Well, here we are! Many Protest
ant and Catholic friends will begin Lent today, Feb 10, and many Orthodox friends will begin Great Lent on March 14.
What exactly are we all beginning? A sojourn.
Yes, I too like the word. And its meaning is, well, meaningful. A sojourn is a temporary stay. (Merriam-Webster)
Here, between the full manger and the empty tomb, we will stay with Jesus as He journeys cross-ward…
and hear Him weep over stubborn hearts and turn over temple tables. (Lk 19:41, Lk 19:45-46)
and see the crowds shout “Hosanna!” and “Crucify him!” (Lk 19:37-38, Lk 23:21)
and witness the disciples’ pledge sincere faithfulness and deliver fear-filled abandonment. (Mt 26:35, Mt 26:56)
During Lent, we will stay with Jesus and remember…
that we are the stubborn hearts
and the temple tables.
We are the fickle crowds
and the fearful disciples.
And He is our Savior.
So we will stay with Jesus…
and feel His grief when He calls Judas, “friend.” (Mt 26:50)
and believe His voice when He tells Peter, “And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” (Lk 22:32)
and love His mercy when He cries, “Father forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.” (Lk 22:34)
We will stay with Jesus these forty days of Lent
to hear,
to see,
to witness,
to feel,
to believe,
to love.
To remember.
And on that morning, when the silent tomb gives way to an earth-shaking shout, and together we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, our hope is that these forty days prepare us to continue to stay with Jesus…until we see Him face to face.
“What a day, glorious day, that will be”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Learning together: I’d love to hear from you! What is your experience with Lent to date? How are you planning on preparing your heart for Resurrection morning this year? This week, I’ll be giving a signed copy of my book, Anonymous: Jesus’ Hidden Years and Yours, to someone who comments!
P.S. If you’re doing 40 Days of Decrease for Lent and don’t have a community to journey with, join me for an Author Book Chat on facebook! Each day, I’ll post a question for discussion and we’ll learn from one another as we decrease in heart-clutter for the love of God.
The women I am bringing your posts during 40 days of Decrease are in prison which is a place where one either becomes very humble and fall in love with Jesus, wanting to know and become like Him in a profound way…Those who have been forgiven much, love much…Amen? Or they get bitter and angry or depressed. My prayer is that through your writings, others and prayer and showing them love, more and more will surrender and humble themselves and fall in love with Jesus! Thank you for your servanthood to be obedient to write as you have been gifted! If I move mountains but have not love, I am nothing 1 Cor 13:2
Pastor Joanne (Jo) Fiske
pastorjo@churchatprison.com
http://www.churchatprison.com
I am still a newer believer and things like lent and fasting are new concepts to me. But I have such a deep heart to know and to grow deeper. So I am walking through my first fast. Hearing you speak at Trinity a couple weeks back really impacted me. I have so much more that I can be. Thank you for these blog posts and the chance to learn more through the wise words of someone else!
We will stay with Jesus is there anywhere else to go? #you alone have the words of eternal life❤️
Rebecca rebecca.isaak@yahoo.co.uk Thank you for slowing us down to pause and reflect what Jesus did for us at Calvary. Am seeking Him to go deeper in me and heal my heart, soul, and mind. To clean my cup so He can fill it up.
We are here in a foreign country again, our second lenten season moving towards Easter without a body to worship with. I am grateful the Lord led me to you and offered a chance to walk with the larger body this season. His words through you are perfect and timely. Thank you.
Tina King
Thank you, Alicia! I love your writings! I’m doing the 40 Days of Decrease and am finding myself really looking forward to Lent! The idea of fasting from anything that keeps us from being close to God is so refreshing and meaningful. I hope I get to see you speak in person one day. Blessings to you on your Lenten journey!
Thank you for this reminder to learn to simply stay with Jesus. The Spirit knew I needed it. My past experience with Lent has generally been to “give up” something that is menial (such as sweets or facebook). This year I want my heart to learn that practice of staying with Jesus. That will be my focus as I am currently diving into a study of the Holy Spirit and continuing to learn to listen to my Lord’s voice.
