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came and sat in the middle gate: Nergal-sar-ezer of Samgar, Nebu-sar-sekim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, with all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon. 4 When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled, going out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls; and they went toward the Arabah. 5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, at Riblah, in the land of Hamath; and he passed sentence on him. 6 The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah. 7 He put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon. 8 The Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the house of the people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. 9 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried into exile to Babylon the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the people who remained. 10 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.
11 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave command concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, saying, 12 “Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you.” 13 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, Nebushazban the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon 14 sent and took Jeremiah from the court of the guard. They entrusted him to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, that he should take him home. So he lived among the people.
15 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the guard: 16 “Go, and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will fulfill my words against this city for harm and not for good, and they shall be accomplished before you on that day. 17 But I will deliver you on that day, declares the LORD, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. 18 For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war, because you have put your trust in me, declares the LORD.’”
(ESV)
After a siege of almost one and a half years, Nebuchadnezzar breached the walls of Jerusalem and took over the city. King Zedekiah and his royal guard fled during the night through the king's garden gate, however, the city was surrounded and the Babylonian army soon overtook them and brought Zedekiah before Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah. Zedekiah's sons were executed in his presence, along with all the princes of Judah. Zedekiah was then blinded and taken to Babylon in chains. The city was burned including the royal palace and the temple, and the Chaldean army systematically broke down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem. The rest of the people remaining in Jerusalem were taken into captivity, with only the poorest being left behind to work the vineyards and fields. Thus, every word that the LORD had spoken through his prophet Jeremiah came true. Nebuchadnezzar gave orders for Jeremiah to be treated well, even to the extent that the Babylonian commander was to "deal with him as he tells you." Jeremiah was entrusted to the care of the newly appointed governor Gedaliah and was able to live out his days in the land among the people who remained. Thus, Jeremiah's faithfulness to the LORD and his suffering on behalf of the truth was rewarded. God also told Jeremiah to reassure the Ethiopian eunuch, Ebed-melech, that he would be delivered from harm and his life would be saved, "because you have put your trust in me, declares the LORD." Thus, this entire chapter is evidence of how those who are blessed will put their trust in God, even if serving him involves suffering along the way.
87:1 On the holy mount stands the city he founded;
2 the LORD loves the gates of Zion
more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
3 Glorious things of you are spoken,
O city of God. Selah
4 Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon;
behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush1—
“This one was born there,” they say.
5 And of Zion it shall be said,
“This one and that one were born in her”;
for the Most High himself will establish her.
6 The LORD records as he registers the peoples,
“This one was born there.” Selah
7 Singers and dancers alike say,
“All my springs are in you.”
[1] 87:4
(ESV)