Tag: Lent

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What of Ash Wednesday and the Season of Lent?


Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Ps 51:10 KJV

Ash Wednesday is the service and Lent is the season for repentance from phony Christianity, pretend spirituality, and words without works Christian living. The Holy Spirit uses the Lenten focus to open our hearts which have grown calloused through selfishness and pride. Throughout the busy year, we become spiritually dull and unapologetically self-absorbed. Our attitudes and actions are insensitive to others’ needs and disobedient to God’s call to life and holiness.

Ash Wednesday stops us in our tracks and reminds us that we are but dust and to dust we shall return. Dust can’t demand, dust can’t argue, dust can’t exalt itself, and dust can’t boast. Dust needs God to have life and only in God can these jars of clay minister life (Gen. 2:7, Job 42:6, Eccles. 3:20, Ezekiel 37:4, 2 Cor. 4:7). Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are nothing but dust, dirt, and mire without the crucified and risen Jesus.

We too easily forget our Maker and Redeemer; replacing God with things and ambition. Lent is the season that does something about this situation. It calls us back to God, back to the basics, back to the spiritual realities of life. It calls us to put to death the sin and the indifference we have in our hearts toward God and our fellow persons. And it beckons us to enter once again into the joy of the Lord’s the joy of a new life born out of a death to the old life. That is what Ash Wednesday is all about the fundamental change of life required of those who would die with Jesus and be raised to a new life in him.

Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2004), 99.

Ash Wednesday is Feb. 14, 2024.

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Christ Our Intercessor: Day Thirty-Nine, Forty Days of Prayer

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us (Romans 8:34).

Dear Lord, thank you that you defeated death, hell, and the grave and are seated at God’s right hand. Thank you, that you entered the Holy of Holies and you are praying to the Father for me right now. I give you thanks because you are in control of all the circumstances of my life. I know that nothing that happens today is beyond your reach. Lord, I trust you to work through me. If there is any thought, word, or deed in me that is not obedient to you, please show me, and help me to change it. In Jesus’s name, amen.

~~Nicholas Beckham

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Fill Us, Holy Spirit: Day Thirty-Eight, Forty Days of Prayer

Be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18 ESV) 

Heavenly Father, through the ascension of your Son Jesus, our Lord, you sent the Holy Spirit to come alongside us and to fill us, to give us power to live lives of faithful obedience, to love our neighbor and minister effectively. We know you to be a good Father who gives good gifts to His children and the Holy Spirit to those who ask. Fill me, my family, and my fellow believers afresh with your Holy Spirit today. Give us the gifts of the Spirit so we may minister to each other and our community in His power. Lastly, manifest through us the fruits of your Spirit so that our lives display Jesus and bring you glory. Amen.

~~ Fr. Scott Howard

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Freedom from Fear: Thirty-Seven, Forty Days of Prayer

This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9 NLT).

Lord, forgive us for giving in to fear. We fear debt and poverty, so we don’t give as You’ve directed us. We fear for our children, so we worry about them instead of seeking Your guidance for their lives. We fear how the actions of politicians will affect us so we put our trust in different politicians. We haven’t practiced your presence so we lay awake at night in fear over what has happened, what could happen, and what will likely never happen. We’ve given in to fear and have turned from You, the fountain of living water, and have sought for answers from false sources.

We repent of practicing fear, and seek Your grace and presence to direct our every thought. Your word tells us that perfect love casts out fear. Fill us with Your perfect love that You displayed on Calvary, and let that love cast the fear out of our lives. Let our gaze and thoughts always be centered on You, for only in love can we know perfect love, and experience lives where fear has been cast out. Amen.

–Fr. David Surrett

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Your Working: Day Thirty-Six, Forty Days of Prayer

 

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Galatians 4:4,5 ESV). 

Lord, thank you that you did not create and then abandon this earth, but that you intervene in human history. Thank you that you are working out your sovereign purposes despite our rebellion to your will. You have not left us to our own devices. By your sovereign hand, you led your people Israel out of Egypt. By your power, you gave them the Law and the Prophets, working miracles and deliverances even though they disobeyed you. Thank you for personally entering into human history and taking on our likeness and frailty. Thank you for offering yourself as the ultimate sacrifice on the cross.

