Professional Documents
Culture Documents
40 DAYS OF DECREASE
The period of Lent commemorates the time that Jesus spent in the wilderness; immediately after
His baptism, and just before He began His official ministry. As we begin to prepare our hearts for
Easter, consider setting aside thirty minutes or an hour every morning to read, reflect, and pray.
As we experience this sacred season and the holiness of loss and less in Jesus journey crossward, may our hearts open vulnerably to a greater commitment to love and be loved by the Savior.
The purpose of Lent is not to force on us a few formal obligations, but to soften our heart so that it
may open itself to the realities of the spirit, to experience the hidden thirst and hunger for
communion with God.
2/10 - Day 1
God is more interested in what we are becoming than in what we are giving up.
Scripture
Psalm 51:16-17
John 12:1-11
2/11 - Day 2
Christian spirituality, the contemplative life, is not about us, it is about God. The more there is of
us, the less there is of God.
Scripture
John 12:12-19
2/12 Day 3
Lent signifies not winter but spring, not darkness but light, not death but renewed vitality.
Scripture
John 12:20-28
2/13 - Day 4
God needs nothing, asks nothing, and demands nothing, like the stars. It is life with God which
demands these thingsYou do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at
the stars, you will find that the darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.
Scripture
John 12:29-36
2/15 - Day Five
Into your hands, O Lord, we place our whole selves, trusting that your vision for our lives and the
life of the world is far richer than we could ever ask or imagine. Renew in us daily the choice to
love and serve you without reservation. Amen.
Scripture
John 12:37 - 43
2/16 - Day Six
Jesus sets an example for us all to sit with our sorrow. He could have easily kept moving in an
attempt to distance Himself from sadness. Instead, Jesus sent everyone away and carved out
space to pray in solitude.
Scripture
Matthew 14:3-12
John 12:44-50
1
indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Scripture
John 14:15 22
2/24 Day Thirteen
Jesus spent a significant part of His last days at tables, resting in the company of old and new
friends. If you had only six days to live, how, and with whom, would you live them? Why?
Scripture
John 14:23 31
2/25 Day Fourteen
Activate your God-given imagination to picture Jesus riding on a colt into Jerusalem. See the
crowds of followers and disciples with Him and rush to meet Him with the crow that had gathered
for the feast. Decide whether you will be among those who throw their only cloak on the ground
for His colt to walk upon. Observe the objecting leaders. Hear the shouts of children. Add your
voice to the cries of Hosanna! Taste the messianic anticipation and then look into Jesus eyes.
What emotions might you have witnessed as He journeyed into the City of David?
Scripture
John 15: 1 17
2/26 Day Fifteen
Lent mentors us in following Christs example. As we consider Jesus response to suffering, we
become attentive to our own. With all our inconsistencies, God does not shrink back from us. In
turn, may we seek to never shrink back from God.
Scripture
John 15:18 16:4
2/27 Day Sixteen
Jesus treasured the City of David. When He was eight days old, Jesus entered Jerusalem for the
first time to be circumcised, and the elders Simeon and Anna recognized His as the Messiah. But
now, over thirty years later, Jesus entered the city to be crucified, and the elders would recognize
Him not. Jesus grieved for a people who would not know peace. Jesus grieved for the city that
would pay for its spiritual blindness with destruction. Holy grieves.
Scripture John 16:5 -16
2/29 Day Seventeen
Not only does holy grieve, holy gets angry. At the age of twelve, Jesus called the temple my
Fathers house (Luke 2:49), so as an adult the Fathers only Son came to put that house in order.
The money changers had set up their tables in the Court of the Gentiles, thus turning the very
space that enabled the temple to be as house of prayer for all nations (Isaiah 56:7) into a den of
robbers (Jeremiah 7:11). So Jesus purged the temple in fulfilment of prophecy (Malachi 3:2),
confronting religious corruption that profited and prospered at the expense of the poor and the
foreigner. Jesus, no doubt, witnessed many injustices during His life on earth, but He did not turn
over many tables. Today let us ask God to awaken us from our numb slumber and reveal to us
His where, when, and how of any tables that need to be overthrown in our generation.
Scripture
John 16:17 33
3/1 Day Eighteen
The Lenten spring has come, the light of repentance! O brothers, let us cleanse ourselves from
all evil, crying out to the Giver of Light: Glory to Thee, O Lover of man.
Scripture
John 17: 1- 5
3
says: I am too sinful to deserve Gods mercy. It is the guilt that leads to introspection instead of
directing our eyes to God. It is the guilt that has become an idol and therefore a form of pride.
