Preparation Of Heart

On this first Lord’s Day Sunday of a new month and the final Lord’s Day Sunday before we begin a power-working, miracle-seeking, salvation-receiving and blood-inspiring Season of Lent, we come with ever blessed hearts and souls before a God who is to be forever praised. We come before our Heavenly Father whose Love is second to none. We come before our Lord and King who is Supreme and stands forever, Sovereign Lord. We come before our Creator God, whose creation is all subject to Him. We come before the One Lord, the true Lord, before whom celestial beings and human beings bow down and worship. We come before the Almighty Lord, whom raging, boisterous elements obey and terrifying, controlling, chilling demons cower and shudder in His presence.

We come before the Spirit of Truth and Righteousness, He who is forever present, waiting, willing and wanting to fill us completely. He wants to fill all who are His sons and daughters so fully, so bountifully, all will see the unreplicable beauty, unalterable truth, unchangeable way and unimaginable life there is in Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3: 16 – 17. It is this same Jesus, this same Son of the Living God, on whom we meditate, in preciously personal introspection during this time. It is this same Jesus, the one and only Son of the Father, whom we celebrate as one people, in powerful witnessing to the Crucified and Risen Lord.

We hold all these wonderful facts of our Loving Father in our hearts, as we offer our selves again to God, in thankfulness, giving Him all praise. With hymn writer, Neander, we too belt out these deep, heart-felt sentiments, from his great standard, ‘Praise to the Lord’. I quote the first stanza.

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation;

O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation;

All you who hear, brothers and sisters draw near,

Praise Him in glad adoration.

As we face the beginning of this year’s Lenten Season, where are we in heart and mind? I share this heart-pricking and mind convicting moment with you.

It was exactly one week before Carnival Monday and Tuesday, in my country, when I received a picture of my cousin’s granddaughter in full queen costume. Here is a bit of necessary information. For decades, my cousin has been very much involved in Carnival and has been the queen of bands, winning titles on every occasion. Now retired from playing, queen of the band, she organizes her own children’s band, with great success I might add. Her daughter and granddaughter have this same Carnival fever, as we call it, in their blood, as is proven on every Carnival Season. This year is proving to be no different, as that picture shows.

However, it has struck me forcibly, in a lesson about preparation that I had never thought of before. This is totally, sobering when I think of myself and my preparations for Lent. Where are you in your preparations for Lent? You see, when I received the picture, it suddenly dawned upon me that here was a person prepared and ready for an event, whose big days were still a week away. It hit me hard, I tell you, for was I fully ready for Lent, a week ago? Were my heart and mind totally fixed on the coming Lenten season, making preparations and suchlike? However it has been for many of us, let us seek forgiveness for any apparent lack of enthusiasm, passion, meditation, projections and ready anticipation for this Lenten Season. Let us come, surrendering our hearts, as we begin to be deeply and humbly prepared to join fully, in spirit and in truth, in this most favoured and blessed time.

We know and believe that preparation is important, because we serve a Father of order and preparation. When God was ready to be born in human flesh, is it not true that He prepared the heart of the vessel through whom birth would come? Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. Luke 1: 30b. Here was God, preparing Mary’s afraid and timid heart, to be submissive and obedient to the miraculous work He was about to do in her, through the Holy Spirit.

Look at Peter, Jesus’ bold, faithful and trusted disciple. The Lord had to prepare Peter’s heart for a most unusual and radical mission, where Peter was extremely lawful and skeptical about things which were unlawful and unclean. When God wanted to send Peter to a houseful of Gentiles at Caesarea, is it not true that He first had to change Peter’s lawful heart and mind about what to call clean and unclean? Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. Acts 10: 15b. Had the Lord not prepared Peter’s heart, the salvation of an entire Gentile household may have been jeopardized.