LENTEN DAILY READING 2023

posted by Joey Bates | Mar 6, 2023

MONDAY - Genesis 12:1-4a

Abram was 75 years old. He’d been around. He knew how the world worked, and what was expected from him. But then everything changed. The God of the Universe met him, and invited him on a journey that would change the course of history. “Leave your native country… and go to the land I will show you.” 


Lent is a journey to a new land. When we start, we hear the call of God to leave behind the things that keep us from enjoying Him. We fast; we sacrifice; we leave behind the old ways in pursuit of a new way. But, like Abram, we don’t get to that new land right away. There’s time in-between the here and the there. In this time between, God is at work. 


God says that Abram will be made into a great nation. God says that Abram will be blessed to be a blessing to others, and that all the families on earth will be blessed through him. This was Abram’s call, and the journey between the old land and the new land is where God shapes and forms that call. 


We have a call, too. God has called us away from our old ways, and promised to make us a new creation, filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control so we can impact the world. But we don’t get there overnight. This journey between our old ways and the new creation is the place where God works the most. Lent is a microcosm of that journey where we become more who God has created us to be by leaving the old ways, pursuing the new. Today, where do you hear God’s call? Where’s He calling you to leave? Where’s He calling you to go? Will you give yourself to the journey?