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  Welcome to the Fourth Week of Lent 2026 Prayers & Ponderings page!  Here you will find the resources for your weekly prayers and reflections - Weekly Prayer & Pondering Guide and Small Group Discussion Notes.

  If you are more of a visual learner, a video version of the Prayer & Pondering Guide is right here!  You can pause the video when you need more time to read, pray, or ponder.  Also, in case you wish to have the background music continue playing during your moments of prayer and pondering, the video guide will play 4 times so you will have the opportunity to catch up when you are ready to continue.  Here is the fourth installment:

NOTE: On the next to the last slide, disregard the date of "March 5th" and reference to "Week 2". Those two pieces of information were not updated.  The material today is for Week 4 as published today, March 19th.

  For those who rather have a continual flow of the Prayer & Pondering Guide, here it is:

Because of the Love of God!

  God invites you to come to Him, The “Destination” you need, and He will transform you, NO MATTER Who you are, into someone Who desires Him, and it is ALL ABOUT LOVE – His Love for You and Your Love for Him!

  The relationship you have with God is FOUNDED on His Love for you!

  During your initial period of pausing, pondering, and praying, think about the depth and extent of God’s love for you and THANK HIM!  If you want some fodder for your thoughts, here are 4 texts upon which you can reflect:

PAUSE, PRAY, PONDER

  In Paul’s words to the Ephesians, he prays that the Ephesians will come to understand this love from God on a deeper level:

… And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.        ~ Ephesians 3:17-19

  In SOOO MANY ways, God’s love is beyond our comprehension.  However, since God lives IN us through the Holy Spirit, He can and will teach us more about the extent of His love.  Spend some moments pondering and praying that the Holy Spirit will work in you to “answer” Paul’s prayer in your life … to be “rooted and established in love, … have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

PAUSE, PRAY, PONDER

  Finally, certainly not as an exhaustive consideration of God’s love but at least within our context of Lent this year, God’s love is poured toward and into our lives so that we can be channels of His Love to the world and thereby, loving God, Himself; such a life is not always easy and at times can be outright difficult!  Nonetheless, Moses shared with Israel that loving God and obeying His commands (including loving others) is not too difficult, nor inaccessible, nor farfetched. Remember these words Moses spoke to Israel:

  11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. … the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. ...

  15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws …

   …For the Lord is your life …       

~ Deuteronomy 30:11-20 (Portions)

This latter reality is KEY – “For the Lord is your life”!  However, how often do we truly rely upon the Lord being our life?

  Spend the last moments of your pause time to ask the Lord if there is a particular area in which you are struggling to “live with His ease” in loving Him through following His way(s). REMEMBER, He is loving you through it all and wants to lead you in His paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake!

PAUSE, PRAY, PONDER

   After you are done with your time of pause and prayer, you can continue to engage some further reflective thought or possibly, some e-discussion by using the Small Group Discussion Guide that follows. If you want to have some e-chat about this topic and what God might be revealing to you, feel free to reach out to Terry via email @ tfnaz1@gmail.com.

Ministries
The Seasons of The Church
Because of the Love of God!

  God invites you to come to Him, The “Destination” you need, and He will transform you, NO MATTER Who you are, into someone Who desires Him, and it is ALL ABOUT LOVE – His Love for You and Your Love for Him!

  The relationship you have with God is FOUNDED on His Love for you!  In regards to God’s love for you:

  1. What makes God’s love the most exciting?

 

  1. What makes God’s love the most difficult to grasp for you?

 

  1. Beyond something that may make God’s love difficult to grasp, is there anything about God’s love that bewilders you?

 

  Within the context of Ephesians 3:17-19, it appears that God’s love is wide, long, high, and deep.

… And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.        ~ Ephesians 3:17-19

  1. Are there any insights or experiences that God has given you about these extents of His love for you and/or for others?

 

  1. Is there a particular aspect of God’s love or practice that you want/need God to teach you more about the extent of His love?

 

  Considering Moses words to Israel in Deuteronomy 30:11-20:

  1. Why do you think God would have Moses say that this life of being in relationship with God is “not too difficult”?

 

  1. Why is it difficult to follow anyone’s commands and be obedient?

 

  1. What does it mean for the Lord to “be your life”?

 

  We often think of 1 Corinthians 13 as being the ultimate definition of love.  If that is so, Romans 12:9-13:10 might be the practical litany of what the “ultimate definition of love” looks like in everyday living.

