Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Prayer for Guidance and Protection[a]
25 To you, O Lord, I offer my prayer;
2 in you, my God, I trust.
Save me from the shame of defeat;
don't let my enemies gloat over me!
3 Defeat does not come to those who trust in you,
but to those who are quick to rebel against you.
4 Teach me your ways, O Lord;
make them known to me.
5 Teach me to live according to your truth,
for you are my God, who saves me.
I always trust in you.
6 Remember, O Lord, your kindness and constant love
which you have shown from long ago.
7 Forgive the sins and errors of my youth.
In your constant love and goodness,
remember me, Lord!
8 Because the Lord is righteous and good,
he teaches sinners the path they should follow.
9 He leads the humble in the right way
and teaches them his will.
10 With faithfulness and love he leads
all who keep his covenant and obey his commands.
Daniel Prays for His People
9 Darius the Mede, who was the son of Xerxes, ruled over the kingdom of Babylonia. 2 (A)In the first year of his reign I was studying the sacred books and thinking about the seventy years that Jerusalem would be in ruins, according to what the Lord had told the prophet Jeremiah. 3 And I prayed earnestly to the Lord God, pleading with him, fasting, wearing sackcloth, and sitting in ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed the sins of my people.
I said, “Lord God, you are great, and we honor you. You are faithful to your covenant and show constant love to those who love you and do what you command.
5 “We have sinned, we have been evil, we have done wrong. We have rejected what you commanded us to do and have turned away from what you showed us was right. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our rulers, our ancestors, and our whole nation. 7 (B)You, Lord, always do what is right, but we have always brought disgrace on ourselves. This is true of all of us who live in Judea and in Jerusalem and of all the Israelites whom you scattered in countries near and far because they were unfaithful to you. 8 Our kings, our rulers, and our ancestors have acted shamefully and sinned against you, Lord. 9 You are merciful and forgiving, although we have rebelled against you. 10 We did not listen to you, O Lord our God, when you told us to live according to the laws which you gave us through your servants the prophets. 11 (C)All Israel broke your laws and refused to listen to what you said. We sinned against you, and so you brought on us the curses that are written in the Law of Moses, your servant. 12 You did what you said you would do to us and our rulers. You punished Jerusalem more severely than any other city on earth, 13 giving us all the punishment described in the Law of Moses. But even now, O Lord our God, we have not tried to please you by turning from our sins or by following your truth. 14 You, O Lord our God, were prepared to punish us, and you did, because you always do what is right, and we did not listen to you.
3 What we have seen and heard we announce to you also, so that you will join with us in the fellowship that we have with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 We write this in order that our[a] joy may be complete.
God Is Light
5 Now the message that we have heard from his Son and announce is this: God is light, and there is no darkness at all in him. 6 If, then, we say that we have fellowship with him, yet at the same time live in the darkness, we are lying both in our words and in our actions. 7 But if we live in the light—just as he is in the light—then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us. 9 But if we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right: he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make a liar out of God, and his word is not in us.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.