I hope you are setting your heart on participating in Lent. It is a journey, and it’s not an easy one. Many people begin the journey of Lent and then do not finish. This journey is a road of preparation and testing where we are invited to set our faces towards the cross. Sometimes, facing the cross means facing what we will find in our hearts but do not be discouraged, Jesus, Himself, travels with us and is inviting us into a deeper relationship with Him. In John 6:58, Jesus said, “this is the bread that comes down from heaven it is not like the manna your ancestors ate, and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.” Again bread…

Jesus is our hope of being filled and satisfied.

As I said, we will be going through the book of Jeremiah, he was a prophet that the Lord had 1st revealed the mystery of the new covenant. God was up to something good! God was going to do something altogether new! He would unravel the twisting, and the turning of sin and death, and bring us back to our Creator. A promise was given in Jeremiah 31:34 that says, “I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.” This would be fulfilled by Jesus. At the last supper, Jesus would take bread and lift the cup.

²³ For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Let’s chat a bit about Jeremiah. He was a priest. This book would recount the destruction of Jerusalem and history that spanned from about 640 to 580BC. This recounting is a picture of where our sin leads us, straight into destruction! The book of Jeremiah is the longest prophetic book in The Bible. He would prophesy to a group of people who at the time, didn’t feel like divine judgment would touch them because they were God’s chosen people. Yet, Jeremiah would repeatedly warn them, that the things that they relied upon; all the external formal religious things, were not good enough, and they should return to the Lord. Our sin may differ but one thing stays the same: our hearts are prone to wander.

The joy of our hearts has ceased;

    our dancing has been turned to mourning.

¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head;

    woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷ For this our heart has become sick,

    for these things our eyes have grown dim,

Lanentations 5:15-17

Jeremiah didn’t just prophesy of destruction, but he would also prophesy that God in Christ would grant believers a new heart and that salvation and fellowship with Him would come with it.

This heart, salvation, and fellowship come when we see the depths of our sin so that we can see the glory of the cross. The best way I know how to ask the Lord to search my heart is to sit in the silence with Him. I’ve been practicing silence for sometime. I started with 1 minute several years ago. I am now up to 20 minutes of silence. I have found when I set my heart before the Lord, He always shows me where I am far from Him. I am able then to return to Him and be filled with the hope of Christ in me.

Lent is the perfect time to reflect on what Christ’s sacrifice has done and repent of our sin. It’s a journey of hope.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Romans 15:4

Jeremiah was a faithful man, among faithless people, who would persecute, beat, and leave him for dead. His life points to Jesus who would also be obedient, no matter the cost, and go to the cross to fulfill the promise of Jeremiah 33:14 “Look the days are coming, this is the Lord’s declaration when I will fulfill the good promise that I have spoken.”

³³ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jeremiah 31:33

That is our assurance of hope!

Thanks for Listening,

Starla

Here is a song to enjoy! Called Covenant Keeping God

You never leave me

You say you wont forsake me

You walk beside me

and that’s all that matters!