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The Upper Room Chaplains’ Ministry: All about Connection
Rosario “Roz” Picardo is a young, innovative, effective leader in The United Methodist Church. As an Read More
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Martha Spong | Read Psalm 25:1-10
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Sign Up TodayTaking Lent seriously feels daunting. If we haven’t figured out by Ash Wednesday how we want to approach the season, we may “all or nothing” it; or we might set the first Sunday as the next deadline for our decision. If we’re in that category, today may feel like the...
Loving God, you are steadfast even when we are changeable. Help us to embrace the practices that bring us closer to you in the coming weeks. Teach us to center our hearts and minds on you, with humble confidence in your mercy. Amen.
The season of Lent is now upon us, a time of inward examination that begins on Ash Wednesday. We search ourselves and ask God to search us, so that we can follow God more completely. This examination, however, can become a cause for despair if we do not approach it with God’s everlasting mercy and faithfulness in mind. Although the Flood was a result of judgment, God also saved the faithful and established a covenant with them. The psalmist seeks to learn God’s ways, all the while realizing that he has fallen short and must rely on God’s grace. For Christians, baptism functions as a symbol of salvation and a reminder of God’s covenant faithfulness—not because the water is holy but because God is holy and merciful.
Read Genesis 9:8-17. When have you, after a season of loss, experienced new life? What was the sign of that new life?
Read Psalm 25:1-10. How are you experiencing God’s steadfast love and faithfulness in your life? How do you offer thanks?
Read 1 Peter 3:18-22. When have you sacrificed something for the sake of someone else?
Read Mark 1:9-15. Recall a “wilderness” experience in your own life. What helped you to move through that experience? What were the spiritual gifts of that experience?
Respond by posting a prayer.
I join many of those who will pray for you as you seek to discern what you are called to be at this moment. May God grant you the courage to fulfill that calling. May we all open our eyes and see the misery, open our ears and hear the cries of God’s people, and, like God through the Lord Jesus Christ, be incarnate amongst them.”
View a growing list of resources for the spiritual work of overcoming racism.
