Lent: A Season of Refreshing

We have finally entered into one of my favorite seasons of the year: Lent. Our church kicked off this season of Lent with our Ash Wednesday service last night, where our church came together to confess our sins and begin together this season of repentance and reflection.

This week was also the start of the He Reads Truth Lent Plan, His Love Endures. The HRT/SRT Lent plan is something I look forward each year as a personal guide through my own practices of confession and repentance.

On day 1 alone, I love the reminder of what we’re invited to in this season:

Lent is an invitation to put down everything we have picked up in order to take hold of the only One who can truly satisfy our heart’s deepest longings. It is a call to turn back, and experience a season of refreshing for our souls (Ac 3:19). Come with open hands, and freely receive (Is 55).

Amanda Bible Williams

A Season of Refreshing

Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah. Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning.

That’s what I long for: a season of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. However, as the text shows us, the only way to encounter this season of refreshing is to repent and turn back.

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During our Ash Wednesday service, our leaders challenged us to bring our confessions to God, using these questions as a guide:

1. What do I love more than God?
2. What is separating me from the God who loves me?
3. What has a stronger grip on my soul than it should?
4. Where am I longing for change and transformation?
   

As you approach this season of Lent, I challenge you to ask yourself these questions. Take a moment to think through what’s coming up in the next month: the push toward Easter, longer nights and extra rehearsals, and more time away from family.

In the midst of the busiest season of the technical artists’ year, where are you longing for God to show up and change you? How will you humble yourself to receive what God has for you?

Lent is a deep and dark time, but through this season we find forgiveness, freedom, and life itself in Jesus, as we press on toward the renewal of all things. Repent and be encouraged; seek the hope and forgiveness you have in Jesus.