Week: Lent
Welcome to Lectio for Families. This is the first week of the season of Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter. Lent is celebrated by millions of Christians all around the world as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for Easter. We’re going to join them in prayer this week.
Each day we will simply pray (P.R.A.Y.) together.
P: PAUSING to be still.
R: REJOICING with a Memory Verse and REFLECTING on some verses from the Bible.
A: ASKING God to help us and others.
Y: saying YES to God’s ways.
We start by pausing and taking a deep breath:
In and out.
In and out.
We remember that God is here, and so together we prepare ourselves to be with God.
Pause
Lord Jesus, You’re our champion, the one we want to follow and so we fix our eyes on You. As we draw near to You, would You draw near to us. Our faith depends on You, from beginning to end. (Hebrews 12:2)
We REJOICE and celebrate God’s goodness with this week’s memory verse:
Read by Jackson R
Psalm 42:1
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
Psalm 42:1 (NIV)
God, help us to remember Your Word.
Today, we’re returning to the same verses as yesterday, but this time we’re mostly REFLECTING on the first sentence.
Read by Jackson R
Luke 9:23-25
Jesus said to all of them, ‘If people want to follow me, they must give up the things they want. They must be willing to give up their lives daily to follow me. Those who want to save their lives will give up true life. But those who give up their lives for me will have true life. It is worthless to have the whole world if they themselves are destroyed or lost.’
Luke 9:23-25 (NCV)
During Lent, many people decide to turn away from something, or give something up – usually something that they love, like chocolate, or Netflix, or social media or even complaining. All of these things are good things (except complaining!) but none of them are more important than Jesus.
Lent is a time to reflect on where we might have made other things more important than Jesus in our lives. It’s a time to give them up for a while, and to follow and focus on Jesus instead. Giving up things might sound a bit hard or even a bit sad, but Jesus promises to be with us. In fact, in today’s verses He says that when we give things up for Him, we will have true life!
Let’s press pause and talk about today’s question, which is: What do we think we could give up for Lent? (*Note to parents below.)
It’s not easy to give up things that we love, and we mustn’t feel guilty if we make a mistake, or don’t quite get it right. If that happens, we can just try to give it up again.
Lord Jesus, we ASK You to help those of us who have decided to give something up for Lent – give us strength. And help us not to focus too much on the things we’ve given up, but help us to focus on following You instead.
Some people don’t just give things up for Lent, but they give things away too. For example, if we’ve decided to give up chocolate for Lent, then maybe we could give the money that we would’ve spent on it to a charity instead. Or if we’ve decided to give up watching our favourite TV programme, then maybe we could use the time to help someone or pray for someone.
Lord Jesus, we ASK You to help us – help our church, especially – to be generous during this season of Lent. Not just to give things up, but to give things away too.
As we read the Bible again, let’s listen for a word or a phrase that the Holy Spirit might want to say to us from today’s verses.
Luke 9:23-25
Jesus said to all of them, ‘If people want to follow me, they must give up the things they want. They must be willing to give up their lives daily to follow me. Those who want to save their lives will give up true life. But those who give up their lives for me will have true life. It is worthless to have the whole world if they themselves are destroyed or lost.’
Luke 9:23-25 (NCV)
What word or phrase stood out from today’s Bible verses?
And now, let’s say YES to God together.
Father God, we say NO to some things that we want – even things that we love – and YES to focusing on You and following You instead. As we give things up for Lent, we give the space to You – please speak to us.
After enjoying this time with God and each other, let’s say our memory verse together:
Psalm 42:1
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
Psalm 42:1 (NIV)
Let’s put a hand on our heart.
Father God, fill us with Your love. Help us to love You, and everything that You’ve made.
Let’s point to our eyes.
Lord Jesus, help us to see You, and to see others the way that You see them too.
Let’s point to our ears.
Holy Spirit, help us to hear You, and give us courage to do what You say.
* Note to parents: When it comes to fasting and giving things up, it’s important to be sensible. For example, it isn’t always helpful or even healthy to give up food. There are lots of different ways to practice giving things up during Lent. If your family decide to give something up, choose something that will be a fun challenge.
Unathi lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, with her husband and 5 kids; and has a passion for seeing families thriving.
You’ll most likely find her homeschooling the tribe, reading, writing, or dreaming about the next DIY project.
She also loves good coffee, dark chocolate and hiking.
Jackson is 11 and lives with his younger brother and parents in Surrey. He loves pretty much all sport but his favourites are football, golf and jumping off high stuff into water! He enjoys gaming and is always ready to build something on Minecraft.
