Scotty Smith’s Ash Wednesday Prayer: “Over these next forty days give us an insatiable hunger for yourself”

I was not able to post this yesterday, but even though it was written for Ash Wednesday, I think it makes a good reminder as we look ahead to the rest of Lent. May God give us grace this Lent not to focus on whatever we may be giving up, but to focus on “getting more of Jesus,” living and delighting more in His grace and beauty. I add my very hearty Amen to what Pastor Scotty Smith has written and prayed!

A Prayer for Ash Wednesday and a Grace-full Lent

And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.” Mark 2:19-20

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Eph. 3:17-19

Dear Lord Jesus, it’s Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. For the next forty days we have the privilege of surveying your cross and acknowledging our need. For your glory and our growth, we ask you to inundate us with fresh grace in the coming weeks.

Indeed, we don’t want an ordinary Lenten season, Jesus. Melt us in your mercies; overwhelm us with your love; astonish us with your kindness, for your it’s your kindness that leads us to repentance. It’s all about you, Lord Jesus. It is all about what you’ve done for us, not what we promise to do for you. It’s not about beating ourselves up, it’s about lifting you up. Our deepest conviction of sin comes from the clearest sighting of your beauty.

That’s why we begin Lent today anticipating our wedding, not our funeral; for you are the loving bridegroom who died to make us your cherished bride. The work’s already done; the dowry has been paid in full; the wedding dress of your righteousness is already ours; the invitations have been sent out; the date has been secured; you’ll not change your mind about us! We are much more beloved than we are broken. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Over these next forty days give us an insatiable hunger for yourself; reveal new dimensions of your love; intensify our longing for the Day of your return—the Day of consummate joy—the wedding feast of the Lamb.

In light of that banquet, we choose to deny ourselves (fast from) certain pleasures for this brief season; but we’re not looking to get one thing from you, Jesus—just more of you. Fill our hearts with your beauty and bounty. So very Amen we pray, in your holy and loving name.

From Heavenward

P.S.  And even if the good Anglicans among us blanch a little bit at Pastor Scotty’s triple “Hallelujah” in the prayer above (horrors!  on Ash Wednesday!!  grin….) I pray that we would be so refreshed in the joy of the Lord this Lent that the Hallelujahs for God’s LAVISH grace, mercy and promises would well up and flood our hearts, even if they remain unspoken on our lips.  May we have a torrent of Hallelujahs (or Alleluias!) to release on Easter morn.

A Musical Prayer for an Ash Wednesday Evening

It’s been a busy and hectic day.  Not how I’d planned to spend Ash Wednesday.  I want to quiet my heart and seek the Lord in prayer and His Word, inviting Him to examine my heart, but it’s hard to push aside all the whirling thoughts.

I decided some music might be helpful. In thinking about what to listen to, I remembered a CCM “oldie” by John Michael and Terry Talbot from their 1980 album, The Painter.

Create in me a clean heart, O God

Let me be like You in all Your ways

Give me Your strength, teach me Your  song

Shelter me in the shadow of Your wings.

For we are Your righteousness,

if we’ve died to ourselves,

and live through Your death.

Then we shall be born again to be blessed in Your love.

Simple, beautiful harmonies, and very helpful to draw me into the Lord’s presence with a quiet heart.

You can listen to this song at You Tube, here.  (Available to buy at iTunes)

art credit:  http://godcreatedlaughter.blogspot.com

“The Lenten Call” – a poem by Teresa Roberts Johnson

This lovely poem for the beginning of Lent was posted today at Angliverse

The Lenten Call

And now resounding through the turbid earth
The solemn call to keep a holy Lent
Would lift our eyes from things of little worth
And bid us find in Jesus true content.

As Spirit hovered over formless void
Dispelling chaos by the Word decreed,
He clears the wilderness that sin destroyed;
He fills our emptiness with all we ever need.

Beauty for ashes and love to conquer fear,
The disciplines of Lent teach us to comprehend
That all else fades when Jesus is what we hold dear.
We throw off worldly weights in order to ascend.

Copyright © 2013 by Teresa Roberts Johnson (All rights reserved)

See also Teresa’s poem “For Ash Wednesday“

 

Kendall Harmon’s excellent Ash Wednesday posts

I have little time for blogging today.  An unexpected work demand plus a car accident (no one hurt thankfully…) have stolen away my entire morning…  so instead of posting some entries of my own for Ash Wednesday, let me just point you to some excellent materials that Kendall Harmon has posted at TitusOneNine.

