Sing a song to the Lord; belt out a hardy "praise the Lord!" For he is responsible for the rescue of needy people -- saving their lives from the death-hold of evil tyrannts. ~ Jeremiah 20:13 (ABP)
The Lord topples the powerful from their positions of influence and replaces them with a bunch of no-name nobodies. ~ Luke 1:52 (ABP)
KEY THOUGHT:
Be encouraged because God has a habit of replacing powerful tyrannts with the humble who have been faithfully flying below the radar.
PRAYER:
Lord God, thank you for the assurance of your justice. I allow myself to wallow in discouragement when I see how the powerful people of the world abuse those who are poor and vulnerable. Meet me in those moments and help me to sort the righteous indignation from the faithless discouragement. I am going to trust you for justice for the poor and live accordingly. Amen.
Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are... ~ Deuteronomy 6:6-7a (MSG)
The whole point of what we’re urging is simply love—love uncontaminated by self-interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God. ~ 1 Timothy 1:5 (MSG)
KEY THOUGHT:
Act on what you've been taught.
PRAYER:
Thank you, Father, for the life-giving words you proclaim for me today -- words of hope and promises of eternal life. Move my mouth today to tell the Good News to my children or whatever children of yours you bring into my day. May I do this in love and faith, trusting that your word never returns void. Amen. (Daily Texts, Mount Carmel Ministries edition)
God remembers! That covenant he made with Israel will never ever leave his mind. And his word is good for a thousand generations -- longer than you can imagine. ~ Psalm 105:8 (ABP)
Jesus said: The earth and the sky won't last forever, but my words will still be defining reality for at least that long. ~ Mark 13:31 (ABP)
KEY THOUGHT:
God is faithful to his word forever!
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, I'm flakey and in spite of my good intentions I can't always keep my word. It's tempting to think of you through the grid of my own experience. In the moments when I start to doubt that there is meaning and that your justice will prevale help me to recognize the good news of your unending faithfulness. Amen.
The Lord has saved me and I expect that he'll do it again. So let's go to his house with our ukuleles and sing, sing, sing -- without end. ~ Isaiah 38:20 (ABP)
After he was healed, the previously lame man, jumped up and kept jumping as he began to walk. He even accompanied Peter and John, walking and leaping his way into the temple -- praising God all along the whole way. ~ Acts 3:8 (ABP)
KEY THOUGHT:
Let loose in celebrating the salvation that comes from God.
PRAYER:
Glorious God, you are worthy of all expressions of praise. For you keep on saving us. I'm slow to get a groove on. Save me from being too self-concious just as you save me from the things which dampen the Kingdom of God party. I am going to celebrate you with all that I am. 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)
