From Ash Wednesday until Easter, I will post from Lent and Easter devotionals offered online. Today's post features excerpts written by Jennifer Heeren - a regular contributor to Crosswalk.com.
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There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
1 John 4:18 NLT
When I give up something for Lent, I want it to come from a heart that truly wants to glorify God. I want it to be something that magnifies my view of the resurrection season at the end of the forty days. This year, I want the Lenten season to be a time of meditating on who God designed me to be and then taking steps to live like that person more often. I want to give up some of my behaviors that serve to emphasize the boundaries of my comfort zone instead of expanding them. I tend to hide my true self by simply going along with the flow of what other people are doing and saying. I do not want to rock any boats by bringing up opposing viewpoints. On the surface, it may seem like I am keeping the peace but really, most of the time, I am just too afraid to stand out. Fitting in is more comfortable. The result of this behavior is lukewarm living and God does not like lukewarm attitudes and behaviors (Revelation 3:16).
One reason that it is more comfortable to fit in is my habit of comparing myself with other people. When I compare myself with others, I find myself lacking, and then I am fearful of sharing anything because I do not feel worthy. Therefore, meditating on who God designed me to be should help. Psalm 139:13-16 says that he made all of the intricate details of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. His workmanship is wonderful and he made me. He knew everything that I would do—good, bad, or indifferent—before I took my first breath. Yet, he chose me anyway. Like a lonely child in an orphanage on the day of a long-awaited adoption, God chose me to be one of His own.
These truths should make me perfectly content and secure but I do not always live as if they do. Often I live as if people’s opinions are the epitome and God’s opinion is hard to grasp. Therefore, for forty days I will meditate on God’s love for me. I will think about how he designed me for a good purpose and he wants me to live within that purpose. It is okay to do and say things that I believe wholeheartedly in my soul even when rejection comes back to me. After all, if God is for me, who can be against me?
Focusing for forty days on contentment with who God designed me to be should help me to relish the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection more because He died so that I could have a full and abundant life. He did not die so that I could hide and cower.
Prayer:
Father,
I pray that out of Your glorious riches, You may strengthen us with power through Your Spirit in our inner being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. And, I pray that we, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know His love that surpasses knowledge and that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19). When we are afraid of others' opinions, help us to remember that You love us with a perfect love and perfect love drives away fear. In Jesus' Name. Amen
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