Shame-free
When you think about how you acted, you will be ashamed ... I will forgive you, but you will think about your sins and be too ashamed to say a word. I, the Lord God, have spoken. ~ Ezekiel 16:61a, 63 (CEV)
Paul writes: This saying is reliable and deserves full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” -- and I’m the biggest sinner of all. ~ 1 Timothy 1:15 (CEB)
KEY IDEA:
Trust Christ Jesus to eliminate the shame.
PRAYER:
Lord, thank you for forgiveness. I accept what you have done for us -- for me. And I feel shame over my past behavior and thinking. But I'm scared because that shame has not totally eliminated all the current sin. I know that I'm forgiven and I don't want to dwell on my shortcomings. But I would like to move forward in living a shame-free life. Because of Jesus, I will. 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)
