Lenten Devotion 2021

 

Scripture: Psalm 84

The forty days of Lent lead up to our commemoration of the Betrayal of Christ, his trial, his crucifixion, and his final words from the cross. During this time, we suffer with the Disciples the guilt of abandonment, sadness, and loss before the glorious Resurrection.

The forty days also symbolizes Christ’s forty days in the wilderness, facing the Tempter, and his preparation for his ministry.

For me, Lent is a time of reflection in my own wilderness – a time to think about God and my relationship with the Lord—a time to be reminded that God is there, in my suffering, and in my joy. In today’s scripture, the Psalmist cries:

“My soul yearns, even faints,

for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out

for the living God.”

Lent is a reminder that our souls are always yearning for God. Sometimes we need the valleys of life to remind us of this. Corrie ten Boom asked, “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?” Too often, we only cry out only in our need, in our hurt, and in our times of darkness.

Lent is like the pebble in our shoe – a time of suffering in our pilgrimage with Jesus, reminding us that in our weakness, we are made strong. As the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians "God’s grace is sufficient for you, for his power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Prayer: This Lenten season, let us go forward in the knowledge that the Lord is our sun and shield. Let us go from strength to strength until that day when we each appear before God in Zion. Let us walk through our own wilderness knowing: “LORD Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.”