How are your daily devotionals going? Are you spending time with God reading His word and praying each day. If not, you are missing out!
My hope for you is that you would use the daily readings that we provide at CrossPoint as a simple way to stay on track, focused and renewed in your faith.
A simple way to interact with scripture each day is to practice rewriting. Just like there are hundreds of versions of scripture that have each been translated for different needs and reasons, I think a great spiritual exercise is to create your own translation from time to time.
It’s a simple way of processing God’s word by reading it, praying/thinking through it, then re-writing it in your own terms… we’re not creating a new Bible… just expressing it the way you are reading and understanding it in the moment…
Sometimes a rewrite points out things and gives insight that you didn’t recognize in just a glance or reading. It causes you to think through the vocabulary, and truly process what we’re being told.
That was part of my devotional today.
Let me share with you! I was spending time in the familiar passage of the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew six. I wrote two columns in my journal: one to write out the Lord’s Prayer and then one to rewrite it in my own words.
Here is what I enjoyed this morning:
Matthew 6:9–13 (in the English Standard Version):
9 “Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.”
Now, Matthew 6:9–13 (in the Andy Unstandard Version):
“Loving God above, great are You and great is Your name.
May Your rule and reign extend. May Your desires and plans prevail. And, may the earth become more like heaven because of You.
We trust You for all that we need.
We confess our wrongness and rejoice in Your mercy. May it transform us, causing us to be merciful to others in kind.
Protect our path today and shelter us from our own weaknesses. Rescue us from the evil in this world.”
It’s just that simple.
Take some time today to get in God’s word. Download the CrossPoint app (link here) for a daily reading list if you don’t know where to begin and maybe start a journal with this practice as one of your first entries.
Write out God’s word, thinking and praying through it, then rewrite it in your own words.
And (just as a bonus of course), maybe even live it out in the day that follows.
Many blessings my friend!
More of Him, less of me – Pastor Andy Addis