Show Notes
Today we meditate on Psalm 51:4-16 and talk through the practice of fasting during the 40 days of Lent.
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Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:12 Welcome to the meditation and worship series with west side church. Over the next few weeks, we will be meditating on scripture and diving into some practices. As we walk through the season of lent. Our hope is that over the course of this Lenten season, this time of meditation and worship can be a breath of fresh air as we journey towards Easter together. So let us start by pausing for a moment and focusing our attention to Jesus. And may we be expectant of the movement of the holy spirit and our time together, if you're in a place to do so close your eyes, hold out your hands in front of you in a posture of surrender, take a deep breath in and out and another in and out.
Speaker 1 00:01:13 We are continuing today in Psalm 51. It is a prayer of confession and repentance from king David. After being confronted with his own sin. It gives us an outline of where to begin. Not only when we confess and ask for repentance, but also helps us recognize the need to be cleansed from the effects of sin, Psalm 51, 6 through 14, but still you longed to enthroned truth throughout my being in unseen places. Deep within me, you show me wisdom, cleanse me of my wickedness with hyssop and I will be clean. If you wash me, I will be whiter than snow helped me hear joy and happiness as my accompaniment. So my bones, which you have broken will dance and delight instead cover your face. So you will not see my sins and erase my guilt from the record, create in me a clean heart O God restore within me a sense of brand new.
Speaker 1 00:02:30 Do not throw me far away from your presence and do not remove your holy spirit from me. Give back to me the deep delight of being saved by you. Let your willing spirit sustain me. If you do. I promise to teach rebels your ways and help sinners find their way back to you. Free me from the guilt of murder of shedding a man's blood. Oh God, who saves me. Now my tongue, which was used to destroy will be used to sing with deep delight of how bright and just you are. The series of verses is a list of essential needs that David recognizes he can't do for himself. He asks again and again of God to restore him, to cleanse him, to make right with David cannot on his own in all of his admissions of guilt and his plea for forgiveness. There is still a hint of hope in his words, near the end of this passage.
Speaker 1 00:03:46 We see David look towards the future of how he can change. Now, my tongue, which was used to destroy will be used to seeing of how right you are lent. It says much a season of celebration as it is of repentance in self-examination. We shouldn't lose sight of hope in this journey to Easter inside the somberness that can come along with the act of repentance as we spend the next 40 days and repentance and self-examination with hope, ask yourself, in what ways is lent a season of celebration? How do we keep hope at the front of our practices during the season, we'll continue to explore it. These thoughts over the next few weeks, one of the most widely accepted practices over lent is fasting. It is a practice of giving something up to fill with something else. We empty ourselves of the things that have strong holds on us and ask Jesus to fill the empty, to take up more space in our lives.
Speaker 1 00:05:08 And remember this as a practice, take it day by day. You can start today or any time during lint and this doesn't need to look like you have to give up all food for the whole duration of lent. But if you have a healthy relationship with food and are able, it could be a meal a day. And instead of eating spend that time in prayer, it could be social media. You give up and whenever you have the urge to pick up your phone and scroll and Leslie take that time to pray, keep making space for the spirit to fill more and more of you today. Take some time to pray and listen to where the Lord might lead you and what to release the hold of over the next 40 days. Jesus, we thank you that you do not leave us alone in the depths of despair of our sin. We echo the words of David and ask for clean hands and a pure heart. Help us to recognize the things that we make more important than you. And give us the courage to lay those things down in order to put you back on the throne of our lives. We love you. Jesus.
Speaker 2 00:06:47 turn your face. Fool, love kindness and mercy. Turn your face. oh, Jesus. speak Lord. And show me where I've been on the, your Jesus it's yours to repentance free. She always show it's your to repent. always shawling oh, Jesus.
