Immersed in Christ: February 17, 2021
Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:12-18; Psalm 51; 2 Corinthians 5:20 to 6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-1
Discovering The Father
Return to the Lord, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness. Joel 2:13
In Lent Joel invites us to “return” to the Lord our God. Can we do that?
In Luke 15:18, the Prodigal Son did not say. “I will return to my father,” but “I will get up and go to my father, and say, ‘Father, I have sinned against you.’”
The Greek word for “go” in Luke is the same as in Mark16:15, when Jesus told his disciples, “Go into all the world and proclaim the Good News.” The Prodigal could not “return” to his father, because he never really knew him as the father he actually was. He was going to “go” to announce to his father the good news that now he understood his sin because he understood whom he had sinned against: the father he had never known or appreciated.
Do we really know God as Father? Lent is a good time to find out.
These daily reflections will help you.
ACTION: Imagine yourself standing before God the Father. What do you feel? Fear or love? Confidence or apprehension? Ask yourself why.
PRAYER: Lord, you said, “No one knows the Father except the Son—and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Reveal him to me now by revealing your own heart to me. Let me know the Father as you alone know the Father (Matthew 11:27).