Lent!

Praise, Prayer, Confession, Repentance, Revival

During the time between Christmas and Lent, I took a break from blogging to take care of things that I had set aside during the frantic pace of the holidays.

From a sick dog to business travel, from family events to work, I needed to focus on the needs at hand.

What better season to return to Branch Living than Lent?

Lent gives us time for serious reflection.

It’s the season for repentance and restarts.

What are you doing to fully enter Lent?

I find Lent to be a good time to do an inventory of what I want to clean out of my life—and what I should continue to pursue.

Many of you likely have heard about the revival that has taken place at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. According to the students who were there on the morning of February 8th, the biweekly chapel service had been “routine.” After the gospel choir sang the final chorus, several of the students felt themselves struck by a powerful sense of transcendence. They lingered and continued to pray and worship. Slowly, others began to join them.

They praised God and prayed from themselves, their neighbors, the world. Some expressed repentance for sins and prayed for peace, healing, wholeness, and justice.

It was this transcendent Spirit of God that led those present to spontaneous praise, prayers, confession, repentance and renewal. It brought tens of thousands of people to this small town in Kentucky—with one desire: to experience the presence of God.

None of this can be orchestrated. As the Bible tells us that the Spirit of God moves as It wills – not as we will it.

But, we can open ourselves to the Spirit of God each day—through confession, repentance, praise, worship, and prayer.

We can pray to God, “Revive our hearts, and put a new and right spirit within us.”

And He will.

I will end with “A Morning Prayer” from A Pastor Prays for His People, by Wendell C. Hawley:

Lord of power, Lord of grace,
All hearts are in your hands, all events are of your sovereign will.
You alone do all things well.
Sometimes we don’t think all is well.
We pray for the change of hearts in others,
but maybe it is our own hearts that need your transforming power!
Perhaps the failures we condemn in others are really our own failures.
Perhaps situations are distorted because of the log in our own eye
even as we complain about the speck in another’s eye.

If this be the case, help us to focus on what you want to teach us . . .
the changes needed in our hearts.
Convicted by your Holy Spirit,
enlightened by your holy Word,
enabled by your powerful presence,
assured by your matchless grace,
I confess my sins, my failures, my foolish independence, my lovelessness,
believing that
If we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Thank you, God, for complete forgiveness.

Now I pray honestly and earnestly, God of great power: Control my tongue.
Keep me from saying things that make trouble,
from involving myself in arguments,
that only make bad situations worse,
only cause further alienation,
and make me think everyone else is at fault except me.

Control my thoughts.
Shut the door of my mind against all envious and jealous thoughts.
Shut the door of my mind against all bitter and resentful thoughts.
Shut the door of my mind against all ugly and unclean thoughts.
Help me to live in purity and in love.
Henceforth, may my focus be on the completion of your work—your good work—in my soul.
Then, Good Shepherd, I shall not be ashamed in the day of Jesus Christ.

Amen.