Feeling special
You made us a little lower
than you yourself,
and you have crowned us
with glory and honor. ~ Psalm 8:5 (CEV)
God decided to give us life through the word of truth so we might be the most important of all the things he made. ~ James 1:18 (NCV)
I'm amazed, Lord, that you would do so much for us. We don't deserve glory, honor, or status. This is especially true since we do not treat you with the glory, honor, and status that you, of all beings, deserve. That is something I regret. But any regrets are overshadowed by your generosity. I can't help but think of your kindness and I am going to give myself to living up to who I am. Amen.
Challenging Words
- overshadowed -- to appear more important than something else. Even though the regrets continue to exist they are not very noticeable because God's generosity is more important. It draws all the attention to itself.
- living up to -- an expression which means to meet a high standard or expectation
*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)
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)
