Forty years ago on an early afternoon in October while driving on a North Carolina interstate, I turned to Jesus as my Savior and Lord.
This past October, almost to the day 40 years later, I found myself driving that same NC highway. And in a very clear touch from God—a moment of glory—I had a flashback of that most important moment of my life. As the warm angled rays of the sun reached its fingers through my windshield, a vivid awareness dawned: without God’s pursuit of me, the last 40 years of my life would have been spent wandering in the wilderness, not walking with Jesus.
Walking With Jesus in the Wilderness of Lent
Forty is a number that appears often through the Old and New Testaments. It’s the number of years God’s people wandered through the desert on the way to the land He had promised them. It’s the number of days Jesus fasted, prayed, and resisted Satan’s temptations before his public ministry began. And it’s the number of days that comprise the season of Lent-the days leading to Easter when Christians slow down to consider and confess their hearts of sin-the brokenness that sent Jesus to the Cross where He made things right that we never could. Lent is a journey of introspection anchored by hope. It’s a journey toward Easter, the day when everything changed for those who believe in Christ.
The practice of Lent looks back to 40 days Jesus spent in the desert, a time when he was tempted in every way as we are. The devices Satan dangled to draw Jesus away from devotion to God are still used today. Can we trust God to satisfy our hunger, whether it’s physical, emotional or spiritual? To meet us in our discontent, our longings, our deep knowing that this world is broken? The truth is, we all have a hunger that can only be satisfied by the God who made us, and Jesus opens the way.
This year, Lent begins on March 5. Will you bring your hunger, your deepest needs to Jesus? Will you take some time to consider the gifts of love, meaning and forgiveness He offers?
Walking With Jesus When Life Doesn’t Go As Planned
A promise from Deuteronomy describes my reality the last 40 years. At times, life can feel like trudging through a great wilderness. I’ve been there, and maybe you have, too. A lost relationship, a lost job, a prodigal child, rejection, the death of someone you love. A devastating diagnosis or a chronic illness, an empty bank account, lack of purpose, lack of hope day after day, maybe year after year.
Here’s the promise, made to God’s people in the wilderness. It was true for them and it’s true for me.
“For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the works of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing” (Deut. 2:7)
Since I turned to Jesus all those years ago on an NC highway, my life hasn’t been the way I imagined it would be. It hasn’t been perfect and it hasn’t always been easy, but because Jesus has been with me, I’ve lacked nothing I really need.
Willa Kane is a former global trustee of The Anglican Relief and Development Fund and is presently a trustee of the American Anglican Council. She is one of the founders of New City Fellows, Raleigh, NC and a trustee for Anne Graham Lotz’s AnGeL Ministries. She is also one of the co-authors behind Eighth Day Prayers: Volume 1: Daily Hope for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany and the latest Eighth Day Prayers: Volume 2: Daily Mercy for Lent and Eastertide (Forefront Books). See more at: https://eighthdayprayer.org
