As we head into Holy Week, I’d like to share an poem/excerpt that gives us much to focus our hearts and minds on as we walk through the sorrow and joy of this week. Being that this version of the poem True Lenten Discipline has seven suggestions, it works out perfectly to look at one each day during Holy Week. On Monday we’ll begin with a brief devotion to encourage us and start a discussion on the first topic in the excerpt–judging. We’d love to have your participation–a conversation is always better with more two or more people! If you’d like, please add your comments each day at the end of the devotion.

Feel free to adapt this to your life. Perhaps you want to spend a meal or a day in fasting. Maybe you want to take an afternoon and set aside some time for prayer to prepare your heart for Easter. Whatever you decide, I pray this blesses you.

(I received this poem in an email from my friend a few days ago, and the author was credited as “Anonymous.” I Googled the title  and several versions popped up, some much longer, but I wasn’t able to ascertain the true author. If anyone knows, please let me know.)

Here’s the version we’ll use this week:

TRUE LENTEN DISCIPLINE

FAST from judging others;  FEAST on Christ dwelling in you.

FAST from bitterness;  FEAST on forgiveness.

FAST from apparent darkness;  FEAST on the reality of God’s light.

FAST from thoughts of illness;  FEAST on the healing power of God.

FAST from words that pollute;  FEAST on phrases that purify.

FAST from discontent;  FEAST on gratitude.

FAST from anger;  FEAST on patience.

Author Unknown

You may also be interested in a podcast Mary and I will be recording tomorrow evening on this topic. I’ll insert a link to it as soon as it is up. We’ll see you tomorrow!

Pray on!

Image courtesy of lamnee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3

This has been a favorite scripture of mine, ever since I lost my 11-day-old daughter 22 years ago. God used it to encourage me during a difficult time.

What I found to be true is that God doesn’t leave our hearts in shambles, but that over time He heals us–if we let Him. He is able to put back together even the most splintered, shattered pieces of ourselves that the old nursery rhyme tells us are beyond repair. He binds up our wounds and is able to make us whole again.

Sometimes this is an infinitely slow process. It’s an excruciating day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute choice to believe that He is working, that life will not always be this hard, or hurt this much. As we hang in there with God in the nitty-gritty pain in our lives, our hearts begin to mend. God’s radical soul surgery, when viewed on a daily basis, may not seem to be making much of a difference.We may feel stuck, stagnant, and frustrated, blinded by the darkness in our souls.

But when looked at over the course of weeks or months, and definitely years, we can see the evidence of a skilled surgeon who is setting the broken bones and stitching together the unraveled edges of our lives. We emerge with some scars. But what we become is a person made stronger, deeper, and richer, with a depth of maturity that was not there before.

If you’re in despair of where you are now, just make the decision for one more day to get up and believe again that God is working. One more day to care for your family, go to work, clean the house. And then do it again the next day. Your heart will mend, because you’re not being operated on by the all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, but by the King of Kings. He alone can put all of us Humpty Dumptys back together again.

Pray on!

By Denslow’s_Humpty_Dumpty.djvu: W. W. Denslowderivative work: Theornamentalist [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I’m reading a good book by Henry and Norman Blackaby called Experiencing Prayer with Jesus:  The Power of His Presence and Example. I came across this quote that really made me stop and think .

Prayer is not for the purpose of getting God to help us … but for getting us in line with what God is about to do. Prayer is God’s invitation to enter His throne room so He can lay His agenda over our hearts.

I haven’t ever looked at prayer in quite this way before. It really is a training and molding ground for our hearts. It’s more about God preparing us so that He can start using us by working through us. I began to think about how much of my time I spend on asking God for things versus how much time I am in prayer for the Spirit to use me. Now I still think we need to bring our requests before God, but I also see how we need to be quiet so that the Spirit can start to do the work in our lives that God wants to do.

What do you think? What does this look like for your prayer time? Does it change anything?  

Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment and pray on!