Friday, February 27, 2015

God's commands

I want to do your will, my God. Your Instruction is deep within me. ~ Psalm 40:8 (CEB)

Loving God means obeying his commands. And God’s commands are not too hard for us. ~ 1 John 5:3 (ERV)

For some reason, God, we like to make things harder than they are. Maybe having a hard task makes us feel important. Maybe we like to imagine ourselves in a great overwhelming battle. But it sounds like things are a lot simpler than that. If we truly love you, we will obey your commandments. Your Spirit has allowed us to internalize those commands. They are written inside us and they are not too hard for us to obey. We know what to do. And we have the power to do it.

So if it is that easy, why do I sin so much? Could it be that I don't love you as much as I think or pretend that I do? It's a good thing that your love for me does not depend on my consistent love for you. And the more I realize that, the easier it is to do what you've told me to do. Amen.

Challenging Words
  • internalize -- to make an attitude, value, or behavior a part of one's nature -- the fabric or essence of who you are. That is, if something is internalized, it becomes a part of who you are and cannot be separated from you.
  • consistent -- something that does not change. It is always the same.
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DAILYTEXTS.ORG

*ABOUT THE
DAILY TEXTS

The Daily Texts have been published by the Moravian Church since 1731. In 2015 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 — my own 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)

EEB = EasyEnglish Bible (©2015, MissionAssist)

ERV = Easy-To-Read Version (©2006, World Bible Translation Center)

GNT = Good News Translation (©1992, American Bible Society)

MSG = The Message (©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson)

NCB = New Catholic Bible (©2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp.)

NCV = New Century Version (©2005, Thomas Nelson Inc)

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)

NRSVUE = New Revised Standard Version (© 2021 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.)

NTE = New Testament for Everyone (©2011 Nicolas Thomas Wright.)

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