Did you know you can share your thoughts/reflections in the comments for each post? It is great to see people share and it helps us to see more of how God is working in our lives.
Small Portion
Here is where you can start. Watch the reflection video and once you have, pray through the prayer below (or in the Lent guide) each day this week. From there you can decide to do more reading or reflections, either in the prayer guide or using some of the written thoughts below the video.
Daily Prayer
Almighty God, you who call me to prayer and who offer yourself to all who seek your face, pour out your Holy Spirit upon me today and deliver me from coldness of heart, a wandering mind and wrongful desire. By the power of your spirit place within me steadfast love and devotion, so that today I may worship and serve you with all of my life, through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen
Medium Portion- Use note space in Lent guide to write down what God is speaking to you.
Read Psalm 51
How does this Psalm strike you?
What lies at the centre of the Psalm?
How does the Psalmists idea of who is God shape their prayer?
How does confession shape this psalm? What role does it play in your life?
What is the greatest thing we can offer God?
Large Size- Further Reflections:
"People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, 'If you keep a lot of rules, I'll reward you, and if you don't I'll do the other thing.' I do not think that is the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a Heaven creature or into a Hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the kind of creature is Heaven; that is, it is joy, and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other." - C.S. Lewis "The Joyful Christian"
Go through the questions below and then refer to the directed prayer instructions for this week:
Questions:
1) Do you more like you are keeping score or living in grace?
2) How does your willingness to surrender to Jesus affect your ability to centre your life around him? What do you feel is the thing that gets in the way the most?
3) In light of waiting on God, and now talking about our willingness how do you plan to approach your current struggles and challenges?
4) Do you feel more like a heavenly creature or a hellish one? If so, why?
5) How does the reminder that Jesus already paid the price for us help you to stay rooted in grace and not get caught up in condemnation?
Action Steps- How will you respond this week?
What is one thing you you have held back from God that he has has revealed to you? Write it below.
Ask Jesus to make his grace and mercy more evident to you. Ask him to reminder you of the ways in which he has worked in your life.
Ask him to give you assurance of his continual presence in your life through the Holy Spirit.
Pick one person to pray for this week that God lays on your heart. Pray that they will know God's grace in a new way and they are showered in his love.
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