FREEDOM
ISAIAH 61:1 (CEV)
The Spirit of the LORD God
has taken control of me!
The LORD has chosen and sent me
to tell the oppressed
the good news,
to heal the brokenhearted,
and to announce freedom
for prisoners and captives.
GALATIANS 5:1 (CEV)
Christ has set us free! This means we are really free. Now hold on to your freedom and don’t ever become slaves of the Law again.
SUMMARY SENTENCE
Christ has set us free to serve him -- and him alone.
PRAYER
Thank you, God, for setting us free from the things which truly oppress us. I acknowledge that I don't really understand what that freedom means and often confuse it with acquiring personal power. Help me to grasp the breadth of this freedom which Christ has secured -- and to more fully serve him and his agenda for the world. I'm going to live with real freedom. 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)
