God, your God, will restore everything you lost; he’ll have compassion on you; he’ll come back and pick up the pieces from all the places where you were scattered. ~ Deuteronomy 30:3 (MSG)
Come near to God, and God will come near to you. You sinners, clean sin out of your lives. You who are trying to follow God and the world at the same time, make your thinking pure. ~ James 4:8 (NCV)
KEY IDEA:
Turn your life back over to God -- completely - - and you will experience his compassion.
PRAYER:
Lord, your compassion is beyond my grasp. No matter how hard I try I can't understand just how deep your pockets of compassion go. Forgive my spiritual laziness. I am too easily satisfied with just some good intentions. I need you to help me completely implement your plan for my life. I am going to revel in your compassion, in Jesus' name, Amen.
The Lord All-Powerful is with us; the God of Jacob is our defender. ~ Psalm 46:7 (NCV)
But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. ~ 2 Thessalonians 3:3 (NLT)
KEY IDEA:
The Lord is with you and will protect you.
PRAYER:
Thank you, God, for looking out for me. I'm sorry that sometimes I look elsewhere for my sense of safety and security. Open my eyes so that I can start to see the implications of your faithfulness. I want to put my trust in you and you alone. Amen.
The Second Sunday after Epiphany
You know where I go and where I lie down.
You know everything I do. ~ Psalm 139:3 (NCV)
Two sparrows cost only a penny, but not even one of them can die without your Father’s knowing it. ~ Matthew 10:29 (NCV)
KEY IDEA:
God knows everything, so rely on him.
PRAYER:
God, you know everything about me. You know more about me than I know about me. Yet, I still pretend to know more than I do. I want to look smart so people will respect me. But you know that. Help me to set aside my proud ambition and to trust in you -- your knowledge -- your perspective. That's the only thing which makes good sense. Amen.
I, the Lord All-Powerful,
have made these plans.
No one can stop me now! ~ Isaiah 14:27 (CEV)
So what should we say about this? If God is for us, no one can defeat us. ~ Romans 8:31 (NCV)
KEY IDEA:
Align your life with God because he can't be defeated.
PRAYER:
Great and powerful God, it is good to have a friend like you on my side. I know that it would make sense to be on your side. And I want to be on your side but I'm still a bit flakey. So I need a lot of your attention to help me keep my priorites straight. Fortunately, in spite of my weaknesses you are still on our side. Amen.
*ABOUT THE
DAILY TEXTS
The Daily Texts have been published by the Moravian Church since 1731. In 2011 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)
