Lent

"The LORD is more pleased when we do what is right and just
than when we offer sacrifices."

-Proverbs 21:3 NLT

 

"Clean living before God and justice with our neighbors
mean far more to God than religious performance."

-Proverbs 21:3 from The Message

 

"I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.

I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings."

-Hosea 6:6 NLT

 

"I'm after love that lasts, not more religion.
I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings."

-Hosea 6:6 from The Message

 

2/21/15

God,
 

What do these verses mean?  Proverbs 21:3 caught me by surprise last week in Sunday School.  Ann Voskamp's call to repentance, deliverance, courage- to pray for those things...and 2015: A Lent to Repent and Revive- her call to spend more face time with You than Facebook, among other things...She Reads Truth- an online devotional- they are all stirring in me.  Ann says,

"Until there is repentance, there will be no difference, there will be no deliverance, there will be no resurgence.  Nothing will change unless we change something."

God, I want to change.  I don't totally know how.  Help me, LORD.  I love You and desire You. 
 
Amen. 
 

"Return to the LORD your God,

for He is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger and

abounding in steadfast love."

-Joel 2:13 ESV
(Day 2 of She Reads Truth led me to this verse.
They have beautiful pictures of verses that you can download
to use as the home or lock screen on your phone like the one below.)

 

"Even now- this is the LORD's declaration-
turn to me with all your heart,

with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

Tear your hearts, not just your clothes,
and return to the LORD your God.

For He is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger, rich in faithful love,

and He relents from sending disaster.

Who knows?

He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him,

so you can offer grain and wine to the LORD your God."

-Joel 2:12-14 HCSB

2/22/15

God,

 

I am returning to You.  I am finally realizing what it means to humbly receive You and humble myself before You.  I can't cleanse myself.  I can't transform myself.  In all my doing, I can't do it.  I will not ignore the call to be still and know that You are God anymore.  The waiting and the stillness are so hard for me.  But I've finally realized that I can't do it.  You have to do it in me.  So much of what I do is for recognition and that is not as it should be.

 

"Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right/steadfast spirit within me."

-Psalm 51:10

 

"Unless the LORD builds the house,

those who build it labor in vain."

-Psalm 127:1a

 

Amen.

 

I have been so encouraged and so changed this Lenten season.  Ann Voskamp's A Lent to Repent and Refresh has moved me and challenged me and made me think differently, and I am only on Day 5!  You can click here to go to her post, and when you scroll to the bottom you can see the 40 Lenten Reflection Cards.  If you enter your email address, you can print them.  They have a Scripture reference, a painting, and a powerful prayer each day about something to fast from, something to do, and something to repent of.  She encourages you to read them slowly and return to them throughout the day.  I have been taking the time to read the Scripture in different translations and then write it in the one that speaks to me most on the back of the card.  Then I slowly think about what it is saying to me.  The intentional pause, re-reading, writing, and reflection are making the Scriptures come alive in ways they never have.  They are changing me.  I am so thankful for this resource.  I have put them on my windowsill above the kitchen sink each day so that I have them to remind me of their words and point me to the Cross that I should never, ever leave. 

 

 

I am finding in the slowing down, in making time with Him, in His Word, in her words, in She Reads Truth devotionals, in reflection, I am able to do more, be more.  It is counterintuitive.  It is the last being first and the first being last.  It is the upside-down kingdom.  I was not being productive in my busyness.  I was trying so hard to be first while appearing last, and it wasn't working.  But the slowing, meditating, trusting Him, is working.  When I stop, He is able to start.  How did I not realize this before?  His ways are certainly higher.  He is ever so slowly transforming and refreshing me as I return to Him daily.  I'm not doing it; He is.  I still fail, daily, even miserably so yesterday; that hasn't changed.  But now I also return and repent, and then He is so faithful to lovingly and hastily refresh.  Thanks be to God.