Preparation For Lent - 1

Today, we begin the first of our two-day preparation for the celebration of the Lenten Season, which commences the day after tomorrow. Preparation will be most concise, but by no means lacking in wisdom and warning.

Recently, someone I know went to have her car checked, to ensure that it was road-worthy and safe to be driven on our roads, many of which are in a terrible state of disrepair. To the person’s alarmingly great surprise, and horror, I might add, the mechanic, as soon as he hoisted the vehicle, was frankly forthcoming, when he told her this. Your car needs two new tires. These front tires are rotten. Look for yourself. You are putting your life and the lives of many others at unnecessary and avoidable risk.

The young lady related how utterly shocked she was, when she saw the condition of those two trusted front tyres. New tyres, the furthest thing from her mind, had become a present urgency. Tyres had to be changed, or run the inevitable risk of damage and destruction.

Let’s note some reasons why it is important to have good, road-worthy tyres on a vehicle. A tyre is a thick rubber ring, often filled with air, which is fitted around the outer edge of a wheel of a road vehicle, to provide traction, allowing the vehicle to stick to the road surface, and to reduce road shocks, so that it can travel over the ground more easily. Here’s a refresher of what the tyre does. 

First, we all will agree that the tyre is for the wheel. The tyre provides traction, allowing the vehicle to be firm on the roads and not go sliding and crashing, because of no grip, or little grip. The useful, profitable tyre also helps with the shocks of the vehicle, to provide a less hard ride.

You and I are God’s vehicles on the rough and treacherous roads of life. I am inviting you to see your wheels as wheels of faith. However, there are check times, when the Lord pulls you over, sometimes placing you in unwanted positions, so that He can show you the dangerously faulty tyres you have on your wheels. Yes, tyres are fitted to your spiritual wheels, your faith wheels, if you like. I’m using four spiritual tyres, as the number of wheels on your vehicle, to be checked and fully fixed, in preparation for the Lenten journey.

Unassisted Belief

If your faith does not stand on its own, it shows that you simply do not believe God and cannot take Him at His Word. Be like Abram, your father of faith. Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15: 6. So what’s God saying about your faith covering, which is your belief in Him? Does your belief need changing from assisted belief to unassisted belief? Faith works only with true, genuine belief.  Without such belief, your attempted Lenten travel, on all kinds of roads, will be more a danger and destruction to you, rather than a victorious celebration. Without pure, unassisted belief, how will you be able to navigate the unknown paths before you?

Unpretentious Trust 

If your faith is not keeping you standing firm on the Solid Rock, it means that your trust is in a total state of flux.  Trust in God must be without pretence, for selective trust will let you down and show you up as a fake. Will you hear and heed these tried and proven words of Jeremiah? Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spread out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. Jeremiah 17: 7 – 8. So what’s God saying about your faith covering, which is your trust in Him? Does your trust need serious attention? Are you saying that you trust God, but your actions, your entire demeanour is thick with pretence? Faith works only with true, sincere trust. Without such trust, your attempted Lenten travel, on all different terrain, will prove to be a total disaster. You will not know the victory of this walk with our Lord. Without pure, unpretentious trust, how will you be able to surmount the unknown paths before you?

Tomorrow we conclude with the final two preparation areas.