You have made us a part of your covenant people and allowed us to share in all the blessings and promises of Abraham. Pray, Lord Jesus Christ, work in our lives as you did in the lives of the faithful men and women of old. O’ Lord, work in us as you worked in them. Pray, transform into us the likeness of your incarnate Son, that our lives may reflect the beauty of your holiness. In Jesus’s blessed name, we pray. Amen.

~~Nicholas Beckham

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My Burdens: Day Thirty-Five, Forty Days of Prayer

Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved (Psalm 55:22 ESV). 

Lord, we cast our burdens upon you for they are heavy. Our hearts are broken and downcast. Our spirits are burdened over loved ones who are sick, lost, and dying. Please come and sustain us as you have promised. Please heal and save those we fervently love and diligently serve. Let us not be moved from steadfast faith and complete trust in your all-mighty power. Do not allow Satan to come and steal our hope in your faithfulness. We thank you, Lord, that you hear our prayers on behalf of our loved ones. Come and have mercy on us, we pray in Jesus’s name. Amen!

~~India B. Davis

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Boldness: Day Thirty-Four, Forty Days of Prayer

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:29-31 ESV).

Father, you know I am afraid of rejection, of being seen as one of those weird Christians, but I know that so many around me need Jesus as I need Him. Open my eyes to opportunities to tell people about Him, to share how He has been my help in times of need, my healer and friend. Give me boldness and words to speak when these opportunities come. And show yourself strong on their behalf by healing, providing, encouraging and meeting them in their deepest needs. Amen.

~~Fr. Scott Howard

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Burn Away Everything: Day Thirty-Three, Forty Days of Prayer

He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross (Mal. 3:3).

Father, in Jesus’ name, burn away every dream, desire, attitude, thought, feeling, word and action that is not a result of Your Spirit reigning in my life.

Burn away everything that is more important to me than my revelation of You and my relationship with You.

Burn away everything that hinders me from loving You with all my heart and loving my neighbors as I love myself.

Burn away everything that hinders me from hearing and obeying Your voice.

Burn away everything I believe about who You are and what You are like that is not the Truth.

Burn away everything in my heart and mind that causes me to desire to harm or destroy those who desire or act to harm or destroy me.

Burn away the lust of my eyes, lust of my flesh and pride of life.

Burn away everything that causes me to desire to own or possess anything that is not rightfully mine.

Burn away everything that causes me to desire to lie or exaggerate to get what I want or impress or harm others.

Father, in Jesus’ name, I ask that I will be deeply intimate with You, filled with your Holy Spirit, free of pride, lust, and fear, loving, patient, kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, joyful, thankful, grateful, humble, considerate, healthy, successful, prosperous and very generous. Amen.

~~Dr. James “Jay” H. Ferguson

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True Worshipers: Day Thirty-Two, Forty Days of Prayer

Yet a time is coming and has come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks (John 4:23-24).

Father, we love and adore you and we desire to worship you in Spirit and in truth. You seek worshipers who long for you as a deer seeks water. Only through your grace can we lay down our personal desires for our needs, set aside the way we want things to turn out and surrender our will to yours. As we release our demands, change our hearts so that we can be true worshipers; those who know the truth about you and your will toward us and who blissfully gaze on your holiness and are remade in your image. Let our hearts be flooded with the kind of love that leads us to seek your face, not your hand. In Your Blessed Name. Amen.

~~Nancy Beckham

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Unrelenting Love: Day Thirty-One, Forty Days of Prayer

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).

O’ Lord, most beautiful, caring in all your ways, unrelenting in your love and devotion toward us in Christ Jesus. Your love for us has no beginning and has no end. Your love is not limited by space or time because your love is immense and vast like a beautiful, bottomless ocean. Your love never wavers in its pursuit of us: it is undeserved, unsurpassed, unmerited, and free. Your love conquers our deepest fears, overwhelms our greatest worries, and heals our deepest hurts. Your love is unsurpassed for it was displayed in all its glory on the hardwood of the Cross.

Pray, Lord Jesus, open our minds and free our hearts to grasp the width, length, height, and depth of your love. Help us to comprehend that every act of your will and every work of your wisdom is love; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

–Fr. Glenn E. Davis