Day 8 of Lent
Thank you for joining us today!
TODAY’S BIBLE VERSE:
JOEL 2:12-15:
“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing—grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.
The Lord asks us, through the prophet Joel, to return to him with all our hearts; and it is by our fasting that we turn our gaze back to Him. Fasting is one way we pull our focus away from ourselves and come to a greater appreciation of that which we have given up. As Christopher West puts it, “If you don’t know the pain of hunger, how can you truly celebrate the joy of feasting?” And what a feast we have! The Israelites of Joel’s time prayed for grain and drink offerings and only 5 verses later God answers their prayer:
“I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil, enough to satisfy you fully”
Every hunger pain and every act of self-denial brings the wedding feast of lamb a little more into focus. So let us rejoice because we have been called to the feast which “fully satisfies” and we will never hunger or thirst again!
IDEAS TO HELP YOU MEMORIZE BIBLE VERSES EACH DAY:
- ASK FOR THE GRACE TO REMEMBER THE VERSE THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
- ASK YOUR GUARDIAN ANGEL TO HELP YOU REMEMBER THE BIBLE VERSE THROUGHOUT THE DAY
- BEFORE UNLOCKING YOUR PHONE OR SENDING A TEXT MESSAGE, EACH TIME REPEAT THE BIBLE VERSE.
- BEFORE SENDING AN EMAIL OUT, REPEAT THE BIBLE VERSE.
- WHILE BRUSHING YOUR TEETH IN THE MORNING AND AT NIGHT, REPEAT THE BIBLE VERSE.
- EACH TIME YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR, BEFORE YOU START IT, REPEAT THE BIBLE VERSE.
- BEFORE PRAYER BEFORE MEALS WITH YOUR FAMILY, REPEAT THE BIBLE VERSE.
- SEND THE BIBLE VERSE TO YOUR SPOUSE, KIDS, OR FAMILY THROUGHOUT THE DAY AS A REMINDER.
- START EACH PRAYER THROUGHOUT THE DAY WITH THE BIBLE VERSE.
- EACH TIME YOU WALK THROUGH A DOORWAY, REPEAT THE BIBLE VERSE.
PLEASE HELP US BY SHARING THIS WITH YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS!
WE WILL BE HAVING A REFLECTION EACH DAY, SO PLEASE COME BACK TOMORROW!
