DEUTERONOMY 29:18 (ABP)
Don't allow poisonous weeds to get established in your garden.
1 THESSALONIANS 3:12 (CEV)
May the Lord make your love for each other and for everyone else grow by leaps and bounds. That’s how our love for you has grown.
SUMMARY SENTENCE
Grow love.
PRAYER
Thank you, God, for cultivating your love in my life through the many people you've sent my way over the years. Forgive me for allowing my dogmatism and political opinions to choke out the love that you've planted. Give me a heart for others -- especially for those with whom I have differences. I'm going to allow the love of Christ to dominate my life. Amen.
ZEPHANIAH 3:16-17 (CEV)
Don’t be discouraged
or grow weak from fear!
The LORD your God
wins victory after victory
and is always with you.
JOHN 21:3-4 (ABP)
Jesus' apprentices went out in their boat to fish. But their nets came up empty all night long. As the sun rose they could see Jesus standing on the shore, although they didn't realize who he was.
SUMMARY SENTENCE
Even when we can't see him God is standing with us.
PRAYER
God of glorious sunrises, I thank you for standing watch over me throughout the night. Sometimes I let the darkness confuse me into believing that I'm alone. Show me your saving presence in the moments when I most need to see it. I'm not going to let the darkness get to me. Amen.
NAHUM 1:15 (MSG)
Look! Striding across the mountains—
a messenger bringing the latest good news: peace!
2 CORINTHIANS 5:18 (CEV)
God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others.
SUMMARY SENTENCE
Our mission is to support the peace that Christ has extended.
PRAYER
You are truly a God of good news! While we mess things up on a pretty regular basis, you're busy turning our turmoil into peace. That's what you do! Please continue to refine my life so that I'm all about the kind of peace that you are developing. I want to become a messenger of the peace of Christ. Amen.
Christ the King Sunday
PROVERBS 21:2 (CEV)
We may think we are doing
the right thing,
but the LORD always knows
what is in our hearts.
ROMANS 16:19 (MSG)
And so while there has never been any question about your honesty in these matters—I couldn’t be more proud of you!—I want you also to be smart, making sure every “good” thing is the real thing.
SUMMARY SENTENCE
Stay alert to the condition of your heart.
PRAYER
Great God, you are 100% genuine. You have no hidden agenda and your intentions are always consistent with your actions. We, on the other hand, are less than fully self-aware. We think we're doing good only to discover upon reflection that our motives have been tainted. It's so hard to be genuine. Please continue to develop my self-awareness so that I can be open to your heart-changing actions. I want to become the real thing. 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)
