Dear Father, I thank you and I praise you because in Jesus Christ I have the confidence of salvation. Because of your death on the cross, and your resurrection from death, you have opened the door for me to share in life everlasting. Help me to take up my crosses and “keep my pain,” so that my own life may be a living sign of your love.
Mark 8:34-37
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?
Lenten Action
I will find “giving” opportunities today. I will clean out my closet and donate clean clothing to a charity. I will sweep a sidewalk and clean a porch for a neighbor.