Thirty-Second Day of Lent (Thursday, March 26, 2026)

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It’s pretty amazing that one of the Scripture passages we turn to most often during Lent and Holy Week as we reflect on the sacrifice of Christ was written generations before Jesus was even born:

“But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.”—Isaiah 53:5 (NIV)

These familiar words from Isaiah are so precise and specific that they could have been written in the aftermath of the crucifixion, but they weren’t. Like most Old Testament prophecies these words operate on multiple levels, to be sure, but they paint a clear picture of God’s “suffering servant” whose wounds lead to our healing. The language is intense, and even though this verse is only 29 words in this English translation, it is packed with meaning and spiritual depth.

Here’s an interesting experiment that provides us with a unique way of reflecting on this verse: read it multiple times out loud, and each time you read it emphasize different words. The first time through, emphasize the words that refer to Christ: “he,” “him,” and “his.” Then read it again, putting the emphasis on what Christ suffered: “pierced,” “crushed,” “punishment,” and “wounds.” Then read it a third time, emphasizing our presence in this event: “our,” “us,” and “we.” Finally, read it a fourth time and note the shift halfway through from the things that are taken away and the things that are received: “transgressions,” “iniquities,” “peace,” and “healed.”

As you read prayerfully in this way, note your reactions. What movement do you notice in your soul as you read each time? What does it stir you to think about the sacrifice of Jesus? About his wounds? About yourself?

Isn’t it amazing to think that 29 words written so long before Christ can bring us closer to the cross and help us understand better the wounds of Jesus?

Because he was pierced, because he was crushed, we have peace and we are healed.

We are healed by Your sacrifice
In the life that You gave
We are healed for You paid the price
By Your grace we are saved

Read the rest of the lyrics here.

Questions for Reflection

1) How have you experienced healing and peace as a result of Jesus’ sacrifice? Spend some time in prayer naming to God the ways you have seen the efficacy of Christ’s woundedness in your own life.

2) Offer the phrase “by his wounds we are healed” as a breath prayer. If you’re unfamiliar with breath prayer, simply sit in stillness and prayerful attentiveness and take slow, deep breaths. As you breathe in, offer in silent prayer the words “by his wounds,” then as you breathe out, offer in silent prayer the words “we are healed.” Try this for a few minutes and allow the powerful truth of this verse to saturate your soul. This kind of prayer is a wonderful way to meditate on Scripture, finding a short phrase that splits well into two parts which can be prayed while breathing in and out.

3) Read and reflect on these verses. Let them lead you into prayerful worship and gratitude:

“Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.”
—Isaiah 53:10-11 (NIV)

Thirty-First Day of Lent (Wednesday, March 25, 2026)

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In one of his final teachings to his disciples Jesus said this:

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”—John 16:33 (NASB)

This is a promise we need to breathe in. We need to let it take root in our soul and allow it to transform us. Martin Luther said of these words from John 16:33, “Such a saying as this is worthy to be carried from Rome to Jerusalem on one’s knees.” It is a promise that we should never let out of our grasp.

But we do. We forget it so often. We look at the struggles in this life and so often we think they are ours alone to bear. Why do we do that?

I remember a friend who used to have a poster on their wall that said something to the effect, “Lord help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that you and I can't handle together.” I think it’s that word “together” that we sometimes forget. We remember that God has promised to be with us through every trial, but for some of them it’s as if we barrel straight into them on our own and assume we have everything we need to conquer it.

We don’t. In fact, that’s not our job. Jesus didn’t say, “Take courage, you have overcome the world.” He said “Take courage, I have overcome the world.” He didn’t say, “In your ability to persevere you may have peace.” He said, “In me you may have peace.”

Whatever the reason we sometimes forget this important truth, there is a spiritual practice that can help us recenter when we feel the troubles of this world are too much. And it’s pretty much a single word:

STOP

When the storms of life seem overwhelming, rather than attacking them straight on we need to stop and be still. We need to stop and listen, because there is an invitation being spoken to us amidst the clamor and chaos:

Come to me.

If we’re going to know what it means to find peace, we need to center ourselves in the one who said, “In me you may have peace.” The image here is not finding peace because the trials stop. It’s of an abiding peace that comes from an abiding faith. And the one who offers that peace calls us to come to him even when the wind and waves are battering against us.

