Lent week4 Sunday

 Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” 

Making a virtue out of necessity. 

How are you doing today? 

How did you sleep last night? 

Are you content with your life? 

Take time today to list the good things in your life. All those things that you are thankful for and that add colour to your daily existence. 

On the radio recently a woman talked about how she was born into a family where her father was an alcoholic and her mother had Asperger’s Syndrome. Life as a child was difficult. The woman developed resilience and a strong Christian faith. Often, she would ask God why he had given her these parents instead of a nice comfortable family. 

Through prayer and being open to God, the woman came to understand that God had not given her to these parents for them to look after her, but instead, God had given to her these parents for her to care for them. 

Through the experience of caring for her parents as a child, the woman developed resilience and skills that as an adult she was able to use to serve God and aid others. 

That understanding and acceptance gave her peace and an understanding to get on with her life and not dwell on what might have been. 

“Some of you have been in deep waters through pain, poverty, and bereavement. Loved ones and friends have forsaken you – but not God. He will hear the prayer of the humble heart. God will not forsake you. He is near in your distress.” — Charles Spurgeon 

Pray 

Lord, remind me how You are my refuge and strength at all times. Please grant me understanding and insight into this situation I am in. Let me have the faith to know that you will not forsake me and that are near. Please give me peace in the assurance that you are my refuge and my strength. There are there beside me in my trouble.

 Psalm 46:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. 

We are invited to pray, to keep silence, to enter into scripture, to share our faith with one another. To live and share with one another in this way can be life-giving.  

This the way we grow like seeds that fall upon the ground and break open and shoot and grow and become the trees in which others find shelter. 

What we are seeking is organic growth, allowing God in us to do God’s work. Growth from the bottom up. Allowing the light of God to warm and then slowly crack open the shell of our defences, to allow the breath of God in, so that we are no longer dormant but begin to become filled by that breath, expanded into life. 

As we grow, we thirst and discover the water of life. We unfold, we realise that this growth is not  something we do alone. We are in a field of those growing together, each one of us protecting, sheltering, giving light and shade and nourishing the others.

Lent week3 Saturday

 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry (James 1:19). 

“In your anger do not sin” Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold (Ephesians 4:26-27). 

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips (Colossians 3:8). 

Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools (Ecclesiastes 7:9). 

Is there something in your life that is worrying you and has taken over your life? You don’t seem to talk about anything except this. Has it become a nightmare? It doesn’t go away; you live and breathe it? Is there something that has cast a long shadow of unhappiness over your life? 

Are you liable to fester all day about a stranger’s rudeness? 

We live in such an incredibly divided world at the moment, and everyone seems very quick to judge. When someone cuts you up in their car, or pushes in front of you, choose an empathetic thought. Perhaps they’ve had a terrible night with a loved one being sick. Choose the narrative that stops you feeling tension and frustration. 

When we are faced with a festering annoyance, let God challenge us to try and take another path in thought and action.

Lent week3 Friday

 Romans 8:6

The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

Allowing God into the pain in our life is very simple but very powerful. It can help us change the trajectory of our life. Take time this Lent to think about sharing money, time, and gifts, discovering how we can build a community of love through our many acts of service.

The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart God will not despise. Let us come to God, who is full of compassion, ready to listen and forgive.

I list those things that are blocking me from having a closer relationship with God.

Still my heart and mind as I come into God's presence.

Pray

Loving God thank you for your love and care for me. I want my thoughts to be governed by you. Please grant me peace. Show me how to get release. I submit my thoughts to you. Please overcome the darkness in my life that is making me miserable. Please let me be free and healthy. Show me how I may be of service to you.

Lent week3 Thursday

 1 Timothy 6:11-12

11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.

What do want from life? Success? Money?

There are plenty of studies that show that after a certain point, more money doesn't make us happier; but it can't deny that money can remove common sources of unhappiness. While there is nothing wrong with wanting more in our career and life, we should caution ourselves and ask: Where does that desire come from? "Is it from a place of lack or a place of fullness?" Success is no assurance of happiness or contentment. It can be a barrier in our Christian life.

Lent Spiritual Prompt

Take a moment to define success not as the world defines it but how it should be defined in our Christian life?

Pray

Gracious God, you know me so well. Relieve me of those desires that I think will me make happy but in reality, will damage and hurt me.

Let me focus on you and show me what I should be pursuing in my life.

Lent week3 Wednesday

 Be silent.

Be still.

Alone

Empty

Before your God

Say nothing.

Ask nothing.

Be silent.

Be still.

Let your God

Look upon you.

That is all

God knows.

Understands

Loves you with

An enormous love

God only wants to

Look upon you

With Love

Quiet

Still

Be

Let vour God

Love you.

Lent week3 Tuesday

 Philippians 2:3-4

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.

Wordsworth

The pursuit of success is the dominant narrative of our time, where social media encourages us to present a perfect image of our lives with the drive towards a bigger house, better job, or flashier holi-day.

Much of what society teaches us, particularly in western society, is to focus on the wrong things. So many people end up making themselves ill and tired hustling to get those things. Sometimes people actually get those things, and it does not make them happy. Or in the process of striving, they neglect the things that truly make them happy.

Lent Spiritual Prompt

Talk to God about your life goals and your decisions. What "ma-terial things" are controlling your life? List them and ask the Holy Spirit to help you release control and let them go, so that God's perfect will is done in your life. At your core are you content and at peace with your life? If not, talk to someone you trust about this.

Pray

Gracious God, please help me to spend my time, talents, and assets wisely. Please break the bondage of conspicuous consumption over our nation and over me. Help me to be a better steward of the resources You have blessed me with. Holy Spirit, please help me to be more disciplined with my lifestyle. Loving God, help me to learn to be content with what I have instead of wanting more. Help those who are in financial trouble. Many need a miracle in their finances, and I ask for Your intervention.

Compassionate God, please forgive me for greed, selfish ambition, idolatry, conceit, and arrogance. Forgive me for loving things and placing them over You. Forgive me for not being a good steward of Your blessings. I renounce any gods of materialism. Lord, remind me of those I need to forgive; and help me to forgive.

Lent week 3 Monday

 Philippians 2:4

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Acts 20:35

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

When we see a person who is homeless, we have the opportunity to pray for them and ask for God's protection to cover them.

The next time you pass a person who has no home, pray for them.

Pray

Loving God, I pray for the people I have passed sleeping in door-ways. Show me what I should do to help change their situations.

I pray for transforming hearts and minds to foster generosity and compassion toward all those who have no homes and who are in need. Inspire those with resources and power to be Your hands and feet, extending Your love to those in need.