A Prayer for Ash Wednesday

Food for Thought from Saint Augustine for Ash Wednesday

C.S. Lewis for Ash Wednesday

Notable and Quotable: Dietrich Bonhoeffer for Ash Wednesday

Three Meditations for Ash Wednesday from Bishop Mark Lawrence (from 2012)

Ash Wednesday Services Being Broadcast Online Today

 

Here is the link for all of Kendall’s Lent posts.

 

Ash Wednesday: A favorite prayer from St. Augustine

I’ve posted this prayer in the past, but I find that once again it expresses what I need to tell the Lord about my heart as we begin Lent.  My soul needs housecleaning.  My heart needs enlarging that I may receive and share the Lord’s love and grace more fully:

O Lord,
The house of my soul is narrow;
enlarge it that you may enter in.
It is ruinous, O repair it!
It displeases Your sight.
I confess it, I know.
But who shall cleanse it,
to whom shall I cry but to you?
Cleanse me from my secret faults, O Lord,
and spare Your servant from strange sins.

–St. Augustine of Hippo (AD 354-430)
Source: Churchyear.net

For the traditional Ash Wednesday Prayers from the 1928 BCP, see here.

For Daily Lenten Prayers and Readings, this is a very good site.

A Great Essay by Mark Galli for Lent – Lent is Not Just Another Self-Improvement Routine

Mark Galli wrote an excellent essay on Lent for Christianity Today in 2012 called “Giving up Self-Discipline.” Somehow I missed it last year.

I was particularly struck by his remarks suggesting that often our Lenten Disciplines, instead of being God-focused, are merely just disguised “self-improvement” routines:

Lent is supposed to have more spiritual overtones than the mere self-improvement mantras of New Year’s. But I suspect that for many of us, Lenten disciplines are more about us than about God. More about getting our act together in some area that continually discourages us and repeatedly sabotages our self-respect. The advantage of Lent over New Year’s resolutions is that we can bring God to our side, and the whole church is there to cheer us on. But for many of us, I suspect, it’s one big self-improvement regimen, with God as mere personal coach.

I think that’s often very true!    Read the whole essay.

May Lent 2013 be an opportunity to fall in love with our Savior afresh and to rejoice in His daily grace, even as we become more aware of our own weaknesses and pettiness.

A roundup of Ash Wednesday posts

Here are some links to various Ash Wednesday resources and devotionals we’ve posted in previous years:

Ash Wednesday category (ALL ENTRIES)

Ash Wednesday Index [2010]

Ash Wednesday Links and Resources – updated [2009]

Bishop Mark Lawrence: Ash Wednesday Meditations at TSM, Feb 2012 (UPDATED)

Lent Quotes: Pope Benedict XVI on “Dust You Are…”

A Lenten Prayer of Confession Based on the Decalogue

Lent Prayers – Scotty Smith: A Prayer for a Gospel-saturated Grace-inundated Lent

What does God do with dust and ash?

Lent Quotes: David Mills – Ash Wednesday’s Double Meaning

Lent Quotes: Louis Tarsitano – Repentance, a miraculous invitation from God

TitusOneNine – Ash Wednesday links

Ruth Haley Barton: Inviting God to help shape our Lenten disciplines

Lent and Ash Wednesday Activity Ideas for Families

The Readings & Collect for Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday Prayers: Turn to us O Lord, and we shall be turned

Ash Wednesday: A Communal Prayer of Confession

Two Ash Wednesday Prayers

Lent around the blogosphere (mostly Ash Wednesday)

One blogger’s Daily Prayer for Lent

Seek the Lord and Live, an Ash Wednesday Devotional

“Ashes”

Ash Wednesday thought from the Northern Plains

Lent Quotes: the real question of Lent

Bishop Mark Lawrence: Ash Wednesday Meditations at TSM, Feb 2012 (UPDATED)

Just discovered that the TSM website has two audio files with Bp. Mark Lawrence’s 2012 Ash Wednesday reflections at the TSM Chapel.

Meditation 1

Meditation 2

Ok, sure, we’re already a month into Lent…!  But in my book, it is ALWAYS worth listening to +Mark Lawrence preach.