As we approach Jerusalem and Holy Week the wind and waves pick up steam. Will we heed the invitation that comes in the midst of it?

Come, you disconsolate, where'er you languish;
Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel.
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.

Read the rest of the lyrics here.

Questions for Reflection

1) How is God calling you to STOP in the midst of your life right now and simply dwell in his peace and presence? If you are sensing that call…close your computer (or turn off your phone) and make it a priority before reading another word.

2) Today’s song, based on a classic hymn, contains some wonderful names and images for God:

Joy of the desolate
Light of the straying
Hope of the penitent
Comforter
Bread of life

Do any of these resonate with you today? What about them speaks to you?

2) Read and reflect on this verse. Let it lead you into prayerful worship and gratitude:

“So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”—Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)

Thirtieth Day of Lent (Tuesday, March 24, 2026)

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We tend to treat scars with a hint (and sometimes more than a hint) of shame. We hide them when possible, and when it isn’t possible we sometimes spend a good deal of money to have them removed. Scars are seen as blemishes, things that mar us in ways that we’d rather not think about. And truth be told, some scars tell unbelievably difficult stories of horrific abuse and pain, and their presence can be crippling to the victim. Scars are reminders of what has taken place, and they often mark the darkest moments of our lives.

During the Lenten season we spend time meditating on the way the wounds of Christ tell the story of our salvation, how his scars mark the darkest moment of human history…yet speak to its greater meaning and victory. As we spend time at the foot of the cross we are also invited to consider our own woundedness, to think about the way our scars tell a story as well. Whether physical or emotional, we all bear scars that speak to how we have been hurt in the past, and at the cross we are reminded that we are not alone in our pain. Christ knows our suffering because he has lived it himself. He is a “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:30), and he weeps with us because he knows what it is like to be one of us.

As Christ walks with us in our suffering, we find that our scars are not shameful at all. They are, like the scars that brought Thomas to his knees (John 20:28), a testament to what God has done. They give us a story to tell to others who travel similar paths, “…so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” (2 Cor. 1:4, NIV) Author Linda Hogan latched on to an important truth when she had a character in one of her novels utter these words:

“Some people see scars, and it is wounding they remember. To me they are proof of the fact that there is healing.”—Linda Hogan, Solar Storms

For some of us the wounds are too fresh to see how God is bringing about that healing. The scars have yet to tell their story. Even then, the place of woundedness is holy ground if we will let it be. One day the story will be clear, but for now we fall on our face and ask God to meet us in our pain. And we ask him to begin not only the work of healing, but the work of using our woundedness for his glory. “Even here,” we pray, “May you be known and glorified.”

That is the prayer of Calvary. And as we meditate on the cross, it becomes the prayer of our own woundedness as well. May God use our scars to tell the story of his healing power and love.

Darkest water and deepest pain
I wouldn’t trade it for anything
‘Cause my brokenness brought me to You
And these wounds are a story You’ll use

Read the rest of the lyrics here.

Questions for Reflection

1) How has God used the scars of your life to tell a story of his power and grace? How has he used the scars in another person’s life to speak power and grace to you?

2) Are there scars in your life that still cause you to struggle with shame or regret? How might you offer these to God and acknowledge that struggle? Is there a trusted friend, family member, or another person that you can invite into that conversation?

3) Read and reflect on these verses. Let them lead you into prayerful worship and gratitude:

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
—2 Corinthians 4:8-10 (NIV)

Twenty-Ninth Day of Lent (Monday, March 23, 2026)

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It’s not far now to Jerusalem. The journey is drawing to a close.

In the days of Jesus the roads of Israel filled with pilgrims three times a year. From every village and valley, Jewish families gathered their sandals and their children and began the long climb toward Jerusalem. The city of God sat high on Mount Zion, and so all journeys to it were journeys upward. To mark the way, fifteen psalms — Psalms 120 through 134 — were sung on the road. We call them the Psalms of Ascent.

They are short. They are honest. They are some of the most beautiful poetry in all of Scripture. And they were never meant to be read quietly in a library. They were meant to be sung on a dusty road, with aching feet, in the company of the people of God, moving together toward something holy.

