Book of Common Prayer
Children of light
5 Now when it comes to specific times and dates, my dear family, you don’t need to have anyone write to you. 2 You yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a midnight robber. 3 When people say, “Peace and security!” then swift ruin will arrive at their doorstep, like the pains that come over a woman in labor, and they won’t have a chance to escape.
4 But as for you, my dear family—you are not in darkness. That day won’t surprise you like a robber. 5 You are all children of light, children of the day! We don’t belong to the night, or to darkness. 6 So, then, let’s not go to sleep, like the others, but let’s keep awake and stay sober.
7 People who sleep, you see, sleep at night. People who get drunk get drunk at night. 8 But we daytime people should be self-controlled, clothing ourselves with the breastplate of faith and love, and with the helmet of the hope of salvation; 9 because the road on which God has placed us leads, not to fury, but to gaining salvation, through our Lord Jesus the Messiah. 10 He died for us, so that whether we stay awake or go to sleep we should live together with him. 11 So strengthen one another, and build each other up, just as you are doing.
The Lord’s Prayer
7 “When you pray, don’t pile up a jumbled heap of words! That’s what the Gentiles do. They reckon that the more they say, the more likely they are to be heard. 8 So don’t be like them. You see, your father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “So this is how you should pray:
Our father in heaven,
may your name be honored.
10 May your kingdom come.
May your will be done,
as in heaven, so on earth.
11 Give us today the bread we need now;
12 and forgive us the things we owe,
as we too have forgiven what was owed to us.
13 Don’t bring us into the great trial,
but rescue us from evil.
14 “Yes: if you forgive people the wrong they have done, your heavenly father will forgive you as well. 15 But if you don’t forgive people, neither will your heavenly father forgive you what you have done wrong.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.