Lent

As we near the end of Lent, I read a letter from a pastor that's associated with one of the missionaries we support. I thought it was well said....

For most of us observing the Lenten season is not part of our experience. This is most unfortunate. It is the time on the church calendar for believers to contemplate such a rich redemption that is ours in Christ. In that contemplation we soon are convicted of our own slippage from the throne of Grace.

Business of life, preoccupation with the cares of this world and sin cause us to slowly slip away from our first love. How sad it is for us who are investing in the proclamation of the Gospel to the world to find our own delight of the Gospel waning.

During Lent I find the following words of the familiar hymn ringing in my ears:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
(Robert Robinson 1735-1790)

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10