PSALM 98:1 (MSG)
Sing to GOD a brand-new song.
He’s made a world of wonders!
COLOSSIANS 3:16 (CEB)
Sing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
SUMMARY SENTENCE
Let your thankfulness surface as a song sung to God.
PRAYER
Lord God, you are worthy of a new song. All the old songs I've sung are unable to express appropriate gratitude for all the new that you are doing in my life. All the old songs are whining dirges that fail to take into account the incredible things you're doing. Help me to look past the negativity and on to the fresh and new that is sprouting up, drawn by the sunlight that radiates from Christ Jesus. This is wonderful! All that flows from my life will be a new song. Amen.
PSALM 111:4 (CEB)
God is famous for his wondrous works.
The LORD is full of mercy and compassion.
LUKE 24:30-31 (CEV)
After Jesus sat down to eat, he took some bread. He blessed it and broke it. Then he gave it to them. At once they knew who he was, but he disappeared.
SUMMARY SENTENCE
God reveals himself through what he does.
PRAYER
Glorious God, your marvelous endeavors give us a glimpse of who you are and what you're about. Even so, I allow my eyes to drift toward the new and shiny bling that the world offers as substitutes for the substantial. Reset my sight onto Jesus, who is the living definition of all that is eternally significant. Each and every moment I'm going to look toward my Savior. Amen.
GENESIS 39:23 (CEV)
The LORD was with Joseph and made him successful in all that he did.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:6 (CEV)
I planted the seeds, Apollos watered them, but God made them sprout and grow.
SUMMARY SENTENCE
Don't fool yourself, God is the source of all that is successful.
PRAYER
Thank you, God, for your involvement in our lives. Any growth I've experienced can be traced back to you. In my mind, though, I tend to focus exclusively on any effort that I might have contributed to the situation. Help me to focus on your role in the process. Not only will that keep me humble but it will bring honor to you. Amen.
The Seventh Sunday of Eastertide
PSALM 90:10 (CEB)
We live at best to be seventy years old,
maybe eighty, if we’re strong.
But their duration brings hard work and trouble
because they go by so quickly.
And then we fly off.
2 THESSALONIANS 2:16-17 (MSG)
May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech.
SUMMARY SENTENCE
Life is short but God enlivens us with an eternal outlook.
PRAYER
God of our days, I am grateful for your eternal comfort through our Lord Jesus Christ. Over time, my endurance wanes and I have fewer reserves of strength. I depend on you alone to carry me. My meaning in life rests in you. Let my words and actions strengthen others in every good work and deed. Amen. (Daily Texts, Ground Up Grace edition)
*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)
