Worry?
The eyes of all look to you in hope;
you give them their food as they need it. When you open your hand,
you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing. ~ Psalm 145:15-16 (NLT)
Look at the birds in the sky! They don’t plant or harvest. They don’t even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them. Aren’t you worth more than birds? ~ Matthew 6:26 (CEV)
Heavenly Father,
THANKS: You provide everything that I and my family need. Even though I work it is because you provide the opportunity and resources to work. You are behind everything I receive.
REGRETS: Sometimes I worry that I'm not working hard enough and that at some point everything is going to fall apart. I worry about the economy falling apart and leaving me broke. I worry about the sea rising and swallowing what's important to me.
INTERCESSION: Please save me from worry. Turn me into an ever hopeful person.
PURPOSE: I'm going to look around me and think about the amazing ways that you take care of the birds, the fish, the dogs, and cats -- and even the stupid people. If it were not for you everything would fall apart. I'm going to trust you for all my concerns.
In the name of Jesus I pray. 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)