Of all the Psalms of Ascent, the one that seems to resonate most with our Lenten journey is probably Psalm 130. Just eight verses in our English translations, but those eight verses are dense with meaning and invitation. They take us from an awareness of our sin, to a cry for mercy, to a declaration of God’s forgiving nature, to our willingness to wait for that gift of forgiveness, to a final stanza of hope for our redemption.

Although the Psalm is written in first-person, it finishes with a promise for all of God’s people, a promise that sits at the center of our Lenten journey. What we mark in just over a week is the nothing less than fulfillment of what the Psalmist declares.

As we see Jerusalem in the distance, the invitation we’d like to offer you today is to sit prayerfully with this Psalm of Ascent. After you listen to today’s song and breathe in it’s own interpretation of Psalm 130, the text of the entire Psalm will be available below for you to read and pray through as we begin this final week before the Triumphal Entry.

In every trial and loss
My hope is in the cross
Where Your compassions never fail

Read the rest of the lyrics here.

Psalm for Reflection

Read Psalm 130 slowly and prayerfully. Break it down line by line or paragraph by paragraph. Pay attention to the movement of your heart and soul as you read—what words or lines stand out for you? Why? When something from the Psalm captures your attention, offer it to God in prayer. May he meet you as you read, reflect, and pray.

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.

If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.

Fifth Sunday of Lent (Sunday, 22 March 2026)

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Sundays of Hope and Joy

As our Lenten journey enters its final days, we see the city of Jerusalem in the distance and we know what is coming soon. Like Peter, we may feel the impulse to avoid what lies ahead (Matthew 16:22), but we know it can’t be avoided. Jesus is resolute. He invites us to be the same.

But before we continue our journey, today is Sunday, another “mini-Easter” break in our 40 day fast of meditation, repentance, and remembrance. On Sundays we are reminded that the journey to the cross does not end at the cross, and we rejoice in that truth with all that we are.

On Sundays, as is appropriate and biblical, we are also invited to cease our laboring. It is a “Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9), a time of refreshing in the presence of the one who loves us most. But we don’t always enter into that rest, if we’re honest. We may find it hard to embrace at any time of year, but perhaps it’s even a bit harder during Lent. Our desire to be resolute and committed can be hard to switch off and put aside. In fact, if we’re not careful, Sabbath-keeping can become the very last thing it was meant to be: a burden.

Writer and teacher K.C. Ireton defines Sabbath this way:

“Sabbath is margin and gift and joy. Sabbath is soaking myself—or rather, letting myself be soaked—in the unmerited, unmeritable grace of God.”

Margin. Gift. Joy. Letting ourselves be soaked in the unmerited, unmeritable grace of God. These are good truths to embrace during Lent, one which, if we let it sink in deep, will impact our experience of Sabbath at any season of the calendar.

Today, wherever you may find yourself, you are invited to let it resonate deep in your soul. Embrace the Sabbath rest to which God calls you. Hear spoken to you the same invitation Jesus gave to his disciples:

“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”—Mark 6:31 (NIV

Margin…gift…joy.

I came to Jesus as I was,
So weary, worn and sad;
I found in Him my resting place,
And He has made me glad.

Read the rest of the lyrics here.

There are three versions below of today’s song. The first is an acoustic folk version set to a new tune. The second is a traditional hymn arrangement sung by a choir. The third is an acoustic instrumental version.

Questions for Reflection

1) How are you at receiving the gift of rest on the Sabbath? Do you find that rhythm easy or difficult? How might God be inviting you to enter it in a new way this Lenten season and beyond?

2) Theologian Marva Dawn names four practices that help us “reclaim” the Sabbath. Spend some time meditating on which have already been meaningful for you, and which you might find ways to incoporate into your Sabbath-keeping.

Ceasing
Resting
Embracing
Feasting

3) Read and reflect on these verses. Let them lead you into prayerful worship and gratitude:

“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.”—Hebrews 4:9-10 (NIV)

Twenty-Eighth Day of Lent (Saturday, 21 March 2026)

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Saturday Reflections

On Saturdays during our Lenten Devotional time we sill simply sit with an instrumental version of a well-known hymn or worship song. Our weeks are so full, so busy, so noisy…use these Saturdays to prepare your hearts for gathered worship by reflecting on lyrics and Scripture in a space of stillness and simplicity.

