Thursday, March 19, 2015

Christ the victor

The Lord will reward him with honor and power for sacrificing his life. ~ Isaiah 53:12a (CEV)

In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. ~ Colossians 2:15 (NLT)

Lord Jesus, you deserve all the honor in the world. You have been victorious when all others have failed. You triumphed over demons, spirits, powers -- and even death itself. You transformed the cross from a symbol of shame to an emblem of glory. Certainly, then, I can trust you to overcome my small-by-comparison problems. So why do I try to win the battles myself? Why do I march out there as though I'm a mighty warrior -- a great hero who is going to personally take on the evil in the world. When I'm in my right mind I realize that I can't do it. My only hope is to stick close to you and rely on you and your victory. I actually feel relieved to acknowledge that it's not up to me. Thank you. Amen.

Challenging Words
  • triumphed -- won the victory, become the winner of a contest
  • emblem -- symbol, mark, sign
  • small-by-comparison -- an object or situation that is small in contrast to another object or situation -- My problems are not very big compared to the really big problems that Jesus has already conquered.

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 -- 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)

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)

NRSV = New Revised Standard Version (© 1989 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.)

Blog Archive