I’ve been a christian for 17 years but have never done anything during lent. I have been sick for 23 years (since the age of 13) with an eating disorder and chronic depression so when it came to fasting, it was something I knew with regards to food fasting I needed to stay away from. When I came across your book (I still don’t know how the devotional with an excerpt from it came into my inbox as I never subscribed or had heard of it or you before! Sorry!), it resounded in my spirit with a silence that was deafening. I knew the Holy Spirit was prompting me to read and competely immerse myself in this journey.
I had a major accident in October last year which left me with a broken femur and wrist, unable to walk or move. I had been praying to know Gods love, acceptance and grace for so many years and never could grasp it in my heart for myself. Over the three months following the accident, everything I knew in life got burnt to the ground. Within four days of leaving the hospital my landlords gave me notice that I would need to vacate the property in 42 days as they were moving back in (right on Christmas). Unable to walk or move and having only moved into the property 6 weeks earlier, I really didn’t know what to do. What I knew of my physical body also changed indelibly as a metal plate, screws and nail were put in my leg to hold my leg and hip together. In this time, my faith was tested beyond compare. Everything I believed, hoped for felt like it had been taken away. In every way, especially my faith and trust in God, I had to start again. In this time though, the grace of God and his love, being able to trust him, had to become my whole world. I had nothing else and I needed to know his presence in a real, true, deep way that cut to the core of who I was.
I went through the darkest of days when I wanted to give up and set a date to end my life but in everything, God remained faithful. He proved his love to me in a way I have never experienced before. His grace surrounded me though the people he placed in my life and the way he provided for me in every way including a new home which I moved into two days before Christmas just when I had given up hope of finding something.
Two weeks after Christmas I started being able to walk again. It was a complete miracle as a day before I couldn’t even stand. Within ten days though the enemy came in like a flood and suddenly three nerves got jammed in my pelvis and I was no longer even able to sit, walk, drive and barely stand. During the first three months I had still been able to get to church and the hospital to see my eating disorders team. My faith and my body was growing stronger and stronger. Then, being no longer able to sit, it was as if the enemy was trying to come and cut me off at every angle, to stop the work of God in my life. I had at the beginning of the year resolved that this year would be called “free”. God gave me three scriptures:
Luke 5:4 – “launch out into the deep and get ready for a haul”
2 Corinthians 3:17 – “where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom”
Genesis 1:2 – “the spirit was hovering over the deep waters”
I knew what God was telling me was that I needed this year to go deep with him. To know him like never before. To resolve to no nothing except “Jesus Christ and him crucified”. And that in the “deep” was where the spirit dwelt and that is where freedom lay.
So despite being able to walk, or sit right now, I resolve to go deeper. 40 days of decrease is the beginning of that for me. Thank you Holy Spirit for bringing it into my hands.
In years past I participated in Lent but I was shortsighted. I only saw a piece of the season. I saw it as a time to give something up. For God. But it stopped there. I think this is my 4th or 5th year participating in Lent. And my soul has been awakened in a new way. I know now this season is far more than just giving something up. I’m anxiously awaiting all that the Spirit reveals to me as I walk with Jesus experiencing the invitation, joy, conviction, repentance, longing, mourning, and celebration of this journey.
Alicia,
6:30 a.m. Started the Lenten Journey by reading Psalm 51: 1-3, 10-12.
I asked, what do I need to release to God? Then confessed it. Then, reflected on how Jesus remained true to his mission throughout his testing and remained pure.
Thanks for your new project. A gift to many
Barry
Thank you for the beautiful and poignant beginning to my Lenten sojourn, Alicia. Trusting God to do something deep in my spirit during my 40 Days of Decrease journey and appreciate your investment of anointed words in my life.
” For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?” (Romans 8:22-24)
This is what we wait eagerly for- our redemption through Christ!
May we wait on Him these 40 days and may we be transformed by His saving work in us. Thanks be to God who leads us in this triumph!