Lenten Devotional

Day 17 – March 21, 2025 Out of the Wilderness – Matthew 4:1-11 Abundance.  Power.  Invulnerability. We want those things.  We fear being hungry, having no control, being harmed. Jesus wanted them too.  At least his human part did.  It is part of being human, and he was fully man. Our fear keeps us alive.  But like any good thing, it can be perverted by excess. In the wilderness, these fears can crowd upon you.  These wants can grow intense. That is when temptation comes.   It hides in reason, in flattery, in deception. Jesus was hungry.  He hadn’t eaten for days.  The Tempter reasoned: Because he was God, he need not want.  But Jesus came to feel hunger as a

Day 16 – March 20, 2025 Growing up Baptist, I never participated in Lent. When I later joined the Methodist Church as an adult, I learned it was a sign of sacrifice representing Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the desert. I understood I needed to give up something I enjoyed, so I would usually give up chocolate or sweets. But as much as I loved those things, it didn’t bring me closer to God. I didn’t find myself praying, “Lord, please help me get through this day without chocolate or a cupcake.” I didn’t feel like enough.   For a few years, I gave up nothing.  Then several years ago when the Lenten season approached, I asked God to show

Day 15, March 19, 2025 When reading Matthew 4 and Jesus’ experience of 40 days in the wilderness I am encouraged and reminded that God uses the wilderness to transform us. In 2022 I found myself in the wilderness when I was unable to conceive a child. Months of waiting, pregnancy loss, and failed fertility treatments left me desperate to be a mother. I was constantly seeking the will of man to overpower the timing of God. I was overcome by jealousy of those who had children, sad that I was not in their shoes, and frustrated that I could not will the gift of a child into fruition. Like Jesus, my time in the wilderness left me hungry and

Day 14 – March 18, 2025 Hello! We are Matthew and Mary Kate. We are an engaged couple that moved to Huntsville over the summer and have been slowly building ourselves a life here. We are so honored that we were chosen to be featured in this series.  We both grew up with religion being a part of our upbringing. We attended Sunday church with our families, participated in Vacation Bible School, and made our sacraments when appropriate. This was something that for both of us was a part of normal life. While getting to know each other, we both enjoyed that this was something we had in common.   Another thing we had in common was attending college at the

Day 13 – March 17, 2025 – St. Patrick’s DayIt is said that hymns often say in a song what mere words cannot convey. And how the songs came to be often tell a story of wilderness-inspiring art. One of those origin stories is the story of “Be Thou My Vision”.  According to Dr. C. Michael Hawn of Perkins School of Theology, writing for UMC Discipleship, the original wording was from a “poem, found in two Irish manuscripts in the library of the Royal Irish Academy, may be dated as early as the 8th century.” The poem, blended with a traditional Irish tune called Slane, made its way from Ireland into several British hymnals where it gained the attention of

Day 12 –  March 16, 2025 (2nd Sunday in Lent)  Today is our 12th day of Lent and our second Sunday. The sermons in our services today center around God’s blessings and making good choices with where we set our sights. In Genesis 15:1-12, the Lord comforts Abram, who is concerned that his lineage is dying out. It’s just he and his wife, Sarai , with only a household servant to receive his estate.  God reveals that He will give Abram a future family as plentiful as the stars in the sky. God is generous. Today’s New Testament scripture involves Paul’s letter to the people of Philippi. When we dove into the summary of this verse, we saw a few