The journey of Lent is, at its heart, a journey of consecration. To consecrate something is to set it apart from common use and dedicate it wholly to God. We seek to live consecrated lives as followers of Jesus.

Frances Ridley Havergal was born in 1836, the daughter of an Anglican writer and clergyman. From childhood she showed incredible aptitude and passion for God’s word—at age four she was already memorizing entire books of the Bible. She also was quite adept at foreign languages, studying several modern languages alongside Biblical Greek and Hebrew all before the age of 18. As she began exploring her own writing gifts, she penned religious tracts, children’s lessons, and poems. But what she became best known for were her musical gifts: both performing and writing beautiful hymns of praise and commitment.

In 1874 Frances was staying in a house where many of the guests were not followers of Christ. She prayed fervently for their conversion, and when God granted her prayers she was filled with inexpressible joy. She later wrote:

“The last night of my visit I was too happy to sleep and passed most of the night in renewal of my consecration.”

As she sought a deeper level of surrender to Christ, she found herself composing verse as it came to her:

“Those little couplets formed themselves and chimed in my heart one after another till they finished with ‘ever only, ALL FOR THEE!’”

“Take My Heart and Let it Be” is the result of that communion with God in response to his saving grace.

Shortly before her death, Fraves Havergal wrote a devotional to go alongside some of the hymns she had written over her lifetime. As she reflected on “Take My Life,” she said this about consecration, and these good words are a wonderful place to sit for a while:

Consecration is not a religiously selfish thing. If it sinks into that, it ceases to be consecration…Not for ‘me’ at all but ‘for Jesus’; not for my safety, but for His glory; not for my comfort, but for His joy; not that I may find rest, but that He may see the travail of His soul, and be satisfied! Yes, for Him I want to be kept. Kept for His sake; kept for His use; kept to be His witness; kept for His joy! Kept for Him, that in me He may show forth some tiny sparkle of His light and beauty; kept to do His will and His work in His own way; kept, it may be, to suffer for His sake; kept for Him, that He may do just what seemeth Him good with me; kept, so that no other lord shall have any more dominion over me, but that Jesus shall have all there is to have;—little enough, indeed, but not divided or diminished by any other claim. Is not this, O you who love the Lord—is not this worth living for, worth asking for, worth trusting for?

Scripture for Meditation:

“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.”
—John 12:24-26 (NRSV)

Song: Take My Life and Let it Be (lyrics after video)

Lyrics for Reflection

Read through the lyrics of this hymn slowly and prayerfully. Read them more than once, and pay attention to the movement of your soul as you pray. What words or phrases grab your attention? Why? As you finish, sit in prayerful silence before God and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you something of your need and God’s provision that emerges from these words.

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days;
Let them flow in endless praise,
Let them flow in endless praise.

Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for thee,
Swift and beautiful for thee.

Take my voice and let me sing
Always, only, for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from thee,
Filled with messages from thee.

Take my silver and my gold;
Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
Every power as thou shalt choose,
Every power as thou shalt choose.

Take my will and make it thine;
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is thine own;
It shall be thy royal throne,
It shall be thy royal throne.

Take my love; my Lord, I pour
At thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, all for thee,
Ever, only, all for thee.

Frances Ridley Havergal
Public Domain

Twenty-Seventh Day of Lent (Friday, March 20, 2026)

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The season of Lent provides us a special opportunity to understand the heart of God for his wandering children in a richer and deeper way. Spending an intentional 40 days thinking about the cross of Christ and the depth of his sacrifice reminds us just how loved we are, because we see what lengths God went to in order to draw us back to himself.

It’s a common misconception to think that this picture of God’s heart, with all of its tenderness and longing for a wayward people, is a uniquely New Testament image. It is not. It is the same heart that we find yearning for the return of his people Israel, prone to wander off in hopeless pursuit of idols despite all God had done for them.

Nowhere is this more powerfully demonstrated than in the story of the prophet Hosea. Called by God to speak out against the nation’s idolatry, Hosea is also called to live out a very striking image of God’s love and Israel’s unfaithfulness in his marriage to a woman named Gomer. Her adultery and Hosea’s faithful attempts to bring her out of her sin both provide a living parable of our relationship with God. Just as Gomer is prone to return to her life of prostitution, so we are also prone to sell ourselves to false idols and godless pursuits…and yet God does not give up on us. Time again, just as Hosea with Gomer, God comes to us in our sin and our unrighteousness and calls us back to himself.

