Forward!
You are my Lord; all the good things I have come from you. ~ Psalm 16:2b (GNT)
I forget about the things behind me and reach out for the things ahead of me. The goal I pursue is the prize of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 3:13b-14 (CEV)
KEY IDEA:
Our goal is to stretch forward into the good life that Christ calls us into.
PRAYER:
Lord, you are very generous. All the good things in my life come from you. Thank you. I confess that I look backward and focus on the bad things that have happened. I like to talk more about how I am a victim than about how you rescued me. I get more sympathy that way. So I need help to focus on the forward rather than dwelling on what is behind me. I am trusting you to reorient my life so that I can go after the reward that comes with living in Christ. 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)
