All the creatures look expectantly to you
to give them their meals on time.
You come, and they gather around;
you open your hand and they eat from it. ~ Psalm 104:27-28 (MSG)
You have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness. ~ 1 Peter 2:3 (NLT)
KEY THOUGHT:
God is feeding us in so many wonderful ways.
PRAYER:
Thank you, God, for feeding me. I take it all for granted too much of the time. Awaken me to your gifts as I receive them so I can learn to celebrate your kindness. Amen.
By your teachings, Lord,
I am warned;
by obeying them,
I am greatly rewarded. ~ Psalm 19:11 (CEV)
Train yourself to be godly. ~ 1 Timothy 4:7 (NLT)
KEY THOUGHT:
Consider yourself to be in training -- constantly developing new skills in godly living.
PRAYER:
Lord, thank you for coaching me through your Word. I'm still a bit of a whimp. I am an on and off again person when it comes to training. So I would ask that you would help me build consistency in my workouts. Give me joy in them and encouragement so that I can become a Christ-like person. Amen.
I call out to High God,
the God who holds me together. ~ Psalm 57:2 (MSG)
Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry; you’ll be saved. ~ Mark 13:13b (MSG)
KEY THOUGHT:
It pays to stay with God.
PRAYER:
Most High God, thank you for keeping my life from falling a part. I confess to indulging in discouragement. It's so disheartening to see evil thriving -- to see bad people in power -- to see vulnerable people hurt. Hold me together so that I can turn from sorriness to joyful salvation. I pray in the name of our Savior Jesus. Amen.
The 3rd Sunday in Lent
God said:
Solomon, I’m pleased that you asked for this. You could have asked to live a long time or to be rich. Or you could have asked for your enemies to be destroyed. Instead, you asked for wisdom to make right decisions. So I’ll make you wiser than anyone who has ever lived or ever will live. ~ 1 Kings 3:11-12 (CEV)
But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well. ~ Matthew 6:33 (CEV)
KEY IDEA:
Make God's agenda your first priority and he will bless you with more than you can imagine to ask.
PRAYER:
Wise and generous God, thank you for including me in your agenda. I confess to the struggle I have of including your agenda in my life. Grant me the wisdom and energy I need to reprioritize my life so that it all lines up with your agenda. I am going to strive to pursue Jesus and his kingdom as my top priority. 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)
