God cares
(God says,) Call to me in times of trouble.
I will save you, and you will honor me. ~ Psalm 50:15 (NCV)
Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. ~ 1 Peter 5:7 (NLT)
Lord, there is a lot of trouble in the world -- even in my life. But there is also a lot of you to go around. Your ability and desire to care is greater than the size of all the problems combined. You really do want us to relax, follow your directions, and let you take care of us. Of course, I like to be in charge of my life -- even if that means having to worry about everything. But I'm learning to think and act differently. It's too hard to carry all of these troubles around with me. It's a lot easier to give them to you. Help me to do that even more than I'm already doing it. Help me to give all my worries and cares to you. It gives me confidence knowing that you care about me. Amen.
*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)
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)
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.)