Third Week of Lent – 2016

Third Week of Lent – 2016

Hardly had the Israelites escaped from Egypt than Pharaoh regretted having let them go and set out in pursuit with his army to arrest their flight. We can be sure that our own attempts to move free from those things, or habits of thought, that have entrapped us will very quickly be challenged. Perhaps, already, our Lenten practices seem too extreme. We’ll never keep it up until Easter – better to make some compromise  now…

But if we call upon God’s grace, accompanying us day and night, we will find ourselves beyond the Red Sea, with our enemies overcome. Then the uncharted wilderness lies ahead. The road to freedom can seem a barren one and our thoughts keep returning to the “house of slavery” and its familiar false securities. It takes courage to move forward, sustained by God’s gift, in Christ, of the “water of life” and the “true bread from heaven”.