Praying Through The Bible
Lent Devotional
By The People of Columbus Free Methodist Church
The season of Lent is the 40 days, not including Sundays, that lead up to Resurrection Sunday. Oftentimes this is a season of reflection and creating space to deepen our relationship with Jesus. Throughout history Lent has been a time where Chrisitans would give up something, or potentially add something, to better focus on Jesus.
As we enter Lent as a church in 2023 we want to press into our relationship with Jesus by digging more into His word, prayer, and repentance. This devotional is meant to be a guide to help you do that very thing. Every day there is a short devotional or prayer that helps us engage with Jesus. These devotionals go along with the sermon series on prayer we will be doing during Lent on Sunday mornings.
One of the things that I am super thankful for in these devotionals is to hear the voices from different people of our church. I want to say a huge thank you to Pastor Mara Vetters, Pastor Barb Tuttle, Curt Binnion, Andy Osman, and Iona Sewell for writing devotionals to be a part of this.
As you go through this devotional it is meant to be daily, but if you miss a day that is totally fine. You catch up on it later, or skip days altogether, that is totally fine. This devotional is simply meant to be a guide to help all of us press into our relationship with Jesus this Lent. If there are stories of God laying something on your heart during Lent through this devotional, or your time of prayer, we would love to hear that! You can email them to cfmc1511@gmail.com, or share them with Pastor Luke or Pastor Mara.
May The Grace Of Our Lord Jesus Christ Be With You,
Pastor Luke Maggard
Wednesday, February 22nd
Ash Wednesday
40 Days
By Pastor Mara Vetters
Forty days is a significant quantity of time in the Bible.
- In Genesis after Noah built the ark at God’s direction, God sent rain for 40 days to wash the Earth clean of evil and corruption. (Genesis 7:12)
- In Exodus Moses spends 40 days on Mount Sinai in the very presence of God. (Exodus 24:18)
- In 1 Kings when the prophet Elijah is fleeing for his life he spends 40 days fasting on his journey through the wilderness to Mount Horeb to seek God’s presence and guidance. (1 Kings 19:8)
- In the New Testament Jesus himself is led by the Holy Spirit to spend 40 days in the wilderness fasting in preparation for his Earthly ministry. (Matthew 4:1-2, Luke 4:1-2)
The early church recognized the significance of these stories and created their own season of 40 days named Lent. Christians throughout the centuries have spent the 40 days (not counting Sundays) before Easter preparing to celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Lent is a time of solemn repentance and reflection. It is a time to remember the sin present in our own lives and in the world around us and repent, asking God to forgive and cleanse us. It is a time to ask God to wash away and destroy what is sinful and broken in our lives and world the way that he did in Noah’s day.
Lent is a time for intentional prayer. It is a time when we still ourselves and spend time in the presence of God. Many Christians during the season of Lent will practice the spiritual discipline of fasting. Fasting is when someone gives something up, often a regular meal, type of food, or habit, in order to spend that time praying to God instead. It is meant to be a method of simplifying our lives, setting things aside to make more room to be with God, just as Moses left the people of Israel and went up on the mountain to spend time with God face to face.
Lent is a time of lament. It is a time when we are encouraged to bring our burdens and brokenness before God and cry out to Him for help. A time when we, like Elijah, can admit to all the pain, and fear, and grief in our life, but also a time when we remember that Jesus came down to Earth so that he could likewise experience not only pain, fear, grief, but also temptation and even death in order to set us free.
Because ultimately, Lent is a time to remember Jesus’ journey to the cross. Easter is coming. The world is about to be reborn! Hope, and joy, and jubilation are just around the corner but before we get there, we want to stop and remember the price at which these things were purchased. We take time to humble ourselves in gratitude to the one who rescued us when we were lost in sin.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” – John 3:16
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Thursday February 23
What Is Repentance
By Pastor Luke Maggard
One of the things that is always emphasized during Lent is repentance. Some of us will know what repentance is right away, while for others it is one of those christian-ese words that can be ambiguous and feel like insider language. To repent means to confess our sins, the ways that we have not followed God, and change our actions.
All of us have sinned and struggle with sin. That is part of what it means to be a human. At the same time though we are not supposed to just sit on our sins and mistakes, or try to hide them. God asks us to confess our sins to Him. In the confessing of our sins we can be forgiven.
