Come Learn Rest Ministries

In this week before Palm Sunday, it is only natural to recall both the suffering and the love of our Lord. The Son of the living God lived and died passionately, with great love for those who respond by crying out to the Father for mercy. Long before Jesus walked among us, the Psalmist wrote the words Jesus cried out from the cross.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
~Psalm 22:1-5

May the passionate cry of our forsaken Lord be our invitation to turn our hearts toward God and to cry out for the deliverance we have been seeking throughout this season of Lent.

It is hard to believe that we are halfway through March and halfway through Lent. On this year’s journey, I have spent time reflecting on where I sense God’s grand presence most profoundly. As I turn my mind toward Jesus, I am aware of my own small existence trusting in God’s greatness a little more each day.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones.
~Proverbs 3:5-8

Lent is indeed an invitation to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and to acknowledge God’s greatness. May healing and refreshment be celebrated even now as we journey on toward the joy of Easter!

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind

that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,

what is good and acceptable and perfect.
~Romans 12:2

Lent is a time of awakening to God’s good and perfect will for our lives and a time of responding by allowing the Spirit to renew what is not acceptable in our hearts and minds. The following has been my prayer as I begin this year’s 40 day journey.

Lenten Psalm of Awakening

Come O Life-giving Creator,
and rattle the door latch
of my slumbering heart.
Awaken me as you breathe upon
a winter-wrapped earth,
gently calling to the life virgin Spring.

Awaken in these fortified days
of Lenten prayer and discipline
my youthful dream of holiness.
Call me forth from the prison camp’s my numerous past defeats
and my narrow patterns of being
to make my ordinary life extra-ordinarily alive,
through the passion of my love.

Show to me during these Lenten days
how to take the daily things of life
and by submerging them in the sacred,
to infuse them with a great love
for you, O God, and for others.
Guide me to perform simple acts of love and prayer,
the real works of reform and renewal
of this overture to the spring of the spirit.

O Father of Jesus,
help me not to wast these precious Lenten days
or my soul’s spiritual springtime.

~Edward Hays