Although this is my favorite season I get really frustrated with how some people treat this holy time. We all know the routine question during lent: "What are you giving up?" {Routine} <- For me, routine shouldn't be a word associated with Lent. Sadly enough, this has been the case for most. We see lent as a time for giving up something. Over the past few years I haven't given anything up simply because I didn't feel my "thing" I was giving up was very sincere. I had to ask myself, "Why are you giving this up?" Was I being sincere? Was my "thing" I was giving up honest, sincere or honorable to God? Was this really going to be an humble wilderness experience for me?
Saturday as I was riding back from DFW International Airport on our return trip from the Bahamas where we served a week in service to the people of the Island of Eluethera I began to think inwardly about my experience there and my life at home. My heart became heavy. These people live with so little compared to my dazzling life. I have so much STUFF and yet I am never content. These people live modest lives knowing that the next hurricane is just a few months away where devastating winds and rain will simply take more away, yet they live content with what they are blessed with.
Shame on me. Shame on us. I think I'm starting to realize what my wilderness needs to be this Lent.
I want to devote myself to be aware of my surroundings. I want to live in a wilderness of thankfulness everyday for things that come so easy to me. I want to walk with Jesus through my wilderness where I will truly commit myself to living a more holy life.
So, let me ask you:
What will your wilderness be?
Will your wilderness be sincere and honorable to God?
Why are you doing this? What are your motives?
And finally the most important question, What do you want your Easter to look like?
I pray that God find you this season in a spirit of humble submission to the Will of God. I pray that you will be convicted in your daily life to notice the little things. I pray that you are truly looking inward and living in a season of wilderness, walking with the God who calls us to a higher life than than the life we live daily.
Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
18 May it please you to prosper Zion,
to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
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