The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.
On those living in a pitch-dark land, light has dawned. ~ Isaiah 9:2 (CEB)
Jesus Christ gave himself to rescue us from everything that is evil and to make our hearts pure. He wanted us to be his own people and to be eager to do right. ~ Titus 2:14 (CEV)
KEY IDEA:
Jesus is the rescue light shining the way forward.
PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, you throw great light onto the situation. You reveal evil for what it is. When you do that you set us up to oppose evil with righteousness. Help me to become even more eager to do right.
I'm going to make good use of the light I've received and bring honor to the Lord through good actions. Amen.
Your dead will live... ~ Isaiah 26:19a (CEB)
Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them! ~ Revelation 14:13 (NLT)
KEY IDEA:
Death is not the final word.
PRAYER:
Risen Lord, thank you for this good word of hope. Blast it into my head each time I start to feel overwhelmed with grief over my family and friends who have died. Help me to be a part of the voice of hope that the world needs. I'm going to live the resurrection life that Jesus established when he rose from the dead. Amen.
Nations will come to your light;
kings will come to the brightness of your sunrise. ~ Isaiah 60:3 (NCV)
And note this: Some who seem least important now will be the greatest then, and some who are the greatest now will be least important then. ~ Luke 13:30 (NLT)
KEY IDEA:
Jesus' new regime will be a refreshing change -- a new day where everything we think we know is turned upside down.
PRAYER:
Lord, the world will be turning to you -- overwhelmed by our greatness. And the humble --
the least important -- will be given responsibility. I'm so overwhelmed by the absurdity of the way things work now that I have a hard time seeing what you've got in mind. Please, refresh my vision and give me new confidence in your approach. I'm going to trust you -- even when it seems really extreme. Amen.
Now may you be committed to the Lord our God with all your heart... ~ 1 Kings 8:61 (CEB)
But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. ~ 1 Corinthians 6:17 (NLT)
KEY IDEA:
Since the Lord has made us one with him we need to be 100% committed to him.
PRAYER:
Lord, thank you for reaching out to me and bringing me into your circle. You deserve total commitment. But I'm incapable of 100% commitment. I'm way too flakey. I don't know why you bother with me in the first place -- unless you think that you can change me. That's what I'm asking of you, and that is what I'm counting on. Lord Jesus, have mercy and do something with me. 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)
