Psalm 32
Scripture Summary: The psalmist celebrates the freedom that comes through confession and forgiveness. God responds to honesty not with punishment, but with steadfast love.
Devotion: Carrying unspoken burdens weighs the soul down. God invites us to bring what we hide into the light, where grace and healing can begin.
Prayer: God, give me the courage to bring my whole self before You. Amen.
Genesis 3:1–7
Scripture Summary: Temptation enters through doubt, distorting God’s intentions and leading humanity to grasp for control. What promises wisdom instead brings separation and shame.
Devotion: I recognize this story in my own life—moments when doubt pulls me away from trust. Lent invites me to notice these patterns and turn back toward God’s grace.
Prayer: God, when doubt whispers, lead me back to trust. Amen.
Genesis 2:15–17
Scripture Summary: God places humanity in the garden with purpose and trust, calling them to care for creation and honor God’s boundaries. These limits are not meant to harm, but to sustain life.
Devotion: Lent invites us to reexamine how we live within God’s care. God’s boundaries are expressions of love, guiding us toward wholeness rather than restriction.
Prayer: God, help me trust your wisdom and care for what you have entrusted to me. Amen.
Matthew 4:8–11
Scripture Summary: Jesus is offered power and authority over the world in exchange for misplaced worship. He rejects this false promise and remains faithful to God alone.
Devotion: We live in a world that values influence, success, and control. Jesus reminds us that true faithfulness is rooted in humility and worship, not power or dominance.
Prayer: God, turn my heart away from false power and toward faithful obedience. Amen.
Matthew 4:5–7
Scripture Summary: The tempter urges Jesus to prove God’s care through spectacle, twisting Scripture to provoke doubt. Jesus responds by refusing to test God, choosing trust over manipulation.
Devotion: It’s tempting to demand signs when faith feels fragile. Jesus shows us that trust grows not through proof, but through steady faithfulness, even when God seems silent.
Prayer: God, help me trust You without needing proof or control. Amen.
Matthew 4:1–4
Scripture Summary: Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where hunger and temptation test His trust in God. Rather than turning stones into bread, Jesus relies on God’s word, reminding us that life is sustained by more than physical needs alone.
Devotion: Lent begins in the wilderness, a place where our deepest hungers are revealed. Like Jesus, we are invited to trust that God’s presence and promises sustain us even when answers and comfort feel far away.
Prayer: God, nourish me today with what truly gives life. Amen.
Scripture: Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21
Scripture Summary:
Jesus teaches that spiritual practices are not meant to impress others or draw attention to ourselves. Giving, prayer, and fasting are meant to deepen our relationship with God, not serve as public displays. What matters most is the posture of the heart and where we choose to place our deepest trust.
Devotion:
Jesus knows how easily faith can turn into performance. Lent invites us to step away from the need to prove ourselves to God or to anyone else. The quiet acts of faith no one sees still matter deeply. God sees them. In the hidden places of prayer, generosity, and self-examination, our hearts are slowly reshaped toward what truly lasts.
Prayer:
God, who sees in secret, draw our hearts toward sincere faith and lasting hope. Amen.
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:20b–6:10 (NRSV)
Scripture Summary:
Paul calls the community to be reconciled to God, reminding them that now, not later, is the time of grace. Though followers of Christ face hardship, loss, and uncertainty, God’s presence remains constant. Even in struggle, God is at work, sustaining hope and shaping resilience.
Devotion:
This passage feels especially real because life does not pause for Lent. We carry worries, grief, unanswered questions, and the weight of a hurting world. Paul reminds us that God’s grace does not wait for life to calm down. God meets us in the middle of it all. Even when we feel worn down, God is still at work, quietly holding us, shaping hope where we least expect it.
Prayer:
Faithful God, help us to recognize your grace at work even in the midst of our struggles. Amen.
Scripture: Psalm 51:1–17 (NRSV)
Scripture Summary:
Psalm 51 is a prayer spoken from deep awareness of brokenness. The psalmist asks God for mercy, cleansing, and renewal, not just forgiveness, but transformation. God desires truth in the inward being and welcomes a humble, open heart more than any outward religious act.
Devotion:
There are seasons when we don’t need polished prayers; we need honest ones. Psalm 51 gives voice to what many of us carry quietly: regret, grief, longing for a fresh start. Lent reminds us that God is not repelled by our messiness. God meets us there. A broken heart, offered honestly, is not something God rejects; it is the very place where healing begins.
Prayer:
God of mercy, receive our honest hearts and renew us with your grace. Amen
Lent invites us into a different rhythm.
Beginning on Ash Wednesday, February 18, we enter a forty-day journey that calls us to slow down, to pay attention, and to return again and again to the heart of God. Lent is not about perfection or spiritual performance. It is about making space for honesty, reflection, and renewal as we walk with Christ toward the cross and, ultimately, toward resurrection.
Throughout the forty days of Lent, our church will share a daily devotional via email and on social media. These brief reflections will follow the lectionary and are meant to help ground us in Scripture, prayer, and faithful living in everyday life. Whether read first thing in the morning or at the close of the day, these devotions are offered as a simple way to stay connected to God, to Christ, and to one another.
Lent does not ask us to escape the realities of the world. Instead, it invites us to bring our whole lives, our hopes, our griefs, our questions, and our longings into God’s presence. As a church and as a community, we walk this season together, trusting that God meets us with mercy, grace, and love at every step.
Wherever you are on the journey of faith, you are invited to join us. May these forty days deepen our relationship with Christ, draw us closer to God, and open our hearts to the work God is doing within us and among us.
Grace and peace as we begin this Lenten journey together.
Pastor Sela
Scripture: Joel 2:1–2, 12–17 (NRSV)
Scripture Summary:
The prophet Joel calls the people to attention, not to frighten them but to awaken them. In a time of uncertainty and urgency, God invites the community to return, not with outward displays but with honest hearts. Leaders and people alike are called to gather, to pray, and to trust in God’s compassion, mercy, and steadfast love.
Devotion:
On Ash Wednesday, we come forward to receive ashes on our foreheads, hearing the ancient words, “from dust you came, and to dust you shall return.” These words are not meant to diminish us, but to tell the truth about our lives. We are finite, fragile, and deeply in need of grace. And yet, we are also held by a God who breathes life into dust and calls us beloved. Lent begins with this honest reminder: we do not save ourselves. We return to God because God has never stopped reaching toward us.
Prayer:
Gracious God, as we remember our dust and our dependence, draw us back into the fullness of your mercy and love. Amen.
a journey in existence 