Reconciliation in Christ--Lent Day 2

Reflection for Lent Day 2 (Thursday February 18):

Theme for the Week: Confession, Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Passage for the Day: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-21

We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Reflection:

In the church that I serve, we read from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians as part of our Ash Wednesday worship service last evening. We heard these words about Christ’s work of reconciling us to God before we confessed our sins collectively. How good it was to be reminded, in advance of our confession, that Christ has taken on our wrongdoings and failures so that they don’t stand in the way of our relationship to God.

Knowing in advance that I will be forgiven because of what Christ has done for me makes it much easier for me to admit that there are lots of things that I have done wrong and things that I should have done—the things that I just either didn’t want to do or just didn’t get around to doing.

As I begin my Lenten journey, the knowledge that Christ has released me from the power of my sins and reconciles me to God frees me to concentrate on how I might do things differently. I get to pray about how God might help me to find ways to help my neighbor rather than worrying about whether or not I have been saved. God has assured me that in Christ, I am freed.

Prayer Themes for the Day:

Thank God for Christ’s work of reconciling you to God. Pray that God will find ways to use you as God’s hands in the world.