Description
The six-week Lenten journey is an opportunity to take on a new spiritual discipline. This year, congregations are invited to pray with Scripture as a way of discerning God’s movement in our personal lives and in the life of the world around us.
About these devotions:
Throughout the season of Lent, you will be invited to pray with one passage from Scripture each day and prompted to reflect on what it discloses to you about movement toward God and movement away from God in your life. These devotions written by Roger Gench, Presbyterian pastor and author, will guide you in this daily practice of praying with Scripture.
John Calvin spoke of the Bible as the “lens of faith,” likening it to a pair of eyeglasses that enables us to see the world with clearer vision as God’s creation. As theologian Serene Jones noted in “Engaging Biblical Authority,” this was Calvin’s way of saying that Scripture “brings clarity and focus to all aspects of our lives” and “lets us see what we otherwise would not.” In short, once we have these eyeglasses on, “there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that escapes their vision-framing power.” One of the ways we can “put on” Scripture is by praying or meditating contemplatively on a biblical text — slowly and contemplatively reading it as a prayer to God. Indeed, this is an ancient and robust practice of prayer. When we pray with Scripture, we ponder deeply the words and images of the text. Using our imaginations, we can even enter into the world of the text in order to discern God’s wisdom. Praying with Scripture in this way can be an aid — a focusing lens — to help us discern the movement of God around us.
What to expect:
These devotions are available as a downloadable set of weekly PDFs that start with Ash Wednesday and will guide your journey through Holy Week. They have been designed to be emailed to the congregation (or can be printed and distributed). Additionally, small groups, sessions, staffs or Sunday school classes can use them to explore the daily prayer practices and discuss their experiences together.
Use these devotions to help the congregation enrich their spiritual life and have a prayerful season of Lent.
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