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Lesson from Lent 2022
March 23, 2022 - March 29, 2022
Lesson from Lent 2022
Devotion by Pastor Richard
This year for Lent I have really tried to be consistent in my “Lenten commitment.” Usually I mean to try hard in doing everything I intend to do, but usually about half way through I end up just giving up. I am so undisciplined at times! This year though I have really done much better! I have not been perfect by any means, but I have tried much harder than in the past, and feel like I am finally making a little progress.
This year I committed to setting aside time everyday to ready a devotion, to read the corresponding Scripture reference, to journal my thoughts that God puts on my heart from the devotional, and then to spend time in intercessory prayer. You know, stuff we should be doing everyday anyway! This year I have been paying more attention to how this is affecting my mind and my heart. I have discovered that when I am most consistent and really focused on those disciplines that I feel so much better than when I let it slide. I can really feel God’s Presence and see more clearly where He is moving in my life. My attitude is so much better. My patience with people is definitely increased, and I feel so much more comfortable in sharing Christ with others.
As I think and process this, I am wondering two things:
- 1. Why do I not do this everyday if my connection with God is so much stronger? and
- 2. Do we as people deliberately and intentionally pull ourselves away from God, and if so, why??
The good thing is that even Paul struggled with stuff like this. In my mind I hear now the section of wrestling that Paul does in Romans 7:
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
What a comfort this is, that I am not the only one who wrestles with wanting to be one way, but always seeming to be fighting against myself to do what is right and what is even best for myself! My lesson I have learned is that the wrestling may be the most important part. Every time I feel my grip on my life letting go a little more, and God’s hand being a little stronger in my life. Happy Lent Everyone! Remember that our own personal struggles will never match those of Christ Himself as he heads knowingly to the cross.
