Focus: Lent is the time to be brutally honest with ourselves. It is the time to examine the path we are traveling. An examination of conscience is productive. It calls us to live according to the cross. The cross is a symbol for the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. Taking up one’s cross means being willing to obey Jesus unconditionally even if it means death. The cross challenges us to holy living?
Prayer: O Lord, you are a holy God. We desire to live in your presence. Lord, of ourselves, we cannot be holy. Open to us your great love. Show us your ways and may we give you the sacrifice of obedience.
Read: Psalm 139 (NIV)
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you. If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Meditation: What do you hear about the ways of God in the first six verses of the Psalm? Is God speaking condemnation, correction? Is God angry? Does God speak love and complete knowledge of you? Is this a safe place to be? How do verses 23 and 24 remind you of the cross? What is unholy in you are you willing to surrender to the cross?
Benediction: “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever.” Jude 1: 24-25, Amen
