You have looked deep
into my heart, Lord,
and you know all about me.
You know when I am resting
or when I am working,
and from heaven
you discover my thoughts. ~ Psalm 139:1-2 (CEV)
In God we live, move, and exist. ~ Acts 17:28 (CEB)
KEY IDEA:
God is the source of our existence -- our identity.
PRAYER:
You know me, God, at a level deeper than I can know myself. That's because you are the source. Forgive me for thinking that I am all alone and that no one understands me or my pain. Bring to my awareness the source of my identity in you. I am going to quit looking for myself apart from you. Amen.
Lord God All-Powerful,
make us strong again!
Smile on us and save us. ~ Psalm 80:19 (CEV)
Our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and a good hope. May he encourage your hearts and give you strength in every good thing you do or say. ~ 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 (CEB)
KEY IDEA:
God will give you needed strength.
PRAYER:
Lord God All-Powerful,
make us strong again! I am weak and easily allow the world to get the best of me. But I trust that you are changing all that. Through your grace I am going to become strong enough to consistently say and do the right thing. Amen.
Our days here are relatively few, so help us to grow wise by living them well. ~ Psalm 90:12 (ABP)
Anyone who hears and obeys these teachings of mine is like a wise person who built a house on solid rock. ~ Matthew 7:24 (CEV)
KEY IDEA:
Aim for the wisdom that comes through obedience to Jesus' teaching.
PRAYER:
Thank you, Jesus, for being my teacher. I don't pay very close attention sometimes and I'm certainly not totally obedient. That's why I lack wisdom. Straighten me out so that I'm walking your talk. I want to become one of your solid and wise followers. Amen.
Don’t let me drift toward evil... ~ Psalm 141:4 (NLT)
Don’t be defeated by evil, but defeat evil with good. ~ Romans 12:21 (CEB)
KEY IDEA:
Defeat evil by doing good.
PRAYER:
Lord, thank you for retraining evil in the world. It could be a whole lot worse than it is. I even underestimate my own participation in things which are evil. Enlighten me regarding those things in society which are rooted in evil and show me how to overcome them with the good that Jesus is doing through me. I'm with you in conquering evil -- whether it is in me or the rest of the world. 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 — my own 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)
