But God is the Strength of My Heart – Lent 36, 2021

Do you feel weak, powerless? Do you ever wonder if it’s all worth it, trying to live the righteous life, and bringing glory to God? Do you ever just get tired of pressing on? Sometimes, the closer you get to your destination, the heavier the weight seems.

A psalmist known as Asaph knew that feeling all too well. Read through Psalm 73. His feet had almost slipped. He envied those who seemed to get away with everything all while he attempted to stay right with God. But as you read through this psalm, you’ll see he crowns his poem with praise to God Almighty.

You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from You will perish; You destroy all who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all Your deeds. (Psalm 73:23-28)

Father God please be with me and strengthen me during these days when everything seems so oppressive, so gloomy! And yet this is such a holy season during which we celebrate. But we also grieve…Oh, we grieve what we have done to You, we grieve that Jesus had to die because of what mankind has done through the ages. We repent of any wrongdoing that we know brings pain to You and wounded our Lord Jesus. We ask, Father, that You would forgive us our iniquities and that You would make us mindful during this Holy Week the high cost of forgiveness. May we never take forgiveness lightly. May we never withhold it from those who seek forgiveness from us. May we be quick to ask forgiveness from those we have harmed. We ask, Lord, that we would keep short accounts with You and that we would draw closer to You, this season most of all. For our heart and our flesh may fail but praise God! You are our strength and portion forever. Amen.

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If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2022 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals continue to minister, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:

Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.