March 5
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“Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.”  (Psalm 100:2, KJV)

It is a sad day, indeed, when we — for reasons I cannot begin to fathom — stop singing.

We sing as children, and love it.  In fact, who among us doesn’t remember the songs we learned and used to sing as children?

We hear birds sing, and love it.  In fact, their melodies are particularly welcome in the early Spring, when we yearn for any sign of warmer weather.

Most of us are fans of other people’s singing; but God has given each one of us a voice, and He delights in hearing our voices in song.  You needn’t sing like Aretha.  You needn’t sound like Sinatra.  What to sing?  Sing of His faithfulness.  Sing of His love.  Sing of His greatness, His mercy, and His care of us.

Just sing.  It is music to our heavenly Father.  – Luther

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March 4
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“Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.”  (Psalm 100:2, KJV)

Is there gladness in your service?

Most of us take note when we’ve been attended to by a waiter in a restaurant, or a clerk in a retail store, who was glad in our service.  It arrests our attention; it lifts our spirit; it transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.

As you approach your tasks today — working as for the Lord — will you bring gladness to the task?

Will your interaction with others today — serving each as you would Jesus — transform the ordinary into the extraordinary because of your attitude?  – Luther

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March 3
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“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”  (Isaiah 58:6-7, NIV) 

We often think of fasting as something from which we refrain or abstain — and that is a true definition.  However, according to our reading from Isaiah, God’s chosen fast can be as much a time of engagement as it is a time of denial or retreat.

In the observance of Lent, disciples will often give-up something.  This is a good thing if only as a reminder that “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  (Matthew 4:4)

Yet, we also need to remember that God is as interested in what we have chosen to take-up as He is in what we’ve chosen to give-up.  There is as much for us in the “taking up our cross” as in the “denying one’s self.” (Please see Matthew 16:24.)

Let us strive to maintain balance in our discipleship!  – Luther

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