We continue today with our review of this season’s lessons. It’s been a season of great healing and growth. I hope as we approach Holy Week that you are finding new life and growth in Christ.

Lent Day 17- This days quotes:

“Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.” WIlliam Barclay

“For  to be poised against fatality, to meet adverse conditions gracefully, is more  than simple endurance; it is an act of aggression, a positive  triumph.“ Thomas  Mann

We  really feel happier when things look bleak. Hope is endurance. Hope is holding  on and going on and trusting in the Lord. Michael  Novak

This days question: What attitude are you wanting God to help you with?

Lent Day 18- This day’s opening question: What way of thinking do you want God to change in you

We humans have a need to consistently re-present ourselves to God in a mind-set of sacrificial living. We must constantly ask ourselves, “What area of this life needs to be given for love of Jesus.”

Such sacrifices always seem costly at the moment but as Jesus said, ” everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life.” MA 19:29 NLT

The sacrifice will drive us into prayer and study of the Word, It will bring us out of the pathway that conforms with the world’s understanding.  Our way will  no longer follow the patterns of our upbringing, our families or our friends where those patterns come into conflict with the rightly divided Word of truth.

Through this season of Lent I feel my heart being prepared by God to walk in His miracles. I feel like He has given me a story larger than myself to live in, a story many others may struggle to believe. He is changing me so that I can live in the larger story.

How is God enlarging your story this year?

Lent Day 19- On this day I realize,  I am romanced by a God who is wild and orderly all at once and so far beyond my ken that I stand everyday amazed by this Lover who has come seeking me!

When was the first time you encountered the God who loved you?

Lent Day 20-

I have been writing about the calling and the romancing of God these last few days. The Bible sometimes reads like a fairytale (with the exception of  it being absolute fact). The call of a loving God beckons  each of us to a happily ever after; But just like in every good fairytale there are dragons and dark castles filled with nightmares between us and the Love of our lives.

It is in discovering and conquering our dragons and monsters that we gain access to the plans of God and the intimate relationship that God wants us to have. One thing I have learned during this season of Lent is that sometimes our dragons lie invisible. Just beneath the surface of our hearts they rest slumbering under deep spells of denial. Yet even slumbering dragons have the power to keep us back from our dreams unless they are committed into the hands of  the Savior who can defeat them all.

In light of this truth, What promises from God’s Word have the potential to propel you forward?

Which lesson from this review speaks most to you today?