Hey there! I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted a new blog, but we’re back!
I wanted to add a few things building off of last night’s Living Room. If you weren’t there we kicked off our Lent series for this year – Journey to the Cross. We’ll be following Jesus and the disciples through Luke as they journey from Galilee to Jerusalem; to the cross. And we’ll be highlighting certain passages each week that we think are key teaching points along that journey.
The idea is that during the next 5 weeks leading up to Easter we are preparing ourselves for the most important holiday in our Christian faith. We’re drawing attention to the grace giving, peaceful, powerful shadow of that the cross casts on us. Do you feel it? Do you recognise it? Is it somewhere off in the distance, or is it covering you?
Do you feel the rest that it brings, the hope that it offers, the peace, the love, the responsibility that follows?
All of these things will be driving our series.
Last night I looked at Jesus’ visit with Martha and Mary. We talked about how easy it is for us to become distracted by many things and not focus on our time with Jesus.
IT’S ALWAYS IMPORTANT TO SPEND QUALITY TIME WITH JESUS, but in this holy season of Lent it’s even more emphasized.
The tradition of the Church Universal is to give up something, to sacrifice something of worth during the 6 weeks of Lent and replace that something with more time with God – maybe in prayer or devotional reading, maybe in some sort of service!
My suggestion was to block out some time for prayer; a good 10-15 min at least. Pay attention to how easy it is for you to be distracted by things. Make a note of those things that break your concentration in prayer – AND REMEMBER THAT PRAYER ISN’T JUST TALKING TO GOD, BUT ALSO LISTENING – make a list of the things that distract you when you’re praying.
some things may take you off track but lead you pray about those things, but some things will take you WAY off track and take you away from God completely. List those things and consider what it might look like, what it might mean, if you spent as much time thinking about God as you do those things.
Consider what you might be able to sacrifice in order to spend more time with God this Lent season.