He is God. Let him do whatever he thinks best. ~ 1 Samuel 3:18 (MSG)
May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven. ~ Matthew 6:10 (NLT)
KEY IDEA:
Trust God and his agenda.
PRAYER:
Big God, thank you for your great plans. I confess that I talk big too often -- as though I know what is going on and how to fix everything in the world. Fill me with the humility needed to embrace your agenda and the faith required to live it. I'm eager to see your will be done -- even when it has nothing to do with my personal agenda. I love you, Jesus! Amen.
You are our God— please let us come home. ~ Jeremiah 31:18 (CEV)
Take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. ~ Esphesians 4:23 (MSG)
KEY IDEA:
Return to God and he will make the changes in you that need to be made.
PRAYER:
Lord, I'm grateful that you are a God who believes in change. Even though I'm a loser of a person who ignores the good and strays toward the wrong, you continue to work on me. You are making me into a new prson -- your new person. Contnue on. Don't give up on me. Deep inside I want change. Amen.
The 15th Sunday after Pentecost
The poor will eat and be full, and all who worship you will be thankful and live in hope. ~ Psalm 22:26 (CEV)
Jesus replied: I am the bread that gives life! No one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No one who has faith in me will ever be thirsty. ~ John 6:35 (CEV)
KEY IDEA:
Jesus himself is the food that sustains our lives.
PRAYER:
Generous God, thank you for sustaining our lives through the gift of your Son Jesus. We do not follow him closely enough -- even though we are eager to acknowledge him as the bread of life. We make lots of uhealthy diet choices. Teach me how to eat well so that I might more fully live in hope. My goal is to invite others to join me at the great feast you are laying out for us. Amen.
Don’t mistreat foreigners. You were foreigners in Egypt, and you know what it is like. ~ Exodus 23:9 (CEV)
That night, Joseph got up and took his wife and the child to Egypt... ~ Matthew 2:14 (CEV)
KEY IDEA:
Jesus was a refugee and so we treat all displaced people as though we were treating him.
PRAYER:
Thank you, Jesus, for your kindness toward displaced people. We are all subject to displacement and some of our families have been forced to move. I confess, though, that sometimes I have trouble treating people who are different from me with respect. I worry about their influence and their secret agendas to change us. Save me from my fear and help me to grow in my love for foreigners. Because of Jesus, I'm going to treat all with dignity -- whether they deserve it or not. 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)
