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.

Lent week3 Sunday

 John 15 

 Jesus says, '...if you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing..

During Lent, perhaps we might enter a place where we rediscover our sense of belonging to our Creator, to each other, irrespective of colour, culture, or creed. This Lent we should strive to name and own our ambitions, including the temptations that stand in the way of us achieving God's plan for us.

Pray

Loving God, challenge me when I talk of anyone as less than myself, and help me speak up when others speak in ways that diminish or disparage people who differ from them. Grant me patience to listen to you to discern your plan for me. Let me abide in you and let me bear fruit for you. 

Lent week2 Saturday

 Luke 5:16 

"But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer."

The wilderness can also be a place of formation and a place of prep-aration. The Israelites took a census and got organized during their time in the wilderness. John the Baptist was a voice crying out from the wilderness. Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness before beginning his public ministry. Once Christ began healing and teaching, people followed him everywhere, but he often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.

In our spiritual desert experience, there is time and space to think and pray.

The desert has things to teach us. We see the careful provision of our Father in a different light. His love stands out in stark relief against the background of the desert's barren landscape. In the wilderness, we come to the end of ourselves. We learn in new and deeper ways to cling to Him and wait for Him.

When we come out of the desert, the desert lessons stay with us.

We take them with us into the next stretch of our Christian journey.

We remember the God who led us through the desert, and we know that He is with us still. Desert times are fruitful times. Though they seem barren, lush fruit is being produced in our lives when we walk through the desert. The Lord will sanctify our desert times and make them to be fruitful in our life.

Lent Spiritual Prompt

What have you learnt this week about the desert experience?

One thing is clear in Scripture: We are never alone in the wilder-ness. If you are walking through a wilderness of your own, pray to be reminded of the promise that God will never leave or forsake

you.

Pray

Father, you've led me to this wilderness to heal me, change me, and reveal yourself to me. I trust in your plan for me as well as your willingness and ability to provide for me here.

Dear Lord, I know that wherever I am, You are with me guiding, protecting, providing. You make streams flow in the desert; You cause a root to grow out of dry ground. Thank You for giving me the opportunity to see You work when all hope seems lost.

I know I am never alone in the wilderness. I pray to be reminded of the promise that God will never leave or forsake me.

In my wilderness experience show me that desert times are fruitful times. Let me have faith to know that though this time seems bar-ren, lush fruit is being produced in my life when I walk with God through this desert. Please Lord sanctify my desert time and make it to be fruitful in my life.