Lenten-Meditations-2015-w

Sanctification
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
THE WONDER OF THE WILDERNESS
READ: Deuteronomy 8:2-4
KEY VERSE: Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led
you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing
you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his
commandments. –Deuteronomy 8:2 (NRSV)
Sanctification is a process that describes God’s work in us with the aid of the
Holy Spirit. We are set apart from some things to be prepared for something.
There are things God has for us that we cannot enter into so long as we stay in
our current space. This means that God will lead us through difficult places on
the path to sanctification.
The children of Israel could not leave Egypt and go directly to the Promised
Land. They had to go through a process of being set apart. For some, the
wilderness meant losing the “good things” in Egypt, forgetting that those
things were in the land where they were oppressed. In order to occupy the
Promised Land, they had to be separated from their slave mentality.
In the wilderness, without distractions, God prepares us for something new.
The season of Lent invites us to remember the wilderness experience as we
prepare to celebrate our Lord’s resurrection. –Rev. Judy Fentress-Williams
LOOKING WITHIN: In my Lenten/wilderness experience, am I focused today
on what I am giving up or what I have lost? What am I imagining God has in
store for me?
Thank you, Father that you will provide all that I need on this journey
through the wilderness. Thank you that you are with me on this path.
Amen.
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