In Hosea 3, Gomer has been sold into servitude, but God calls Hosea to redeem her. With 15 shekels of silver and 5 bushels of barley, Hosea pays the price of her enslavement and brings her home. This is a picture for us of God’s eventual redemption through Christ. That is how much we are loved.

The anger of God towards sin and idolatry is evident in the book of Hosea, but his anger towards sin is countered by an even more powerful love for his people. In Hosea 11, God says this to his people:

“‘Oh, how can I give you up, Israel?
How can I let you go?
How can I destroy you like Admah
or demolish you like Zeboiim?
My heart is torn within me,
and my compassion overflows.
No, I will not unleash my fierce anger.
I will not completely destroy Israel,
for I am God and not a mere mortal.
I am the Holy One living among you,
and I will not come to destroy.
For someday the people will follow me.
I, the Lord, will roar like a lion.
And when I roar,
my people will return trembling from the west.
Like a flock of birds, they will come from Egypt.
Trembling like doves, they will return from Assyria.
And I will bring them home again,’
says the Lord.”—Hosea 11:8-11 (NLT)

These are the words God would speak to your heart and mine: “How can I give you up? How can I let you go?” No matter how often we wander into sin and idolatrous behavior, God stands ready to forgive. His love his constant. He has paid the price for our redemption, and calls us back to his heart.

How will we respond?

Long have I waited for your coming
Home to me and living deeply our new life.

Song: Hosea (lyrics here)

There are two different versions of this song below. The first is a group recording as it might be sung in live worship. The second is an acoustic pop-style recording.

Questions for Reflection

1) What has this Lenten journey been teaching you about the heart of God? Are there areas in your life where you’ve wandered, and where he is calling you back to himself? Spend some time in prayer confessing your sin and receiving anew the love that calls out to you even in the midst of it.

2) The song for today includes these words:

The wilderness will lead you
To your heart where I will speak
Integrity and justice with tenderness
You shall know

How do our wilderness experiences lead us to a place where God speaks? How have you experienced that in your own life?

3) Read and reflect on these verses. Let them lead you into prayerful worship and gratitude:

“I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
==Ephesians 3:16-19 (NRSV)


Twenty-Sixth Day of Lent (Thursday, 19 March 2026)

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In chapter 26 of Matthew’s gospel we find a powerful portrait of worship.

“While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. ‘Why this waste?’ they asked. ‘This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.’

Aware of this, Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.’”—Matthew 26:6-13 (NIV)

This “beautiful thing” is an act of sacrificial worship. In her extravagant gift we find an echo of David’s pledge to not offer to God that which costs nothing (2 Samuel 24:24). Jesus not only commends her, but says her example will live on in the gospel story…which, of course, it did!

We don’t often think of a Lenten journey as an act of worship, but it is. As we also prepare for Jesus’ burial, there is a continual call for us to offer all that we are, all that we have, and all that we hope to be to God. We die to self as an act of sacrifice, and that sacrifice becomes worship. Our gaze is not only inward…it is ultimately outward and upward to the only “worthy King of Kings,” who gave himself as a sacrifice for us. How can we respond any other way?

What she has done will never fade
From the memory of the gospel
When it is preached around the world
It will be spoken of
In memory of her love

Read the rest of the lyrics here.

Questions for Reflection

1) How do you respond to the idea that our “dying to self” is an act of worship? How does that ring true for you, or if it doesn’t, what kind of questions or points of resistance surface as you consider it?

2) Do you ever find that intentional seasons of reflection sometimes cause your gaze to turn exclusively inward? How might you also build time into your Lenten journey to gaze in worship upon the One who has shown us such sacrifical love?

3) Read and reflect on these verses. Let them lead you into prayerful worship and gratitude:

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
—Romans 12:1-2 (NRSV)”

Twenty-Fifth Day of Lent (Wednesday, 18 March 2026)

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Every step on a Lenten journey is a step of trust. During this season we engage with difficult themes like repentance, humility, self-examination, surrender, and many more. Giving ourselves over to this work requires complete trust: trust in the One who both walks with us and waits for us at the journey’s end. As the Spirit does deep work in us, we find that things rise to the surface that we’d just as soon ignore—places of resistance, fear, doubt, and sin that have yet to be fully brought to the cross. It is not pleasant, but it is also not optional.

