Friday

Today is the first Friday in Lent so I thought it would appropriate to post some verses to reflect on. As I was looking for verses I came across a website that had these ones that  I ended up posting below. And as I read them I just felt they were perfect because they not only apply to lent, but they are also really in line with everything that's going on in the world, with the horrible persecution of Christians in Syria and Iraq. They desperately need our prayers and sacrifices this lent, as do the persecutors.

Romans 8:15-18: For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

1 Peter 4:13: But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

1 Peter 5:8-9: Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world.

Luke 5:35: The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days."

Mark 9:27-28: And when he was come into the house, his disciples secretly asked him: Why could not we cast him out?  And he said to them: This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

Matthew 6:16-18:   And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.  But thou, when thou fastest anoint thy head, and wash thy face;  That thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay thee .