Category: Lent

²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

John 14:27

Many of us are wondering what on earth is going on right now. The Coronavirus scare seems to be growing exponentially each day. Maybe we’ve sensed we’re in the last days for some time, but now it seems imminent!

Don’t forget, God is in control. Not even a sparrow can fall from the sky apart from our heavenly Father (Matthew 10:29). He is the creator and sustainer of life. Even when everything around us seems to be changing, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

God is still good. He does not fail. The promises he’s made, he will keep. We can look back over our lives; we can look back over history; and we can affirm that the God in whom we trust has never failed.

Stay grounded in Jesus. Even as the world around us is panicking and wanting to pull us down with it, we have the chance to show something different. Fear and anxiety spread even quicker than a virus. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take precautions, it simply means Jesus is with us even as we do.

Peter wrote that believers should be ready to give a reason for the hope we have (1 Peter 3:15). This presupposes we have hope even at times that are most stressful and in full crisis mode. We need to root ourselves – by prayer, the word, community – in Jesus. May the world see the hope we have because we know and love the Lord of all!

In these days of uncertainty, let’s remind ourselves – and one another – constantly of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Let’s pray for the peace that surpasses understanding; the peace Jesus promised to his disciples. Jesus was on his way to the Father. It was the night he would be arrested and within twenty-four hours he would be laying in a tomb. Though their hearts would be troubled, they could trust in him.

We can too. Though our hearts be troubled; though the world around us seems to crumble; though all around us is fear and anxiety; we have the hope that death has been defeated. We have the hope that by Christ’s wounds, we are healed. We have the promise that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God.

Take time to reflect:

What kinds of things cause you to feel fearful or anxious? List them and see if there is a common theme or connection between them. Are there any truths you know about God that speak to this?

Make a list of ways God has answered prayer in your life. What are times you’ve seen him “show up”? How has he provided for you? Where have you seen his love?

Take time to tell God how you’re feeling about things going on around you. Ask him to help you remember his grace and faithfulness in your life and to stir up more and more hope for what is to come.

Read: Numbers 21:4-9

⁴ From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. ⁵ And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” ⁶ Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. ⁷ And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸ And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

I once heard a story of a woman who had been asked by her husband’s doctor to come it to see her. He explained that her husband had a rare condition that was often fatal if not treated properly. She asked what could be done. The doctor instructed her, “Well, he needs plenty of sleep, so let him sleep as late as he needs to each day. He will need plenty of good nutrition, so you’ll have to cook him three big, healthy meals each day. He shouldn’t have too much stress, so he won’t be able to help much around the house for a while. He may experience aches and need a massage each evening. If you can do all of that for him, I think he has an excellent chance at recovery.”

The woman began sobbing and was obviously distraught. The doctor asked her, “What’s wrong? Your husband will get better if you follow my instructions.” She answered, “I’m going to miss him so much.”

Israel is getting close to entering the Promised Land. When they came to Edom, the Edomites refused to let them pass through their land, As a result, the trip grew longer and the people became impatient. In their frustration, the new generation repeated one of their parents’ mistakes: They began grumbling and complaining about the trip and about the food and water. They cry out against God and Moses, “Why did you bring us here to die?”

In response to their sin, God sent poisonous serpents into their midst. The people come to their senses and realize they’ve sinned and beg Moses to pray for them; which he does. In the end, God gives them a specific plan for how they can be healed from a snake bite. Moses puts a bronze serpent on a pole and puts it in the midst of the people. If a person is bit, he or she must look at the bronze serpent and they will live. But if a person refused to look, they would die.

On that day there were probably those who were bit and quickly ran to look upon the bronze serpent. Others may have thought, I will do it when I finish with my work. Others may have thought, I don’t think I need to look, I looked before. And still others may have thought, it won’t matter if I look or not. What good is a bronze serpent? While some looked, others were like the woman in the story; unwilling to follow the instructions given.

Jesus, when he spoke to Nicodemus about eternal life and being born of the Spirit told him, “¹⁴ As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” We must recognize the poison of sin in our souls and look to the cross, trusting in Jesus who died to bring us forgiveness and life.

