Music has a way of breaking through where words alone cannot. It often goes underutilized and underappreciated, especially at Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter for its staying power. There are people whose only exposure to Christianity leaves them without any doctrine apart from the sermon. Sometimes even sermons are made too “relevant” and leave out the important Scripture and doctrine of why Jesus was born and why He had to die: we’re sinners.
That’s why columnist John Kass, whose poem prayer column forms our Lenten framework for prayer, offers these next few verses:
For all the people in every choir in the world. They’ve been practicing for weeks in cold, empty churches, so tonight is their night too. Their beautiful voices lift us with song, inviting us to humble ourselves as we ask for help in scraping away any bitterness that has grown like hard bark around our hearts.
Bitterness, that hard bark…disillusionment with the world…frustration with the seeming ineffectiveness of what is good to triumph over what is evil…it’s discouraging! But do you see how Christmas and Easter combined display God’s excellent plan to resolve evil once and for all?
How does music do it when words alone seem to be inadequate?
Music involves different brain pathways. It’s why we sing ABCs. It’s why words of songs we didn’t even like from the 1900s pop into our heads. Or songs we may not have heard in years…seemingly randomly triggered for replay in our minds. Christmas carols and Easter praise are especially like that. Lord, display Your glory and Your mercy in music! Shout for joy to the LORD!
“Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn– shout for joy before the LORD, the King. Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.” Psalm 98:4-9
Prayer Focus: We praise You, Lord, for the gift of music and how it enriches our world and increases our knowledge of You.
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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.