And it is often difficult.

Sometimes as we wrestle with these realities, it is good to simply stop and declare that God is trustworthy and faithful. He can be trusted with the broken parts of us, because he is the only one who can take them and transform them for our good and his glory. He has done so in the past, he will do so now, and he will continue to do so all the days of our lives. Today we join our voices with the Psalmist:

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”
—Psalm 91:1-2 (NIV)

This moment is all about declaring the trustworthiness and faithfulness of God.

Jesus, I trust in your love
Oh Lord, I trust in you
Jesus, I trust in your love
Oh Lord, I trust in you

Read the rest of the lyrics here.

Questions for Reflection

1) As we enter the second half of our Lenten journey, how is your “trust factor?” How has God met you in this time? What difficult things is he revealing? Spend some time declaring your trust that the work he is doing in you is good even as it is hard.

2) The song for today names several things that can get in the way of trust:

—belief that we can’t be loved
—fear that we’re not good enough
—false security in our own strength or wisdom
—fear that trusting God will cause us difficulty or even leave us destitute
—resistance to child-like dependence on God
—belief that life has no worth
—suspicion of God’s words to us
—fear of the future
—anger or guilt over the past

Do you resonate with any of these? For the ones that speak to a truth in your own life, spend some time in trusting confession and prayer, asking God to transform you, hold you, and sustain you as you are honest before him.

3) Read and reflect on this verse. Let it lead you into prayerful worship and gratitude:

“Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense;
he has become my salvation.”
—Isaiah 12:2 (NIV)

Twenty-Fourth Day of Lent (Tuesday, 17 March 2026)

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There was once a fisherman by the name of Pat.

Pat grew up in remarkably tough circumstances. When he was 16, Pat was torn away from his family and dragged into a life he didn’t want to live, forced into a life of servitude by people bigger and stronger than him.

But through it all he felt there was another force at work in his life, a force for good, a force for change. And in the midst of those cruelest of circumstances, Pat started to pray. Sometimes, he wrote later, he would pray a hundred times during the day, and as he did he found something amazing stirring in his soul: an increasing awareness of God’s love and care for him.

And even though God eventually brought him out of a life of servitude into full-time ministry, Pat never forgot those who had treated him so badly as a youth. He could’ve taken a position in a comfortable church, far from the troubled neighborhoods he knew as a teenager, but Pat felt a call: a call to go back and lead his tormentors to God.

And that’s just what he did.

The former fisherman went out and fished for people. He carried the message he himself had learned about God’s love. And as a result, thousands of people came to Christ, new churches sprang up at an amazing rate, and today there is even a day set aside to commemorate his life.

March 17th. Saint Patrick’s Day.

St. Patrick’s story echoes one of the central truths of Lent: suffering can be a doorway to new life. The Apostle Paul reminds us of this in Romans:

“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”—Romans 5:3-5 (NIV)

During Lent we remember that God does not waste pain. In Christ, suffering can become the doorway to grace and transformation. St. Patrick’s life reminds us that the very places where we feel most wounded may one day become the places where God sends us to bring hope.

When skies grow dark and all we see are shadows
The road too rough, the mountains rise too far
When pain runs deep, and wounds cry out for answers
We come to you, O Jesus of the Scars

Read the rest of the lyrics here.

Questions for Reflection

1) How have you seen God make woundedness redemptive in your own life? In the life of those you know or have read about? How might he be inviting you to enter your own struggles in a deeper way for your good and his glory?

2) Spend some time reflecting on these words from St. Patrick:

“I know for certain, that before I was humbled I was like a stone lying in deep mire, and he that is mighty came and in his mercy raised me up and, indeed, lifted me high up and placed me on top of the wall. And from there I ought to shout out in gratitude to the Lord for his great favours in this world and for ever, that the mind of man cannot measure.”

3) Read and reflect on these verses. Let them lead you into prayerful worship and gratitude:

“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”—Philippians 3:10-11 (NIV)