I just realized that Lent has started. The season is one celebrated by the historic Christian church, but largely ignored by Protestants, both evangelical and oldline/mainline denominations, in recent years.
I have made it a practice to observe the season with some re-examining of my walk in faith and a renewed focus on prayer and scriptures. Our church will have a special study on Ash Wednesday tonight and I'm looking forward to it. Congregations I've been a part of in the past often had special bible-studies during Lent, or the pastors started a special sermon series leading up to Easter (or Resurrection Day as some of my reform brothers prefer to term it).
I think the liturgical calendar has much to recommend to Christians as a way of refocusing our lives on Christ throughout the year. That doesn't mean we need to get caught up in the excessive ceremony and ritual of the Roman and Eastern church, but that it can be a help to get us back on track or keep on track in our daily lives as Christians.
I encourage all my brothers and sisters in the faith to use this next few weeks to deliberately refocus on Christ and renew yourself through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, scripture reading, worship, and fellowship. Be more open during this season to share your faith when the opportunity arises. And in saying that, I'm also holding that out as a goal for myself to achieve.
May you reap a rich harvest from the seeds you sew during Lent this year!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Comments