Honing Holy Habits
This past Wednesday marks the start of Lent. What are some practical ways we can undertake to prepare our hearts more intentionally in the days leading up to Good Friday and Easter?
We mark our time and year with different milestones. For the students among us, the first day of school is an important date and time is marked by term time, examinations and holidays. Once our work life begins, the work year may have a rhythm of intense work periods and less busy periods. Sometimes it syncs with major projects or the financial year. And often, we look forward to public holidays or periods when we can take leave.
For those of us with less defined calendars, important festivities like Christmas and Lunar New Year may form the important dates in our calendars. Birthdays and anniversaries also mark the passing of time.
How do Christians mark time? Perhaps we remember distinctly our conversion and the joy of baptism, where we profess our faith publicly and have the church affirm and welcome us into a new family, God’s family. But what happens after? The years after may seem to blur into one another after a while.
These [feasts] helped the people to organise time around God…
In the Old Testament, God’s people were given Feasts to remember God’s wondrous work for them (Lev 23). Time was marked by the weekly Sabbaths, the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the first month of the year, Feasts (of Firstfruits, Weeks, Trumpets, Booths) and the Day of Atonement. These helped the people to organise time around God and the process of preparing and observing these Feasts helped them to remember and rehearse God’s works of deliverance and provision.
Today, the Lord’s Supper has been instituted by Jesus, as a regular reminder of His work and to help us anticipate His return. Christians also mainly hold Good Friday and Easter, as well as Christmas, as the main dates in our calendar. Through these, we commemorate the incarnation of Christ, remember His death and celebrate His resurrection.
Observing and preparing our hearts for these dates help us to intentionally be still before God, to receive His word and to repent and believe in His Saviour. Just as how some of us will clean our houses before the New Year (Lunar or Gregorian) or Christmas, our hearts also need to be prepared to receive God’s word. There are sins we need to repent of and gospel truths to apply by faith.
On the one hand, this should be a regular affair. Personal and daily Bible reading is important because we constantly need God’s word to shine a light into our hearts to show us our sin, and to also light our path. When we gather as a church on Sundays, our worship service also serves to take us through adoration, confession of sin, lifting our thanksgiving and requests to God and also to receive His word, which we are to obey. The monthly Lord’s Supper also serves to cause us to look back at Jesus’ work, and to look forward to His return again.
These regular rhythms are helpful in our Christian walk. But the months leading up to Good Friday, Easter and Christmas can also be used intentionally to deepen our understanding of the gospel and to refresh our hearts and minds. This past Wednesday – 5 March – marked the start of Lent. It is a period of 40 days before Good Friday that some Protestant traditions still observe to intentionally set aside to focus on repentance of sins. Some also mark this with a period of fasting as a spiritual discipline during this period.
It is helpful to hone and have holy habits, to make effort to turn our eyes upon Jesus, and in doing so, we will find the things of the world “strangely dim”.
It is helpful to hone and have holy habits, to make effort to turn our eyes upon Jesus, and in doing so, we will find the things of the world “strangely dim”. How can we focus on who Jesus is and what He came to do? What are some practical ways that we can consider to undertake to prepare our hearts more intentionally in the days leading up to Good Friday?
Firstly, use the regular rhythm of Sunday gatherings to do so. We are working through John 6-10 in the next two months, and these chapters show us clearly who Jesus is. Many of Jesus’ “I AM” statements are found in these chapters, and each one shows us what His work on the cross accomplishes. Prepare for the sermon by reading ahead, and continue meditating on the passage after it is preached. Consider also using the songs sung in our service (which can be found in the ministry guide and this Spotify playlist) to help you to focus on Christ and His work.
Secondly, consider reading one of the Gospels or meditate on a passage of Scripture in the days leading up to Good Friday. Reading Matthew, Mark or Luke alongside our sermon series in John can help us to learn more about the one whom God sent. Perhaps consider reading the book of Hebrews to see how Jesus is the one whom God promised and the Old Testament foretold. Or, use a psalm, such as Psalm 51 to help us focus on confessing and repenting from our sins.
Thirdly, consider reading a book that focuses on Christ and the Cross. Some helpful resources include 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper (available for free download), The Cross of Christ by John Stott, or even a devotional – To Seek and to Save by Sinclair Ferguson, Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross by Nancy Guthrie.
These can be done alone, with a CG mate, spouse, friend or another church member. For the families in our midst, consider doing this as a part of your family worship and devotional time. For those who have the Jesus Storybook Bible, a Lent Guide is available too, complete with activity sheets. This is a great way to share about Jesus’ work and salvation with our children.
In the days leading up to Good Friday and Easter, let us consider how we may slow down, rehearse the gospel and let it permeate the soil of our heart. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus on behalf of sinners who are enemies of God and now reconciled to Him is indeed a great mystery, the secret and hidden wisdom of God prepared beforehand and now revealed to those He loves (1 Cor 2:7-9).
And let us never grow tired of this! Whether it is your first year as a Christian, or your eightieth, may we continue to sing, both now, and forevermore:
I love to tell the story,
For those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting
To hear it like the rest.
And when in scenes of glory
I sing the new, new song,
'Twill be the old, old story
That I have loved so long.