THE STRUGGLE
JEREMIAH 25:5 (CEV)
Change your ways! If you stop doing evil, I will let you stay forever in this land that I gave your ancestors.
ROMANS 7:22-23 (MSG)
The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight.
SUMMARY SENTENCE
Following God's directions, regardless of good intentions, is always a struggle.
PRAYER
Gracious God, thank you for stepping in to save us because we can't save ourselves. I know that it will always be a struggle to completely follow you. Forgive me for accepting the reality of sin in my life too easily. Help me to continue the struggle so that in the end Christ will be honored as the victor over my life. Amen.
*ABOUT THE
DAILY TEXTS
The Daily Texts have been published by the Moravian Church since 1731. In 2011 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)
