Journey to the Cross

Pause

The season of Lent gives us a chance to slow down and to take time.

Take time in prayer. Take time with God.

Take time to walk through the scriptures and figure out what this Lent thing is, anyway (even if all you know until now is that you usually give up soda for a few weeks).

Take time to repent, to turn your heart toward Jesus.

And consider that at the end of the day, what God really wants is your sincere self — no more, no less.

You can learn a lot in this season, if you take time.

Listen

After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news, saying, “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!”

Mark 1:14-15

Think

What does it mean to repent, anyway? Jesus calls us to do it… but, well, do we? Do we even know where to begin?

More than turning away from something, repentance is about turning towards God. Jesus’ call in Mark is to refocus where our faith and energy are pointed. Repentance is about making a conscious choice to seek the kingdom of God in all that we do. Look around you. Does the world look like the kingdom of God — God’s dream for the world — to you? The kingdom of God is not some faraway place that we can’t ever experience; we are experiencing it here and now, and we have a part to play.

When we turn our eyes and our hearts towards the Creator, we begin to believe in the good news of God’s kingdom on earth — and our faith, energy, and action follow.

In what ways do you turn to God? How can you proclaim the good news?

Emily Miller

Pray

Holy God, help me learn what it means to turn towards you in all ways, but help me, first, to figure out how. Amen.

Go

"O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above."

from “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” by Robert Robinson