It’s Day 25 of Lent and John Kass whose column “O Holy Night” that we’re using for prayerful introspection continues his focus on the lonely and forgotten, writing,
“And for every old woman alone tonight, wide awake in her bed staring at the ceiling, remembering the laughter of children on nights just like this one, when there was so much work to do and a houseful of guests to feed.”
It’s rather fitting as we turn our eyes toward Jesus’ march to the Cross at Lent, we’d have our hearts filled with a sense of longing. That this earth is not our home.
Perhaps we’re feeling burdened with the ways of the world and all the reasons for the Cross: sins of man and separation from God.
It is a painful thing, indeed, aging out of inclusion, being forgotten or passed over, being rejected or set aside, or being relegated to the past of people’s lives instead of their present or their future.
As God’s people, we (to our shame) live an ongoing habit of forgetting Jesus, rejecting Him while pursuing other things to occupy our thoughts and time. Perhaps even setting Him aside as past tense and a book gathering dust on a shelf, a relic of a former time, and we’ve moved on to the present without Him.
Lord, Have Mercy!
And knowing that even the Twelve would reject and deny Him in the end, Jesus said Luke 9:22 “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
Prayer Focus: That God would inspire our heartfelt return to Him. “For [we] were like sheep going astray, but now [we] have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of [our] souls. (1 Peter 2:25)
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You can find these “Κύριε, ἐλέησον, ‘Lord, have mercy” devotionals here or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. 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.
Revelation in 40 devotionals for 2022 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.
“Created to Display His Image” explored what it truly means to be made in God’s Image and the profound significance of that fact. They are archived beginning February 22, 2023.
“Seeing His Love with New Eyes” was the topic for 2024 and it explored looking at God’s love beyond the superficial and trite notions of love. They are archived beginning February 14, 2024.
“The Way it Had to Be” explored the conversation in Luke 24 by the men on the Road to Emmaus as they walked with Jesus. They discovered their assumption “This is not how it was supposed to be” was precisely what had to happen and had been predicted throughout the Old Testament and fulfilled in Jesus’ ministry. These devotionals are archived beginning March 5, 2025.