A Lenten Prayer by Scotty Smith: Intensify and quench my thirst

Pastor Scotty Smith of Christ Community Church Nashville posted a great prayer on thirsting for Jesus this past Sunday, for the first Sunday of Lent – but it is a good prayer to pray ANY day of Lent.

Here’s an excerpt:

Thirst will not be denied. We’ll do almost anything to satisfy its cry and ache.

Because this is true, we join the psalmist in crying out: Jesus, intensify our thirst for you. Keep us panting like the deer, which pants after streams of water—the unpolluted, un-distilled, never-ending brooks of your grace.

Quickly drain the broken cisterns of our own making. Don’t let us be even momentarily satisfied with any other beverage than the draft you draw, the potion you pour, the life-giving libation you alone can give.

If we take up King David’s lament, “When can I go and meet with God?” you answer back without delay, “Right now, my beloved; do not wait. If you’re thirsty, come to me and drink.” “Whoever believes in me, streams of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38).

If we should say, “But Jesus, where can we find you?” you answer back even quicker, “Not in the law; not in your strivings; not in your labors; not in your penance; not in your earnestness; not in your self-loathing; not in your re-dedications; not in your vain promises; but only in the gospel of my grace.”

Go read the whole prayer

You can find more great Lent prayers from Scotty Smith’s Heavanward blog here.

Lent Quotes: St. Augustine – in Him we have overcome the devil

Thanks to Will at Prydain for posting this wonderful quote from Saint Augustine of Hippo:

Our Lord’s will has been to prefigure us, who are His body, in that Body of His in which He has already died and risen, and ascended into Heaven; that whither the Head has gone before, thither the members may trust to follow. Therefore He represented us in Himself, when He willed to be tempted by Satan. For in Christ you were tempted, since Christ had flesh for Himself from you, salvation from Himself for you; death for Himself from you, life from Himself for you; insults for Himself from you, honours from Himself for you; therefore temptation for Himself from you, victory from Himself for you. If in Him we have been tempted, in Him we overcome the devil. Do you observe that Christ was tempted, and not also that He conquered? Recognize yourself as tempted in Him, and recognize yourself as conquering in Him.   (emphasis added)

–St. Augustine, on Psalm lx.