Friends, on Wednesday, February 22, 2023, we started our Lenten Journey. Lent is a season of 40 days, without counting Sundays, that begins on Ash Wednesday through Saturday before Easter. It is a season of penitence, praying, fasting, self-denial, and engaging in spiritual disciplines as we reflect on the passion of the Lord.
The season of lent reminds us of forty days of Jesus Christ praying and fasting in the wilderness of Judea. The forty days of Jesus in the wilderness took place at the beginning of His ministry on earth. Through his journey of forty days, Jesus overcame temptations and moved forward to accomplish His mission on earth.
If we look at the Bible, we have other people who also experienced the presence and the glory of the Lord on their journeys of forty days. Moses spent forty days and forty nights twice at Sinai with the Lord without eating bread or drinking water when he received the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24:18, Exodus 34:28). By the time he came down from the mountain, Moses was no longer the same, his face was shining after experiencing the glory of God. Jonah spent forty days proclaiming repentance in Nineveh (Jonah 3:4). His forty days did not leave the people of Nineveh the same. After forty days, they repented from their acts that did not please the Lord and found the Lord's favor. While running away from King Ahab and Jezebel, who wanted his life, the Lord fed the Prophet Elijah in a miraculous way in the wilderness (1Kings 19). The Lord's food energized him to travel forty days and forty nights until he found refuge at Mount Horeb, where he heard the Lord’s voice.
Friends, the season of Lent is a good time for our spiritual growth. Regardless of our circumstances and challenges of this life, the Lord is calling us in these forty days to slow down from our busy schedules to seek God's mercy, presence, and favor. Lent is a time to humble ourselves before the Lord, pray and forgive one another, read the Bible or daily devotions, seek God's guidance in our lives, families, relationships, and congregations, and continue to grow in our relationship with Christ. By doing so, we will also never be the same by the end of our journey of forty days with the Lord.
May you have a blessed, inspired, and Spirit-filled lent.
In Christ,
Rev. Dr. Michel Lundula