The people of Israel kept that bronze snake. In 2 Kings 18:4 we read that when he became king, Hezekiah “broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).” They had taken a symbol intended to remind they of God’s grace and forgiveness and turned it into an idol.

While I doubt we are in danger today of making the cross an idol and worshiping it, I wonder if we forget that it should daily prompt us to seek God’s face that we might live and walk in his forgiveness. Our sins are forgiven, yet if we do not regularly take time to search our hearts and confess our sins, they can create distance in our relationship with God. Sin can keep us from sensing the prompting of God’s Spirit like a callus can harden and keep us from feeling pain.

We need to follow God’s instructions to look to the cross for forgiveness and life. We need to keep the cross before us each day, not letting sin take root in our hearts. We are forgiven in Christ! The penalty has been paid! Now we can walk in it and enjoy intimacy with our heavenly Father!

Take time to reflect:

Do you have a regular pattern of self-examination and confession? If not, take time right now to invite God to show you areas of sin in your life that need to be confessed.

It’s easy to carry guilt around when we come face-to-face with our sin, remember to also hear the words of God through John, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

The people of Israel often grumbled and complained about life’s circumstances. Take time to thank God for his work in your life. See if you can list ten specific things for which you’re thankful. A thankful heart can keep us from doubting God’s goodness and wisdom!

Read: Micah 7:18-20

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. ¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. ²⁰ You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

As a child, our family always took a summer vacation. For two weeks in July or August, we piled into our green Ford station wagon and hit the road. My dad would usually try to drive all night so the kids would sleep and not be antsy, but there was always a part of the drive during daylight hours.

I remember looking at the highway and seeing shimmering pools of water ahead. Yet, when we got there the water had magically evaporated. How did that happen? Finally, I asked my parents where the pools went. When they finally understood what I was talking about, they explained the concept of a “mirage” – an optical illusion that made it look like there was water on a hot road, but wasn’t really there. It was actually caused by the refraction of light from the sky by heated air.

Sin is a mirage. It isn’t caused by light and heated air, but it is an illusion. It gives the appearance of being beautiful and fun and just what we want or need, but it kills and robs and destroys.

Time and time again, the people of Israel ran after false gods. No matter how many times God rescued them; no matter how many times God delivered them; they kept running after false gods. The allure of the shiny, shimmering sin seems so inviting, yet never truly satisfies.

“Who is a God like you?” It is a question that expects the answer, “No one!” There is no one who comes close to the true God. There is no one who can match his perfect, holy character; no one who can match his power and the magnificent deeds he has done; no one who keeps his promises always. The more we know God, the more we should trust him. The better we know God’s promises, the more we see God’s faithfulness, the more peace we have when things go sideways.

Micah’s message to Israel came at a time when everything appeared hopeless from a human perspective. Yet, Micah trusted the God who pardons iniquity and passes over trespasses. He had hope in a God who does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love; who will again have compassion on us.

During Lent, as we take time to reflect on our lives and allow the Holy Spirit to show us areas where we’ve pursued the mirage of sin and missed the real thing God has for us, we have to take responsibility. We can’t just bury our sin or sweep it under the rug and pretend like it’s not there. We have to repent – to call sin what it is, ask God’s forgiveness, thank him that in Jesus we have it, and ask for the grace to live rightly.

John wrote, ⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  The blood of Jesus has purchased our forgiveness. When we confess our sin and ask forgiveness, he promises we have it!

In fact, in verse 19 we read, he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Jesus “treads” on our sins. He subdues them. He conquers them. It no longer has power over us. He casts them into the depths of the sea.

Walter Kaiser writes,:

The last three verses of this book (Micah 7:18-20) are linked with the book of Jonah for the afternoon reading in the synagogue on Yom Kipper, the “Day of Atonement.” Once every year, on Ros Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the orthodox Jew goes to a stream or river and symbolically empties his sins from his pockets into the water as he recites Micah 7:18–20. This is the Tashlich service, named after the word “You will cast.” (shalak) It symbolizes the fact that God can and will take our sins, wash them down the streams of running water and bury them deep in the depths of the ocean. God not only forgives our sins; He also forgets them. If some object that God cannot forget our sins if He is omniscient, let it be remembered that what He does when He forgets our sins is remember them against us no more.

