You fool!
Honor the Lord with your wealth... ~ Proverbs 3:9
Then I’ll say to myself, "You have stored up enough good things to last for years to come. Live it up! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself."
But God said to him, "You fool!" ~ Luke 12:19-20 (CEV)
God, are you talking to me when you say "Fool"? Sometimes it bothers me that I hold so tightly onto what I have. You call us to major in giving, but I major in holding onto things -- just in case... And I feel like I'm entitled to keep everything I've worked for. Isn't that my right? But you see things differently. Help me to adopt your attitude toward money and wealth. Help me to focus less on putting together a good life for myself and more on living a generous life. That's how you define good. For that is who you are -- generous! Again, I want nothing more than to be like you. 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 — 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)
