LENT: Searchlight
Questions asked in the last post: Where is the mysterious work of God in repentance? What is the dynamic of spiritual repentance that differentiates it from natural penitence?
Evan’s response is insightful. I especially like this:
If you are observing Lent – denying usual comforts, reorienting your life in some way around the things of God – then isn’t this your prayer? “God, illuminate my path! Search my heart and test my anxious thoughts. Shed light on my dark ways. I want a clear picture of what my life is about, and where it is headed. How will I turn from my ways if I cannot see them?”
When we are feeling the pains of hunger or the habitual desire to watch TV, our thoughts turn here: Search me, O God.
That God is the one who beckons and arouses the repentance is what makes it spiritual and not natural. Natural repentance is aroused by fear or pride. Regarding fear, I turn from my ways because I dread consequence or loss of approval from others. Regarding pride, I tell myself that I need to turn from my ways because “I’m a good Christian (a pastor, even). I must stop doing this because I don’t want to be like the kind of person who does this. I’m not like that.”
Self-protection and self-worship ride in the Trojan horse of repentance all the time. And you simply will not see it unless God shows it to you. Oh God, search me! Every dark corner and every hidden place.
How does God search and test and illuminate? God has many instruments, I suppose, but we must begin with the sharpest one, “sharper than any double-edged sword … dividing soul and spirit … judging the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). The Word of God is “a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.”
This is why a greater devotion to the Bible is a good idea during the Lenten season. When we give up something – food or TV or whatever it may be – we make a clearing in our lives, but unless the clearing is illuminated we walk around in the dark.
A LENTEN PRAYER
Creator of the heavens and earth,
Speak light into our immeasurable darkness.
Expose the chaos of our steps
And bring order to our lives.
Light of the World full of grace and truth,
Open up the kingdom of heaven to us.
Tell us what you hear and see
And give us ears and eyes.
SCRIPTURE READING: John 1
Evan’s response is insightful. I especially like this:
My struggle with repentance starts at knowing myself well enough to see what I should repent of … I wonder if the work of God in one's repentance is illumination, the light on the path, the writing in the sand.
If you are observing Lent – denying usual comforts, reorienting your life in some way around the things of God – then isn’t this your prayer? “God, illuminate my path! Search my heart and test my anxious thoughts. Shed light on my dark ways. I want a clear picture of what my life is about, and where it is headed. How will I turn from my ways if I cannot see them?”
When we are feeling the pains of hunger or the habitual desire to watch TV, our thoughts turn here: Search me, O God.
That God is the one who beckons and arouses the repentance is what makes it spiritual and not natural. Natural repentance is aroused by fear or pride. Regarding fear, I turn from my ways because I dread consequence or loss of approval from others. Regarding pride, I tell myself that I need to turn from my ways because “I’m a good Christian (a pastor, even). I must stop doing this because I don’t want to be like the kind of person who does this. I’m not like that.”
Self-protection and self-worship ride in the Trojan horse of repentance all the time. And you simply will not see it unless God shows it to you. Oh God, search me! Every dark corner and every hidden place.
How does God search and test and illuminate? God has many instruments, I suppose, but we must begin with the sharpest one, “sharper than any double-edged sword … dividing soul and spirit … judging the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). The Word of God is “a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.”
This is why a greater devotion to the Bible is a good idea during the Lenten season. When we give up something – food or TV or whatever it may be – we make a clearing in our lives, but unless the clearing is illuminated we walk around in the dark.
A LENTEN PRAYER
Creator of the heavens and earth,
Speak light into our immeasurable darkness.
Expose the chaos of our steps
And bring order to our lives.
Light of the World full of grace and truth,
Open up the kingdom of heaven to us.
Tell us what you hear and see
And give us ears and eyes.
SCRIPTURE READING: John 1
posted by Will | 8:20 AM
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