***

Update:  I’ve now listened to the first meditation in full.  These are LONG meaty reflections (The first is perhaps about 45 minutes).  They are definitely appropriate for listening ANY time in Lent, not just Ash Wednesday.  These could make good Holy Week / Good Friday meditations.

Update 2:  I’ve now been alerted that there is a description of +Mark Lawrence’s meditations and the TSM Ash Wed. Quiet Day.

Read the details here.

+Mark Lawrence also preached a Chapel Sermon that day.  Here’s the link.

Lent 2012 – INDEX of ALL Lent Posts by Category

Last Updated:  Feb. 11, 2013

Below is an index of all of our 2012 Lent Entries, organized by their primary category, with most recent posts in the category listed first.   Note:  Because we posted an extensive collection of entries during Holy Week of 2012, I have compiled a separate Holy Week 2012 Index here.

You can find all NEW Lent Entries by using our Lent 2013 tag.  Also, you may enjoy our brand new compilation of recommended blogs and websites for Lent 2013.

***

1. Lent Devotionals

A Lent Poem: Barnfloor and Winepress

Dean Munday: Living in this World Longing for Home

Living Out Lent – pray for a desire for what truly satisfies

George Herbert: Confession

Lent reflections: “Formed by Small Things”

John Piper: Lent or No Lent, Life is War

Pastor Ray Ortland – 10 Things that Most Matter in Life

Temptation is Personal, Not Generic

Bishop Mark Lawrence: Ash Wednesday Meditations at TSM, Feb 2012

Commentary on “Ashes to Go”

A lot of Anglican blogs have posted stories this year about various churches offering “Ashes to Go” – coming to a public venue (such as in front of a Starbucks) and offering the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday.

I’ve not done enough reading to really reflect and comment on the practice, but there’s a really nice commentary at Creedal Christian for those wanting to reflect further on the pros & cons.

Lent Quotes: Pope Benedict XVI on “Dust You Are…”

In reading Pope Benedict the XVI’s Ash Wednesday Homily, I was very struck by this section – especially how the Pope focused on the merits of Christ, not any merits of our own spiritual efforts.

Thus, within the punishment and within the curse, there is a good intention that comes from God. When He says, “Dust you are and unto dust you shall return”, He intends inflicting a just punishment, but also announcing the way to salvation. This will pass through the Earth, through that same dust, that same flesh which will be assumed by the Word Incarnate.

This is context in which the words of Genesis are reflected in the Ash Wednesday liturgy: as an invitation to penance, humility, and an awareness of our mortal state. We are not to despair, but to welcome in this mortal state of ours the unthinkable nearness of God who opens the way to Resurrection, to paradise regained, beyond death. There is a text by Origen that says: “That which was flesh, earth, dust, and was destroyed by death and returned to dust and ashes, is made to rise again from the earth. According to the merits of the soul that inhabits the body, the person advances towards the glory of a spiritual body.”
The merits of the soul about which Origen speaks are important, but more important are the merits of Christ, the efficacy of his Pascal Mystery. St. Paul gives us a good summary in the second reading: “For our sake God made the sinless one into sin so that in Him we might become the goodness of God.” For us to enjoy divine forgiveness depends essentially on the fact that God Himself, in the person of His Son, wanted to share in our human condition, but not in the corruption of sin.
The Father resurrected Him through the power of His Holy Spirit and Jesus, the new Adam, became the spirit who gives us life, the first fruits of the new creation.
The same spirit that resurrected Jesus from the dead can transform our hearts from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. We said as much in the psalm: “A pure heart create for me O God, put a steadfast spirit within me, do not cast me away from your presence, nor deprive me of your holy spirit.” That the same God that exiled our first parents from Eden, sent His own Son to this Earth devastated by sin, without sparing Him, so that we, prodigal children, can return, penitent and redeemed through His mercy, to our true homeland. So it be for all of us, and for all believers, and for all those who humbly recognize their need to be saved. Amen.

Lent Prayers – Scotty Smith: A Prayer for a Gospel-saturated Grace-inundated Lent

I was really moved by Scotty Smith’s Ash Wednesday Prayer at his prayer blog, Heavenward.  He is one of those evangelicals who “gets” Lent!

Here’s an excerpt:

And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.” Mark 2:19-20

Dear Lord Jesus, it’s Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. For the next forty days we have the privilege of focusing our hearts, surveying your cross, and preparing for the greatest of all celebrations: Easter—the foundation of our hope and the fountain of eternal joy. What a great opportunity and gift.

