We are unfit to worship you;
each of our good deeds
is merely a filthy rag. ~ Isaiah 64:6 (CEV)
The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered that the Lord had said, “Before a rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will say three times that you don’t know me.” Then Peter went out and cried hard. ~ Luke 22:61-62 (CEV)
KEY IDEA:
Apart from the grace of God we can't be consistently good enough to make ourselves fit to follow Christ.
PRAYER:
Lord, it is amazing that you would have anything to do with us. No matter how hard we try we always fall short in righteousness. I usually end up looking silly when I try to impress you (and others) with how good I am.
Douse me with your grace -- wash the filth away from my body, mind, heart, and soul. I want to be able to serve you and follow Christ Jesus. He is the one who turns self-focused losers into Jesus-honoring winners. Amen.
God bless the one who comes
in the name of the Lord! ~ Psalm 118:26 (CEV)
God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. ~ 1 John 4:9 (CEV)
KEY IDEA:
Jesus is the blessed one sent from God to bring us life.
PRAYER:
Blessed Jesus, thank you for leaving your safe and secure heavenly throne to come here and be with us. You are such a great friend. Even more, you are a great Savior -- sacrificing your life to bring us the kind of life that we don't really deserve. You are merciful and generous. But I am slow to respond and still seek after things which have nothing to do with the life you offer. Steer me in a healthy direction so that I can start living the life.
Amen.
O Lord, you show mercy to those who have no one else to turn to. ~ Hosea 14:3 (GNT)
The Beginning and Ending, the First and Final One, the Once Dead and Then Come Alive, speaks: “I can see your pain and poverty—constant pain, dire poverty—but I also see your wealth. ~ Revelation 2:8-9 (MSG)
KEY IDEA:
No matter how hopeless you are God will respond to you and your need.
PRAYER:
Gracious and responsive God, thank you for seeing and understanding all the pain in my life. There is so much hurt that I don't understand it all. All I can really do is turn to you. You have experienced the pain through your Son Christ Jesus. So you know what I'm going through. But because Christ broke through the pain and death barrier you know how to lead me through it and past it. Help me to trust you to take care of it. Amen.
I am God your healer. ~ Exodus 15:26 (MSG)
By his wounds you are healed. ~ 1 Peter 2:24 (NLT)
KEY IDEA:
Jesus is our healer.
PRAYER:
Merciful God, thank you for sending Jesus into the world to heal us of the disease we call sin.
It's good to be well. Although, I'm not as healthy as I make myself out to be. I still hold onto some of the aspects of the disease with which you have already dealt. I need your help in making a total break from everything that is unhealthy.
I'm looking forward to living as someone who has been healed by the best doctor of all. 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)
