For the next two weeks I am going to slow down a little more…

Dig a little deeper….

Reflect…

So, how about an update of how Lent is going.

Lent has a way of re-arrange the interior of my soul by breaking my current routine as I embark on a spiritual journey with God that changes me from the inside out. For Lent this year, the Lord impressed upon me to give up coffee. I had asked the Lord, “what shall I give up for Lent?” And I am pretty sure before I asked, I ruled out coffee. lol Therefore, He really didn’t say anything when I asked. When I asked again, He did not answer. Then when I made coffee that morning, I did feel a sinking feeling of recognition that this coffee maker was directly tied to my question. I don’t drink coffee for its caffeine content, though it does give a little lift in the morning. My coffee drinking to most people is silly, to be honest. I drink it pretty weak, as I have been told. I have even been asked, “why do I even drink it?”

Well, for one, I thoroughly enjoy the flavor of coffee. I enjoy the comfort of a warm cup in the morning. I enjoy the comradary that comes with joining someone else for a cup of coffee. I have a hat that says, “But first, Coffee!” I have a couple buttons about coffee. One is a little to-go cup with happy eyes that says, “I love you too!” and the other is of a coffee pot with happy eyes that says, “Let’s just get through this.” These three items I have noticed on my coffee free Lent journey. All of which point to how my heart feels about coffee. At first, I didn’t quite know why the Lord wanted me to stop drinking coffee. Especially since I drink it so weak. I didn’t see the point. But as I had said at the end of the 21 day fast at the beginning of the year, “God often wants us to be obedient to what He’s asked us to do so that he can show us something deeper.”

Jeremiah is a tough book to read through. It is pretty much doom and gloom if you aren’t really looking for nuggets of truth. Jeremiah was a prophet. He was an Israelite priest who prophesied that Babylon would come as a judgment against Israel and Judah but also that God would not abandon them but that He would transform their hearts. The thing that has struck me in this book is just how disobedient God’s people were. That disobediance is what God is after in our hearts.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:9

He is God – we are not!

I remember in 2021 at the beginning of the year the Lord said, “Radical Obedience!”

This year, during the 21 day fast at the beginning of the year, I wrote in my journal, “What is the 21 day fast for?” I didn’t get it. Why did He ask me to do it? His answer was simple: “Training in obedience!” It is no coincidence that I am reading Jeremiah about these extremely disobedient people. Here’s the bottom line: If He says it, do it. If He says go, go. If He says stop, stop.

Pride is the root of all disobedience. They thought they knew better than God. We think we know better God. It never works out. All our sacred confessions and practices without the simplicity of obedience to God are only sacred to the ruler of darkness. Jesus came to overthrow that dark kingdom. He came. He lived. He died. He rose again in a body.

We can not discount the use of our bodies. We worship Him with them. Obedience is something to be learned. Our religion cannot exclude our bodily obedience. Jesus learned obedience by the things that He suffered. (Heb 5:8-9) We must learn to obey God. It doesnt matter the outcome. Jeremiah was beaten, thrown in a prison, down into a pit, and dragged off to a foreign country and he continued to speak the word that the Lord had given him. Over and over he was rescued and saved.

Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in obedience to him. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.

Psalms 128:1

Thanks for Listening,

Starla