Listen to God
If you had listened all along to what I told you,
your life would have flowed full like a river,
blessings rolling in like waves from the sea. ~ Isaiah 48:18 (MSG)
God’s kingdom... is about pleasing God, about living in peace, and about true happiness. All this comes from the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ in this way, you will please God and be respected by people. ~ Romans 14:17 (part)-18 (CEV)
God,
THANKS: I'm so grateful that you send peace and happiness rolling our way like the waves of the ocean -- one after another -- constant -- consistent. We are so blessed.
REGRETS: Yet, in spite of all that is given to us, I am not so different from the people being chastised in the book of Isaiah. I don't always listen to what God wants me to do. I'm often more interested in what I feel like doing.
INTERCESSION: Please continue to develop my sensitivity to your message and the voice of your Holy Spirit.
PURPOSE: From now on I'm going to live out the kingdom of God and all that it is about.
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)
