Watching
Keep your eyes on the Lord!
You will shine like the sun
and never blush with shame. ~ Psalm 34:5 (CEV)
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. ~ Romans 15:13 (NLT)
Lord, I'm watching you. And that changes the whole way that I see the world. If I were watching myself I'd be filled with shame. If I were watching the world I would be overwhelmed with confusion. But because I am looking at you, I'm filled with hope. I don't deserve to see what I see. I don't deserve hope. But your Holy Spirit fills me with it anyway. Continue to fill me with the kind of hope that comes from watching Jesus. Amen.
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)
