our need for God, Tuesday

Tuesday, March 4

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

 Opening Prayer:  Gracious God, today begins a period of inner reflection and examination. The days stretch before me and invite me inward to that silent, holy space that holds your Spirit. This special time beckons me to see my life through Christ's eyes and the truth and reality of your love incarnate. Give me the grace to enter the space of these days with anticipation of our meeting. And, when I open my soul to your presence, let your loving kindness flow over me and seep into the pockets of my heart. I ask this for the sake of your love.

Scripture Reading for the Day: Luke 9:51-62

Reading for Reflection:

     Lent begins tomorrow.  It is that hard, but incredibly good season that begins the most sacred part of the Christian year.  It is the time where we journey with Christ to the cross.  It is the time where we set our face to go to Jerusalem like Jesus did.  It is the time where we see both the enormous cost of our sin, and the enormous love of our Savior.  It is the season where we celebrate the incredible mystery that life always follows death and resurrection always comes after crucifixion.  It is a time where we celebrate the truth that, for God’s people, suffering and sadness and pain and brokenness and death do not have the final word, but life (God) does.  Thus, it is a season where we are invited by God to come and die, that we may live.
     Lent is a forty-day period, not including Sundays, that is meant to echo the forty days Jesus spent in the desert, as well as the forty days Moses spent on the mountain with God.  It begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Easter Sunday.  Sundays are not included in the forty-day count because every Sunday is a joyful celebration of our Lord's resurrection—a Little Easter.  The word Lent is derived from the Old English lencten, which means “spring”; that transitional time between late winter and early summer in which our world begins to wake up from its slumber and come to life once again.

 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus thank you for being willing to go all the way to the cross for me.  Give me the strength and courage in the days and weeks ahead to set my face to go to the cross with you, whatever that may mean.  Amen.