Needy people
(The Lord) will turn his attention to the prayers
of those who have been abandoned.
He will not despise their prayers. ~ Psalm 102:17 (GW)
"But the tax collector was standing at a distance. He wouldn’t even look up to heaven. Instead, he became very upset, and he said, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
"I can guarantee that this tax collector went home with God’s approval..." ~ Luke 18:13-14a (GW)
KEY IDEA:
The Lord listens to those who acknowledge their neediness.
PRAYER:
Lord, thank you for listening to my cries for help. They are usually pretty genuine but at times I can be manipulative. I try to appear pious when I'm really the worst sinner. Help me to acknowledge what I know to be true deep inside me. I'm going to depend on your mercy rather than my ability to be a good actor. Amen.
*ABOUT THE
DAILY TEXTS
The Daily Texts have been published by the Moravian Church since 1731. In 2011 I started posting these Bible verses for my spiritual formation students at Pacific Islands University. In the process of responding to the verses, I found the rhythm of looking for a common thread and writing a prayer based on that key idea to be helpful for my own soul. The prayers are more or less modeled on the TRIP method, which is what I ask my students to do in their journaling. ~ Brad Boydston
TRANSLATIONS
ABP = Authorized Boydston Paraphrase -- a freestyle biblical adaptation -- somewhere between paraphrase, commentary, and sermon
CEB = Common English Bible (©2011, the Common English Bible)
CEV = Contemporary English Version (©1995, American Bible Society)
MSG = The Message (©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson)
NIRV = New International Reader's Version (©1996, 1998, Biblica)
NIV = New International Version (©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011, Biblica)
NLT = New Living Translation (©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, Tyndale House Foundation)
