Lent; our time to reflect and prepare

With Easter quickly approaching, now is the time to reflect and prepare. As painful as it is, I always try to journey with Jesus during his last days. Moving with Him toward the cross allows me to discover new things about Jesus. When I look closely, I see Him preparing Himself and those around Him. Preparation is key if we are going to be all God created us to be.

Today, I invite you to come along side Jesus, not as a reader but as a friend. The problem is Jesus’ life is full of pain and sorrow. The closer we get to Him, the more pain we see. I tend to shy away from such things. But this year, as I reflect and prepare for the sacrifice He made for me, I am going to press into that discomfort. This is part of my preparation.

If you want to experience Easter in a whole new way, then come with me. From now until April 4th, let’s press in on Jesus. As we move a little slower, let’s bring new life to this old story, so that by the time we watch Him die, we know He did it for us! And He would do it again!

My word is “preparation.” 

As I reflect on that word, I hear a verse ringing in my ears, “Prepare ye the way.” It acts as a road sign, showing me God has been preparing the world for His greatest gift ever since the beginning of time. The prophets spoke about it. John the Baptist proclaimed it. And once Jesus arrived, he began preparing himself, the disciples and the rest of the world, showing us what a relationship with God and others looks like.

But God’s work is slow and mysterious. Often, we do not understand it. Even in Jesus’ final days, He continued to prepare those closest to Him, although, they did not get it. Just as God was preparing them, God is preparing us and has been for quite some time.

Matthew 3:1-3 NIV says;

“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea ² and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” ³ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ as he preached a message of repentance. But Isaiah had already spoken the same words 700 years earlier. As we reflect and prepare, we must begin to trust the slow work of God.

Reflect on this. 

In Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s prayer entitled, Trust in the Slow Work of God, he writes;

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you.
your ideas mature gradually – let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.”

God is preparing you.

Can we trust in the slow work of God, knowing we are not yet what we will be? This is our time to look to Jesus as our model. As we reflect on his life, death and resurrection, we realize God is still preparing us. Because, God has so much more to reveal through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Let us pray; Good and Gracious God, forgive us when we are impatient. Help us to trust You in all things, knowing one day your glory will be revealed in us and through us. Praise be to You, oh Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

P.S. – Leave me a comment, forward to a friend and/or post this on Facebook. -M

Wanna go deeper?  Start following Jesus. Read Matthew 4:1-11; Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22 and John 16-18.