1. Is this litany “easy”?

 

2. What challenges you the most?

 

3. How can it be “easier”?

 

 

Terry's Notes:

  The phrase "For the love of God" (literally, “for God’s Love”) most often smells of the NEGATIVE as it is usually expressed when someone does something that frustrates you and you might say, “For the love of God, why in the world would you say/do something like that?” or someone cuts you off at an intersection, you might yell, “For the love of God, what are you doing?” or when someone continues to pound a point that you have understood, “For the love of God, I’ve got it already.”   One of my questions is what does God’s Love have to do with extreme exasperation, impatience, frustration, or a plea for someone to stop their irritating words or behavior?

  Perhaps, as I asked on Sunday, this misaligned usage may be representative as to how and why we do not understand God’s love and have taken it too lightly or view it as a judgmental action toward us rather than an act toward us and for us … to lift us … to deliver us … to offer us hope, future, and LIFE.

  In actuality, this phrase is believed to have originated during the Middle English Period (1100 – 1500) and likely referred to doing something for the sake of God's love (something good or positive) or a plea for mercy, such as asking someone to offer mercry for the sake of God’s love or asking/seeking forgiveness for the sake of God’s love.  However, through the centuries, the phrase became offensive by transitioning from a genuine plea into a "watered-down, socially acceptable substitute for harsher blasphemous oaths. Historically considered taking the Lord's name in vain, it is now viewed as disrespectful because it reduces God’s unconditional love to an exclamation of mundane frustration, impatience, or annoyance" … and friends, that is NOT GOD”S LOVE!  (NOTE:  I am unable to find the source of this quotation; lesson learned - note the source before proceeding!)

   Watch these two videos to get a little better grasp of love in the Old Testament and particularly God's love.

 

  In the light of these more extensive explanations of love, we can perhaps see the depth of Paul's words to the Romans: 

  • “If God is for us, Who can be against us …” (Romans 8:31)
  • “There is therefore, now no condemnation for those Who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)
  • “… (nothing) will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39)

and as John wrote: "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world thru him!" (John 3:17)

  We saw this love play out through the texts and messages on our previous 2 Sundays, March 1st and 8th.  On those Sundays, I shared that God’s desire for you is to have a relationship with Him … AND… He will go to GREAT LENGTHS to make that happen … EVEN WHEN You are REBELLIOUS and DISOBENDIENT … choosing other people & things & life actions ABOVE HIM .. INSTEAD of HIM! … He will take His loving action SOOOO  far that He will TRANSFORM THE CENTER of who you are into a foundation that hungers for Him, wants Him … LOVES HIM!

  Our text for March 15th (Deuteronomy 30:11-20) again displays this love of God and this time, His Love sets before God's people the choice to follow, engage, and participate in the life He wishes for them (and us). Notice how Moses concludes his thoughts:

For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.    ~Deuteronomy 30:20b

As I said then, I type now: THAT’s GOSPEL!  It is the Lord Who is doing this work within them to love Him in return of His love for them, to obey Him, and follow His commands.  This work of God within His people is just like in Jeremiah 32:26-41 when God promised, even in the midst of all of Judah's rebellion and idolatrous living, He will GIVE them singleness of heart. That is God’s transofmraitonal redemption ... COMPLETE MERCY & GRACE! As Paul penned:

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.           ~ Ephesians 2

and then, Paul adds:

10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.                                                                        ~ Ephesians 2

  The love God pours INTO us is not meant to remain there. His love is meant to FLOW THROUGH us, not just back to Him but for Him to others.

  As Tim Mackey, the narrator in the videos states, at least loosely:

God doesn’t love because we deserve it or earn it but because it originates from His own character. He loves because He Loves … His love is everlasting. Thre is no end to His love because it has no beginning. It simpley IS.  It is an ETERNAL REALITY.  It is not a duty. It is is a genuine affection toward others. ... But God’s love is not just an affection, ,a feeling. It is also an action.  It is something God chooses to do.  So, His love is not just a sentiment, it isomething God does.

Therefore, Israel is called to RESPOND to God’s love by showing love in return … thru action … These actions are centered around love. If they do not do them, then, they actually do not love God.

  As we show our love for God by how we treat the people around us … DOING for them, we are a part of the flow of God's love because such love is rooted in His love for us!

We love because He first loved us.                      ~ 1 John 4:19

  Truthfully, NONE OF THIS kind of love is easy but God promised that it would not be dfficult, inaccessible, or hidden.  So, when the Romans 12 & 13 life becomes HARD to live, we must all the more rest in the Lord being our life and having our life (and love) hidden in (and flowing from) Christ with God (Colossians 3:1-3).