God loves us. He longs to have our relationship with him restored to the intimacy it was intended to have. The blood of Jesus brings the forgiveness and the forgetfulness we need to be able to start each day – and many times each day – afresh.  As John also wrote, ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

Sin is a mirage. It looks shiny and satisfying but is empty and harsh. Though our sin be great; God’s love is greater! Who is like our God? No one!

Take time to reflect:

Do you ever feel like you aren’t good enough for God? Do you feel like you’re trapped in sin and defeated in a never-ending pattern?

Take time to think about the things we learn about God in these verses. He is a God who:

• Pardons
• Passes over my weaknesses
• Withholds His anger
• Shows mercy
• Demonstrates compassion
• Conquered the power of sin
• Casts my sin into the depths of the sea

As you look at that list, which speaks the most to you today? Take time to talk to God about it, giving thanks and asking him to help you draw closer to him!

Read: Exodus 16:1-20

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. ⁵ On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” ⁶ So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, ⁷ and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” ⁸ And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”

Today, before writing this, I had the privilege of hearing the testimony of a fellow brother in Christ. After growing up in a legalistic church, becoming an evangelistic atheist, he returned to belief in God and eventually trusted in Jesus. The turning point for him occurred in the middle of a mix of life crushing events and drug dependency when he found himself screaming at God in anger. While standing in the middle of the street daring God to take His life, he came to the realization that he couldn’t possibly have this much anger directed at the nonexistent deity he had some vehemently argued against. Thus, his journey to faith started in anger.

In many ways, the Exodus community found themselves on the same journey. After witnessing the miraculous work of God flexing His might over the so-called gods of Egypt, they now face the harsh realities of life in the wilderness. They have needs that only God can meet. Yet God doesn’t provide for them immediately. He allows the people to experience hunger pains, bitter water and the woes of an unwilling vegetarian diet. He even allows them to turn to Him in unrighteous anger only to respond graciously by providing their needs for water and food.

Had God provided immediately and always for the community, what would have been missed? God’s people may have taken the Lord’s provision for granted. They would not have learned the hard lesson that without God’s provision, even the basics of life prove beyond their grasp.

The second generation from Egypt received this story well before we did. How important it proved to them as they faced the seemingly insurmountable odds of taking the land. In this story was the forever reminder that the same God that chose to meet the needs of their grumbling parents would go before them.

This story serves the same purpose for us today. Although we don’t want to find ourselves angry with God, from this position we can remember the story of His grace to the people in Exodus. We can recognize that our irritable state in times of need draws us to our faith in the one capable of meeting those needs.

Take time to reflect:

Where have you found yourselves irritably turning to God for your needs? How has He met you in this space with grace and provision?

How can remembering the provision of the Lord to your spiritual forefathers keep you grounded in trust in your life?

What provision can you praise God for right now?

2 Peter 1:3-4 shows how wonderful His eternal and spiritual provision is for us even if the practical things aren’t met as we wish.

Praise God for this provision in Christ today.

Read: Exodus 3:1-4:18

There exists in some Christian circles a particular idol that I (Brycen) have encountered in various places over my years following Jesus. I encountered it most strongly when attending seminary. I am speaking of the idol of finding “my fit.” I overheard many conversations about the jobs guys were willing to take like, “I’d be willing to do youth ministry if I have to until I can get a different job.” You can bet I couldn’t let that one go without asking them not to disservice those possible teens with that kind of attitude. But I really got confused when the idea of picking where God might call you to serve was quantified by taking your Myers-Briggs and the generalized Myers-Briggs of the zip code you might serve and seeing if it proved compatible. Now this is extreme and definitely not normative of the attitudes of Covenant Seminary. However, we often narrow our focus of the ministries and places God might ask us to serve in the local church or in life based on what we deem is our best fit.

