Fasting Day 19 of 40 | Fourth Wednesday of Lent
“In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba.” 2 Kings 12:1
The biblical record of Joash tells us that good mentors spoke into his life, that he repaired God’s house, and that he reigned 40 years.
If we also find ourselves surrounded by disrepair, we do well to listen to Gregory of Nazianzus, who served as Archbishop of Constantinople and Doctor of the Church. “The next thing is to look to ourselves and polish our theological self to beauty like a statue. The first point to be considered is: – What is this great rivalry of speech and endless talking? What is this new disease of insatiability? Why have we tied our hands and armed our tongues? We do not praise either hospitality, or brotherly love, or conjugal affection, or virginity; nor do we admire liberality to the poor, or the chanting of Psalms, or nightlong vigils, or tears. We do not subdue the body by fasting or go forth to God by prayer; nor do we subject the worse to the better – I mean the dust to the spirit – as they would do who form a just judgment of our composite nature. We do not make our life a preparation for death, nor do we make ourselves masters of our passions.”
Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390) in Oration 27.7, trans. by Stephen Reynolds (Estate of Stephen Reynolds, 2011), p. 7.
We do Lent to polish ourselves and subdue our flesh. This positions us to rebuild God’s house where we serve and to write a new future!
God, polish me to rebuild Your house where I serve. Amen.
Journal on this: What do you want God to polish in your life? How is God’s house broken down where you serve?
Write a prayer of surrender to God. If God can use Joash, He might want to work through you.