For your glory and our growth, we ask you to inundate us with fresh grace in the coming weeks. We don’t want an ordinary Lenten season, Jesus. Saturate it with the gospel; overwhelm us with your daily mercies; stun us with your steadfast love—the only love that will never come to an end. It’s all about you, Jesus, it’s all about you what you’ve done for us, not what we promise to do for you. [...]

Over these next forty days intensify our hunger for you, Lord, and ignite our longing for the day of your return—the Day of consummate joy, the wedding feast of the Lamb. In light of that banquet, we choose to deny ourselves (fast from) certain pleasures for this brief season. But we’re not looking to get one thing from you, Jesus—just more of you. Fill our hearts with your beauty and bounty, so very Amen we pray, in your holy and loving name.

Read the full entry here.

TitusOneNine – a great Lent resource

Originally TitusOneNine was known best for its Anglican news & cultural, economic and political analyses posted by Kendall.  But these days it is also a “go to” site for WONDERFUL prayers.

Here are several of the entries Kendall has posted today for Ash Wednesday:

Food for Thought from Saint Augustine for Ash Wednesday

A Prayer for Ash Wednesday

Another Prayer for Ash Wednesday

Here is the category link for all the T19 Lent entries.

Lent Quotes – Peter Ould: The Core of Christian Discipleship

Last week, when I read cyber friend Peter Ould’s Ash Wednesday sermon.  I was very struck by this section:

The core of Christian discipleship is to understand that nothing but the work of Christ can save us and nothing but the power of the Holy Spirit can transform us. It is the core of Christian discipleship that having recognised these things, we fall on our knees and hand ourselves over into the hands of a merciful, loving, forgiving, healing and restoring redeeming and resurrecting God.

As our reading tonight says – “Then you will call and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”

This is indeed the God that we not just celebrate and worship, but that we truly experience – right here tonight.

Let it be so.

Amen Peter, Amen!

What does God do with dust and ash?

I found this wonderful Ash Wednesday meditation at the Gospel-Driven Church blog, via a link from Trevin Wax’s blog Kingdom People.  What an awesome reflection – and what an awesome hope we have in a God who can bring forth such beauty and new life from ashes!

What does God do with dust and ash?

He grows things out of them.

He covers them with purple raiments.

He lifts people out of them.

He unfairly accepts them in exchange for beauty.

He writes mysterious things in them.

He spits in them and uses the mud to give sight.

He washes them off your stinky feet.

He breathes into them and creates new life.

He descends into them, submits to their suffocation, and emerges alive and spotless.

When you return to dust, even if your body should be burnt to ashes and scattered over the four winds, he who is the Lord over the earth will be able to collect you, reconstitute you, and resurrect you into a body fit for eternity.

***

I’m reminded in reading this of Steven Curtis Chapman’s new song: “Beauty Will Rise” – written as his testimony of the hope and promise God has given his family in the aftermath of their five year-old daughter’s tragic death.  I cannot recommend this song (or the whole album) highly enough!

Beauty Will Rise

It was the day the world went wrong
I screamed until my voice was gone
and watched through the tears
as everything came crashing down

Slowly panic turns to pain
as we awake to what remains
and sift through the ashes that are left behind

But buried deep beneath all our broken dreams, we have this hope

Out of these ashes, beauty will rise
and we will dance among the ruins
we will see with our own eyes
Out of these ashes beauty will rise
for we know joy is coming in the morning
in the morning
beauty will rise

So take another breath for now
and let the tears come washing down
if you can’t believe
I will believe for you

‘Cause I have seen
the signs of Spring, just watch and SEE

Out of these ashes, beauty will rise…

I can hear it in the distance
and it’s not too far away
it’s the music and the laughter
from a wedding and a feast
and I can almost feel the hand of God
reaching for my face to wipe the tears away
and say it’s time to make everything new
He’s making all things new

This is our hope
This is the promise
The is the hope
This is the promise

It will take our breath away
to see the beauty that’s been made out of the ashes
out of the ashes
it will take our breath away
to see the beauty that He’s made out of the ashes, out of the ashes

Out of these ashes beauty will rise
and we will dance among the ruins
we will see it with our own eyes
Out of this darkness new light will shine
and we’ll know the joy that’s coming in the morning
in the morning, in the morning
beauty will rise

***

Isa 61:1-3 [...] He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion– to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

art credit