The danger in this attitude is that it diminishes the empowering of God in sending you out into His work in the world. Moses tried to argue that the call to lead the people out of bondage wasn’t really a good fit for him. Jeremiah argued that he was to young. Jonah thought himself not a fit with the zip code of Nineveh. Yet the answer to all of them was not in who they were or how they fit, but in who God was and what He would do despite their qualifications.

In Colossians 1:29 Paul begins a sentence that we almost anticipate going a different way. “For this I toil, struggling with all…” You expect him to say “my strength,” but the verse concludes with “his energy that he powerfully works within me.” Paul knew and Moses is told that the Lord equips the called, rather than calls the equipped.

Take time to reflect:

Have you ever found yourself narrowing the range of places God could possibly call you down to some idealized fit?

We know that the Lord gives spiritual gifts and has specific plans for us to walk in, so when is it appropriate to factor fit into the equation?

When does fit become and idol or an excuse that limits our willingness to respond to God’s call to serve in His work? What are signs that we may be looking for excuses out of certain areas of service?

Has God tugged on your heart to step in to His work in a certain area of your church, family or community and you have been resistant? Will you pray for Him to reveal any of that to you and maybe invite a friend into that process?

Read: Luke 15:1-7

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

³ So he told them this parable: ⁴ “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ ⁷ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

As I, Brycen, type this devotional while working in one of the office rooms at Salem, I can see a table that many would call “the Lost & Found.” This fine collection contains dirty coffee thermoses, sunglasses, small stuffed animals and a bag with the name Nate on it that has been here long enough, the change of clothes inside would no longer fit either young Nate in our congregation. Rick and I refer to this assortment not as the “Lost & Found”, but simply “the Lost.” These things have no consciousness of their abandoned state nor would you find their owners scouring the building to find them.

This condition of lostness reflects the condition of both the sheep and the Pharisees and scribes in our text. As many have heard, sheep are stupid. I haven’t personally fact checked this assertion, but I trust those I know who have and they would tell me that the sheep spoken of in the parable would quite possibly not even know it was lost.

The beauty of the parable lies not in the sheep but the shepherd. The shepherd tears apart the countryside in search of the sheep. Upon finding the unaware fluff ball, he brings him home and throws a party to celebrate. This of course mirrors the pursuit Christ undertakes to seek and save the lost in this world. The sinners Jesus is accused of eating with (and He did) in verse 2 are the broken in this world who are aware they aren’t in the best situation, but don’t know they are lost, as they didn’t know who they needed to be found by. Jesus finds them nonetheless and brings them to the celebration of a new home in Him!

Do you have that story of salvation in your life? Were you lost without a full awareness of how lost you were? Did Jesus come and find you and carry you home? Praise Him for that story and share it with someone this week!

The second group whose condition reflects “the Salem Lost” probably even more, are the Pharisees and scribes in verse 2. The sheep represents the broken sinners this party judged and they at least knew of their brokenness. The Pharisees and Scribes, however, sit in the presence of the one all their studies should have pointed to and yet they don’t recognize they need to be found by Him. They sit unmoved from their table of lostness, not because there is no one ready to find them and carry them home, but because they refuse to admit their condition. Their position in their minds finds security in self-righteousness, and yet placing their security in this keeps them lost, not experiencing the joy and party of finding their home in the fields of Jesus’ grace and mercy.

Take time to reflect:

Are you tempted to sit in a security of self-righteousness and mistakenly forget that you need to be found by Jesus just as much as the “sinners” of your world?

What areas do you find a judgmental attitude creep in towards the struggles of those around?

Read John 10:27-30. What areas of your life are you slow to recognize your drift from the Good Shepherd’s guiding voice? How can you get back to following Him?

As you pray to the Lord on these things, don’t forget to check “the Lost” this Sunday and turn it into a “Lost & Found.”

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

What embarrasses you? When have you felt ashamed about something?

Years ago, Angie and I joined the church we’d been attending. The senior pastor was introducing all of the new members to the congregation (of nearly a thousand people). He knew me and mentioned I was in seminary at the time. Wanting to say something about Angie (who was in medical school at the time), he said she was working on her “PHT degree” which he explained was “putting hubby through”. People who knew us gasped (didn’t he know Angie was in medical school? Yes, but in the moment, he forgot).

