Lent:
Download NHUMC Lent 2007 Daily Devotional 
The following is a resource that you might use as a model for inviting you to take an inward and outward journey. Adapt it according to what your needs.
Into the
wilderness
with Jesus
|
My Preparation for Easter
Lent is a time to prepare for Easter. It is a necessary prelude. The death and resurrection of Christ are true whether or not I prepare for Easter. However, without my heart and life being ready, I may not experience the depth and power. of Christ's death and resurrection. So with my brothers and sisters, I commit myself to disciplines for conversion from sin and death to love and life in Jesus Christ. With the aid of the list below, I make the following commitments to discipline and growth for the next six weeks: (Check the ones you desire or feel prompted to do; circle the ones you then decide to do.)
Inward and Personal Disciplines
___ Spend time in solitude each day.
___ Share in the Lenten supper series evenings at 6:30pm. (read more)
___ Read a book for inner growth.
___ Read twice through the Gospel of the lectionary cycle you are in.
___ Begin to keep a journal of prayer concerns, questions, reading.
___ Focus on thanksgiving, rather than on asking, in prayer.
___ Give myself a gift of three hours to do something I always say I don't have time to do.
___ Find a way to go to bed earlier or sleep in so I get enough rest.
___ Make a list of people with whom I need to be reconciled. Pray for them and let Jesus guide me in my thinking and feeling toward them.
___ Take control of my life by ______________.
___ Go to all of the Holy Week services as an act of love and waiting with Jesus.
___ Take one hour to inventory my priorities and plan how I will reorder them.
___ Give up a grudge or a rehearsal of a past event.
___ Forgive someone who has hurt me.
___ Dance my prayers to a favorite tape or CD.
___ Other______________________________
Outward and Social Disciplines
___ Take on some loving task:___________________________
___ Plan to visit a "shut-in" neighbor or church member weekly.
___ Write a letter of affirmation once a week to a person who has touched my life.
___ Listen and respond to Christ's call to a ministry of service:
___ Go to coffee or dinner with someone I want to know better.
___ Begin to recycle waste from my home and workplace.
___ Give blood and recall the cross.
___ Call the AIDS project R.A.I.N. and ask how I can help.
___ Say "NO" to something that is a waste of money and time.
___ Pray to God to help me resist racial prejudice and to give me courage in opposing it.
___ Decide to become a member of the church and speak to a pastor or lay leader.
___ Rebuke the spirit of criticism and my own tongue out of control.
___ Find a way to live out the baptismal promise to "resist evil, injustice, and oppression" in the power and liberty God gives us by ___________________
As a way of being accountable, I will either:
___ Share my intentions for Lent with my Covenant Discipleship group (or start / join a Covenant Discipleship group)
___ Share my plan with at least one other person and share with that person my experience of Lent during Holy Week.
Other Resources:
