Last evening we entered into the season of Lent, with the very meaningful worship service of Ash Wednesday. The sign of the cross was placed upon our foreheads with ash. That ash reminds us of our frailty, our mortality. It reminds us of our sin. But being in the sign of the cross, it reminds us of the redemption that is ours through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the season of Lent, in a special way, the church focuses on repentance. The Biblical understanding of repentance is to turn around. It's to go a different direction. The church always emphasizes repentance, but in this season of Lent, there's a special focus on it. It's a rich, rich time, isn't it, in the life of the church? 

Sometimes you'll hear people say in the season of Lent that they're giving something up for Lent. Sometimes people, for example, will say, I'm giving up sugar for Lent, or I'm giving up chocolate for Lent, or I'm giving up ______. And then just fill in the blank that they're giving something up for Lent. Is there any Biblical mandate for us to do that? Absolutely not. But some people find that helpful, a reminder to them that they are to deny themselves, take up the cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, or a reminder of how the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for us on the cross, how he gave up his life dying on the cross in our place. So sometimes people will find it meaningful, helpful to give something up for Lent.

I've got a different suggestion. How about if we add something for lend? What do I mean? In Joel, the second chapter, beginning with verse 12.  "Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning. Rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord your God, for he's gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing." The call here were for outward actions that expressed in inward reality.

Notice the emphasis here on the heart. This is a call for repentance, a call that is an expression of the heart as one comes repenting of their sins to the Lord. So how about this for Lent? How about adding something, adding more confession, more repenting in our life. So often in our times of prayer, we can quickly find ourselves running to petitions and praying about situations or people. That's all good, of course, but how important it is to also include in our prayers times of adoration, times of thanksgiving, times of confession in which we examine our lives through the lens of Scripture. We see the sinner that we are. We confess our sins unto the Lord. How about during the season of Lent that we add something? How about more time spent in confessing our sins to the Lord and asking him to empower in us a new direction?

And what do we hear when we confess? But we hear the beautiful, beautiful word of the forgiveness that is ours, one on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, when he bore all of our sin and paid the debt. And in that absolution, one on the cross we live.

Thank you, Lord, for this season of Lent. Thank you, Lord, for how you call for and how you empower repentance. Thank you, Lord, for the word of absolution that is ours through the blood of Jesus Christ. In his holy and precious name we pray. Amen. 

God bless you.  Encourage someone.