Introduction

Canticle of Redemption

 Psalm 130

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!

Lord, hear my voice!

Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!

If you should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be worshipped.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, in the Lord’s word I hope;

My soul waits for the Lord.

More than those who watch for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord!

For with the Lord there is steadfast love,

With the Lord is plenteous redemption.

And the Lord will redeem Israel

From all iniquities.

As we begin this Lenten seasonal devotional with the theme, “Toward Perfect Love of God”, we are reminded from our Wesleyan tradition that faith is not static and that often the journey of faith requires a conscious waiting for God.

As you go back to Psalm 130, pray rather than just read it. During these days before our great Easter celebrations, I hope that we each truly “wait for the Lord” and there while we are waiting we will find God responding on our everyday journey. The Christian does not wait passively for God, but with active listening for what God may have to say to us in conversations with loved ones, in prayer, in study of the Bible, and in the everyday task of living.

John Wesley never claimed that he reached perfect love of God. He saw that in the striving to love God that we come to grow in faith. May this Lenten journey be a time for us all to hear from God and to be transformed in our love of God and one another.

Grace and peace,

Your pastor,

 --Tim Lusk