Daily Bible Verses by Book

Jesus taught them, “But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” —Matthew 5:44 

Richard Rohr describes how loving our enemies is a practice of “integrating the negative,” accepting what we find unacceptable within ourselves: 

Our enemies always carry our own shadow side, the things we don’t like about ourselves. We will never face our own shadow until we embrace those who threaten us (as Francis of Assisi embraced the leper in his conversion experience). The people who turn us off…

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you

Rev. James Lawson (1928–2024), an influential teacher of nonviolence in the civil rights movement, insists on the effective power of nonviolence: 

There is impracticality to violence. It’s ineffective and has been ineffective throughout the world for too many years. We must not let people who romanticize or mythologize violence persuade us that it has proven to be efficacious…. It has proven to be the most ineffective weapon. It drains emotional, psychological, moral,…

Heavenly father
give us grace to be like you in not just loving those who love us today

⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 
⁴⁷ If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 
⁴⁸ Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Heavenly father
give us grace to give today without drawing attention to ourselves. 

¹ “Be careful that you don’t do your charitable giving before men, to be seen by them,
or else you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 
² Therefore, when you do merciful deeds, don’t sound a trumpet before yourself,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men.
Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. 
³ But when you do…

6 “Be careful that you don’t do your charitable giving^[a] before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no…

Heavenly father
give us grace to pray today, heart to heart

⁵ “When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets,
that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward. 
⁶ But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door,
pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 
⁷ In praying, don’t use…

‘But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.’   MATTHEW 6:6

Father God, you invite me to spend time with you. I accept!

‘The Christian spiritual journey is responding to God’s invitation to personal encounter in love. Prayer is our response. Prayer is the place of encounter. Growth in prayer is growth in loving intimacy with God.’ (David Benner, Opening to God…

Heavenly father
give us grace to …

⁹ Pray like this:

“‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
¹⁰ Let your Kingdom come.
    Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.
¹² Forgive us our debts,
    as we also forgive our debtors.
¹³ Bring us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one.
For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the…

“forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”  

Brian McLaren identifies how prayers of petition help us to experience forgiveness:   

Since being wounded or sinned against is a terribly common experience, I suspect we need to pay more attention to it. In fact, being wronged is directly linked in the Lord’s Prayer to the reality of doing wrong; we pray, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”  

Father Richard Rohr…

Heavenly father
give us grace to be forgiving today

¹⁴ “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 
¹⁵ But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.