Mercy and forgiveness
Your sins keep my blessings at a distance. ~ Jeremiah 5:25 (MSG)
“Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’” ~ Luke 18:13 (MSG)
KEY IDEA:
Ironically, our sin often keeps us from realizing that God wants to bless us with forgiveness.
PRAYER:
Lord, thank you for your mercy. However, I am often so self-confident that I am unaware of my need for your mercy and forgiveness. I realize that I need to become more like the humbled taxman, aware of his own brokenness and his inability to make things right. I'm going to trust you to straighten out the mess that I've created for myself.
I know that I can't do it. But Jesus has already acted on my behalf. 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)