I love this passage from 2 Chronicles 7:13-14. These words are God speaking to King Solomon after he had built and dedicated the temple to God. “If I shut the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on my people, and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
God is saying here that to repent means to humble ourselves, pray and seek His face, and turn from our evil ways. Repentance truly is an active thing. It is a thing that all followers of Jesus get to do.
In Luke 5:32 Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Jesus came to this earth to call you and I closer to Him through the practice of repentance.
Knowing what repentance is and why we do it is important, but it’s also helpful to know how we can practice it. Repentance happens in two different spaces; between us and God, and us and the community of believers.
Repentance between us and God can look a lot like what is mentioned in the 2 Chronicles passage, praying and seeking His face. God wants to hear us confess our sins to Him, and we do that through prayer. We should never feel ashamed or afraid to confess our sins to God.
Along with confessing our sins to God, we also can confess our sins in community with brothers and sisters of faith. In saying this I am not telling you to shout out your sins for everyone to hear, but to confess your sins to trusted believers so that you can be held accountable and encouraged.
This is something I get to do with a group of other pastors every other week, and it is always an amazing thing. As we repent of our sins we come alongside to pray for and encourage each other to follow Jesus, no matter what is going on. It truly is a beautiful thing.
During this Lenten season let us be a church that practices repenting of our sins before God and within community.
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Friday, February 24th
Repenting for What We Haven’t Done
By Pastor Mara Vetters
As a student in seminary I got to participate in many different communion liturgies from a number of different denominations. Almost if not all of them included some element of confession, a time when God’s people confess to the things that we have done wrong and repent, promising to grow and improve through God’s work in us. One of these confessions from the United Methodist Church in particular stands out.
Merciful God,
we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have failed to be an obedient church.
We have not done your will,
we have broken your law,
we have rebelled against your love,
we have not loved our neighbors,
and we have not heard the cry of the needy.
Forgive us, we pray.
Free us for joyful obedience,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Did you notice something? Most of the things listed in this confession are things that we have not done rather than things we have done.
Sometimes when we enter into a time of confession and repentance, it’s easy to bring a list of specific actions: “God, I’m sorry I told that lie. I’m sorry for that action I took out of anger.” I’ve learned however that sometimes confessions of things that I haven’t done reach deeper into my heart. “God, I’m sorry for my selfish attitude today when I prioritized my desires over anyone else’s. I’m sorry for turning a blind eye rather than showing your love to those around me.”
God knows our weaknesses and limitations. He does not call us to burn ourselves to the ground trying to fix every problem that we see, but He does call us to be His hands and feet, and to listen when we hear His call. Lent is a season when we remember our limitations and failings. It is a time when we remember both the things that we have done and the things we have left undone in ways that were contrary to God’s will.
Thankfully however, these are not the only things we remember. For Lent is also a season when we remember that while we were still trapped in sin, God our father was not willing to leave us to our rightful fate, but instead took action, sending His only son down from heaven to live, to die, and to rise again so that we might be washed clean in the waters of life. In this Lenten season as you practice repentance, may you also remember these words which traditionally follow the above confession and know them to be true:
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
Glory to God. Amen.
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Saturday, February 26th
Prayer of Repentance
Every Saturday we will have a prayer that we can pray ourselves to focus on repenting of our sins, and receiving forgiveness for them. It will be the same prayer each week. It is a prayer by John Wesely, the father of the Methodist movement, that is called Forgive Our Sins. We would encourage you to take a few moments and pray this prayer and confess your sins to God. He will hear you, and will forgive you.
Forgive them all, O Lord:
our sins of omission and our sins of commission;
the sins of our youth and the sins of our riper years;
the sins of our souls and the sins of our bodies;
our secret and our more open sins;
our sins of ignorance and surprise,
…..and our more deliberate and presumptuous sins;
the sins we have done to please others;
the sins we know and remember,
…..and the sins we have forgotten;
the sins we have striven to hide from others
….and the sins by which we have made others offend;
forgive them, O Lord, forgive them all for his sake, who died for our sins and rose for our justification,.and now stands at thy right hand to make intercession for us, Jesus Christ our Lord.
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