The First Sunday in Lent
When I refused to confess my sin,
my body wasted away... Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me... Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
and stopped trying to hide my guilt. ~ Psalm 32:3a,4a,5a (NLT)
There is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents. ~ Luke 15:10 (NLT)
KEY IDEA:
Things get better when we stop doing things God dislikes, turn to him, and start thinking and doing what pleases him.
PRAYER:
Gracious God, you welcome us when we turn to you. I confess, though, that I try to hold out as long as possible. My thinking is twisted and I need your help in straightening up the tangled mess I have created for myself. Help me to repent so that I can enjoy the full and rich life to which I have been called. In Jesus' name, Amen!
The Lord says: And in the same way that earlier I relentlessly pulled up and tore down, took apart and demolished, so now I am sticking with them as they start over, building and planting. ~ Jeremiah 31:28 (MSG)
For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:9 (CEV)
KEY IDEA:
God wants to help -- not hurt us.
PRAYER:
Lord, when I see all the things going wrong it is tempting to believe that you are out to get us. I confess my faulty understanding of you and what how you do things. Help me to release all my fears and to embrace a deeper understanding of salvation. I'm going to see you as a loving helper rather than an angry police officer. Amen.
I am God. That’s my name.
I don’t franchise my glory,
don’t endorse the no-god idols. ~ Isaiah 42:8 (MSG)
However, for us believers,
There is one God the Father.
All things come from him, and we belong to him.
And there is one Lord Jesus Christ.
All things exist through him, and we live through him. ~ 1 Corinthians 8:6 (CEB)
KEY IDEA:
There is one God and we connect to him through the Lord Jesus Christ.
PRAYER:
Lord God, you have no peers. Yet you welcome us into your life through Christ Jesus. Forgive me for placing trust in lesser beings and authorities. Stir within me the kind of faith in you that can resist all usurpers. And I will honor you with all that I am. Amen.
But the Lord is a refuge for his people,
a shelter for the people of Israel. ~ Joel 3:16 (CEB)
We who have found safety with him are greatly encouraged to hold firmly to the hope placed before us. We have this hope as an anchor for our lives. ~ Hebrews 6:18-19 (GNB)
KEY IDEA:
The Lord God is a safe place for his people.
PRAYER:
Lord, there is so much hurt and pain in my life right now. Help me to take full advantage of you as a shelter. It is so easy to try and ease the pain through forms of distraction. But I am going to trust you to shelter 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)
