The Lenten Season begins today. Are you ready for all the treasures ahead? Are you ready to take up the cross with greater zeal in all your doings and then to Easter with all your being? This is a blessed journey of 40 days. The words of Psalm 1 summarize this journey:
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers…
Lent is to face once again those words with renewed vigor and insight. Lent is a season to re-examine anew what it looks like to in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:16) what it means to put on the armor of God (Eph. 6:10-19) against the flames of the evil one.
Indeed we are blessed when we live our lives in light of those around us. We are the blessed ones when we live for the sake of blessing others. Our tables of fellowship and the halls of communion speak much about our lives. Where do we sit? Where do we stand? Are we sitting around a company of law-keepers? Are we standing with blessed ones or those who despise the blessings of Yahweh?
Lent is a journey to grace where our walking, standing and sitting gauges our interest in the life of faith. It is not an easy journey. It cuts us for forty long days. It allows us to bleed in ways we have not bled before; to mourn in ways we have not mourned before. Lent takes us through that journey where we ponder sin’s place in our lives and begin to demolish its presence and power in our daily walk. Lent is a blessed journey and only the blessed ones can walk faithfully to the resurrection city.
Prayer: O Lord, prepare me to embrace this journey with great passion this season. Do not allow my heart to wander into different journeys but to walk in the way of truth; to see your cross as the reason for my service and your death as the reason for my life. Make me whole and cause me to see wondrous things in your law for you are the truly blessed One of God through Christ our Lord, Amen.
