"Does anyone dare despise this day of small beginnings? They’ll change their tune when they see Zerubbabel setting the last stone in place!" ~ Zechariah 4:10 (MSG)
Another story. “God’s kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants. It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles build nests in it.” ~ Matthew 13:31-32 (MSG)
KEY IDEA:
God starts small.
PRAYER:
Great and glorious God, it is so tempting to discount the small things in life and to assume that you only work through what is grand and spectacular. That is so contrary to how you do things. Help me to take the small, simple, and unassuming events as signs of your activity. Help me to get behind what you're doing. I'm going to refocus so that I look for your hand in the small things of life. Amen.
The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land who practice his justice;
seek righteousness;
seek humility. ~ Zephaniah 2:3 (CEB)
God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. ~ Matthew 5:6 (NLT)
KEY IDEA:
God blesses those who pursue justice.
PRAYER:
Jesus, thank you for dying to establish a justice by which we can live forever. Forgive me for seeing justice as a secondary issue without eternal value. Give me the wisdom to pursue the kind of justice which characterizes your kingdom. I'm going to pursue justice for those who are weak and vulnerable that eventually, all people might recognize the justice of the cross. Amen.
...my people will feast on my good gifts. ~ Jeremiah 31:14 (NLT)
Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously. ~ Matthew 10:8 (MSR)
KEY IDEA:
God has redfined life so live generously.
PRAYER:
God, you have given more to me than I can possibly realize. I don't even try to take it all in. I need your help so that I become more grateful and generous. I'm going to start each day listing the things for which I am grateful. Amen.
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.
*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)