That probably would have been embarrassing for him had it not gotten worse. He went on to another young woman, Kirstin, and as he introduced her, he asked if she was “with child”. She was not! I’m not sure who was more embarrassed – that pastor or poor Kirstin!

The message of the gospel is foolishness to the world. We don’t like being told we’re spiritual failures who can’t be good enough for God. We don’t like the idea that we can’t save ourselves. That kind of message is fine for other people, but I can take care of myself.

We don’t want to be told we are wicked; that we deserve wrath; that our best actions are like filthy rags. And yet, Paul writes in Ephesians 2, we all “were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:1-3). We didn’t have a little sin problem, we were dead!

People don’t like to be told they have a problem. They don’t like being told they aren’t good enough. When we share the message of the gospel, it sounds crazy to people. And yet, it is the wisdom of God and the power of God. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, ¹⁸ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1:18). And in the passage above from Romans 1 as well.

There are many verses I love in the Bible, but my two favorite words are “But God.” We were objects of wrath; we were dead in our sin; we were lost and without hope…⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.

We need to remind ourselves each day of the beauty of the gospel. We are greater sinners than we can possibly understand; but we are loved by a God with love that is so much more than anything we can ever imagine. John Newton, the ex-slave trader who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace, wrote, “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

We are great sinners; Christ is a great savior! Let us rejoice in the message of salvation – foolishness to the world; but the power of God to us who believe!

Take time to reflect:

Have you ever felt ashamed or embarrassed by the gospel?

How do you understand your heart condition? When you read Paul’s words in Ephesians, do you see yourself in those words?

How has God transformed you since the first day you believed? How have you seen the power of the gospel in your life?

Take a few moments to reflect on where your heart and life still need transformation. Ask God to continue the good work he has begun in you and promises to bring to completion in the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).

Read: Genesis 12:1-3 

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Living overseas for many years, from time-to-time people would send us packages and there would be treats for our family. Often our older two children were very protective of what they received. They weren’t exactly selfish – if we asked them to share with the others, they would – but they were reluctant to share their bounty with someone else.

For our son Jonathan, it was different. Part of his joy in receiving the gift was sharing it with others. He’d go around and offer each of us a piece or a bite of whatever he’d received – without being told to share! He loved blessing others with the blessings he had.

God has a similar desire for us. He blesses us – not simply for our sake – but in part so we will turn around and bless others. Someone has said, “The gospel comes to us because it’s on its way to someone else.” The blessings we receive are intended to be passed on to bless others.

In Genesis, God makes promises that reveal his purposes in the world and for our lives as well. His promises show us what is important to him. His promises help us understand what he wants.

For example, in Genesis 1:27-28, God created Adam and Eve. We read that he made them in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Then he gave them the command to, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.

Even before sin had entered the world, God reveals his plan that the earth would be filled with men and women who would give him glory and honor and worship. He wants Adam and Eve to have lots of children who will fill the earth. He wants more and more worshipers to enjoy creation and to give him glory. He had a plan for his glory to cover all the earth.

Later, in the days of Noah, things became so sinful and wicked that God sends a flood and destroys humankind. He spares Noah and his family. After the flood, when Noah and his clan are back on dry ground, we read in Genesis 9:1: And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

It’s the same command God gave Adam and Eve. Fill the earth with people who will walk with me and worship me. God’s purpose had not changed!

Sadly, we know that, once again, the people don’t obey! We get to Genesis 11 and we discover that the people of the earth have one language and they are all settling in one place. We read in verse 4, ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

Instead of obeying God’s command to fill the earth with worshipers, they gather in one place and seek to make a name for themselves. They do not fill the earth and they do not seek God’s glory. They gather in one place and seek their own.

This time, in response, God doesn’t destroy humankind and start over again. Instead, he creates a people, a nation, that will be his missionary nation. His missionary family that he will use to reach the peoples of the earth.