Lent is the time to break down this idol and to direct our attention to our loving Lord. Henri
Nouwen
Scripture
John 18:15 18
3/8 Day Twenty-Four
The cross is the ultimate call to decrease. The cross is a call not to forget our own names but to
live and die for the Name of Another. The cross is a call to renounce self-direction and shift
leadership loyalties from ourselves to our Savior.
Scripture
John 18:19 24
3/9 Day Twenty-Five
Jesus was and is The Way (John 14:6). As Jesus continued cross-ward, He took each sorrowful
step certain that His death and resurrection were the only way to the Father for us. The price was
astounding, but Jesus loved us enough to pay it. Sharing Jesus certainty honors Jesus sacrifice.
Scripture
John 18:25 27
3/10 Day Twenty-Six
The Lent season is about preparation and expectation. What we prepare for, and what we expect,
is the risen Lord trampling down death by death. Lent is a beautiful invitation for us to travel with
the Lord into Jerusalem, to once again live out our baptism where we have been baptized into
Christs death (Romans 6:3), go with him through that experience and rise with him once again
into the new life of the church. To try to experience the magnificence of Holy week and the
resurrection we go through the fast, purging our body and spirit of distractions, and preparing our
hearts to go with Christ.
Scripture John 18:28 32
3/11 Day Twenty-Seven
There are many experiences in life that can be called stretching experiences. Those are the
ones that never leave you the same. They stretched your stamina, strength or sanity. They also
stretched your talent and gifts showing you that you had more going on than you thought. May
this Lenten season to serve to stretch you in good and positive ways as you decrease.
Scripture
John 18:33-40
3/12 Day Twenty-Eight
Though a cousin of humility, the Discipline of Restraint is not related to timidity. Though a friend of
patience, the Discipline of Restraint is not a form of hesitation. Timidity is fear-driven. Hesitation
is doubt-driven. Restraint is obedience-inspired.
John 19:1 6
already embraced everything that I fear. I renounce fears hold on me. By Gods grace I share
your victory.
Scripture
John 19:7 16
3/15 Day Thirty
Most say self-confidence is a highly valued attribute. But when it comes to our hearts, Godconfidence is our only hope. Self is a poor discerner of self, whether or not it is confident. God
searches our hearts and minds and His faithfulness is worthy of our trust. This surely is where
David invested his hope when he prayed, Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know
my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting
(Psalm 139:23 24).
Today, fast self-confidence and rest deeply in Jesus promise that the Holy Spirit will guide you
into all the truth (John 16:13).
Scripture
John 19:17 27
3/16 Day Thirty-One
Is it not odd in a generation that rarely blinks at fictional violence sold as entertainment that we
spend relatively little time considering the all-too-real suffering of our Savior? Picture once again
what Jesus endured even prior to the crucifixion. Then go stand in front of a mirror. Looking at
yourself, say aloud these words: Jesus endured His suffering for me. He believed and still
believes that I am worth it.
Scripture John 19:28 -37
3/17 Day Thirty-Two
As the faithful were preparing to celebrate the Passover, Jesus was preparing to offer Himself as
the Lamb. Reflect on Exodus 12:3, 5 6, 21 23 and Revelation 5:6, 8 9 with gratitude for the
One John the Baptist called The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
In honor of Jesus loss of blood for your soul, and toward sensitizing yourself to ways in which you
are adding what is unnecessary to your faith, fast adding anything to life today. Try to spend a day
without spending money. Let each choice to not buy remind you of what you could not purchase:
your pardon.
Scripture
John 19:38 42
3/18 Day Thirty-Three
Jesus died for our sin. Why ten do we work to keep it alive? What benefits do we perceive
ourselves receiving? Its time for us to start loving Jesus to a degree that compels us to walk
away from sin where we can and get help where we cannot.
Scripture
Psalm 22
John 20:1 9
3/19 Day Thirty-Four
Lord, make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred let me bring your love; where
there is injury your pardon; where there is doubt, true faith in you. Where there is despair in life,
let me bring hope: where there is darkness only light; where there is sadness, ever joy. Grant that
I may never cease so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand, to
be loved, as to love with all my soul. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, in giving to all men
what we receive, and in dying that we are born to eternal life. Saint Francis of Assisi
Today, fast criticism. From the clerk moving slowly to the homeless vet on the streets, consider
carefully that Jesus knows them by name. Today, seek to know more, assume less, and air
prayers for Jesus least of these boldly in the presence of your shared Father God.
Scripture
John 20:10 18
6