God speaks to a man named Abram – later he will be called Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 above. In these three verses, God’s purpose is once again affirmed as he makes a promise to God in what we call “The Abrahamic Covenant.”

In verse 1 we see God’s command: Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” God commands Abram to leave his home and go to an unspecified location. Abram obeys God’s command.

In verses 2 and 3, we see God’s promise: ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse…

Abraham, I’m blessing you, but I’m doing it for a reason. I have a plan. I’m blessing you so that you will be a blessing. You will be a light and a conduit for my love and blessing. It doesn’t end with you. It won’t even end with your offspring. My promise reveals a bigger purpose.

In the second part of verse 3, God reveals to Abraham that his promise of blessing will lead to his purpose. God’s purpose: …in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Abraham, I’m blessing you so that one day all the nations of the world will be blessed. I’m blessing you so that through you and ultimately through your offspring, all the peoples and nations and language will be blessed.

By revealing his purpose in a promise, God shows that his mission is not based on us; it isn’t based on any one person or derailed by our sin; and it doesn’t depend on our strength or ability to carry it out. It is God’s purpose and God’s promise and it will not fail.

Later in Galatians and Romans, we will discover that the blessing God gives is justification by faith. Abraham believed God in Genesis 12 and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now, all who trust in Christ (Abraham’s offspring) and accept his work on the cross share in that blessing. The righteousness of Jesus becomes our righteousness. God blessed Abraham so we could be blessed.

We need to recognize that God wasn’t fulfilling his purpose and his promise through Abraham alone. It was through a family. It was through Abraham’s descendants. Ultimately, it comes through Jesus and when we have faith in him, through us to everyone else.

The gospel comes to us because it’s on its way to someone else. Like Abraham, we are blessed to be a blessing. We have been forgiven and made holy and called to take the love of God to all peoples.

Take time to reflect:

How has God blessed you?

What have you done with your blessings? Have you kept them for yourself? Wished there were more? Complained they weren’t like other people’s? Blessed others?

Ask God to show you ways to be a blessing to people around during Lent. Resolve to obey.

Ask God if there is a way you could be a blessing to the nations during Lent. What might that look like? Will you try?

Read: Luke 23:46

⁴⁴ It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, ⁴⁵ while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ⁴⁶ Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. ⁴⁷ Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” ⁴⁸ And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. ⁴⁹ And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.

As we come to Jesus’ final words from the cross, the sun’s light has failed and the curtain in the temple has been torn in two from top to bottom. The inner curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place. It was a curtain that kept all but the High Priest from entering the holiest place where God manifested his presence. The curtain’s tearing means the way had been opened between humans and God. Now, God’s presence will not only be in his temple, but will rest upon all who are filled with his Holy Spirit.

As this happens, Jesus cries out. Normally a person nearing death on a cross would have hardly enough breath, let alone strength, to cry out in a loud voice. But Jesus does. His declaration is a word of surrender. Throughout his life, Jesus has submitted to the will of God. He has obeyed it. Now, he commits his spirit to his heavenly Father. He has accomplished what God had called him to do on the cross. Now his work is done.

After all the pain and suffering; after being forsaken and enduring the punishment for our sin; Jesus knows there is life and peace with the Father. There is hope and joy with the Father. He can commit his entire self; he can surrender his spirit. In the Father, he is in good hands.

As Jesus commits his spirit to his Father, he speaks a word of trust. He entrusts himself to the one who can care and protect him. He entrusts himself to his Father’s care. He knows there is no better place for him.

Jesus’ words are a word of intimacy. His time of desolation is coming to an end. His pain will pass. His mission has been accomplished. His life is not being taken from him, it is being offered. He offers himself for the sake of the world. For you and for me. He knows the Father’s presence. He knows the Father’s pleasure. He knows the joy that awaits him, the joy set before him.

Why are the words of Jesus, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” so comforting to so many?

In the midst of pain and suffering are you able to see the goodness of your Father?

Are you able to trust that all He is permitting will produce fruit in your life?

Are you able to “lean into” your Father who will not leave you and will never forget you?