During this Easter season, we have been renewed in Christ. We have dug deep into ourselves and are now ready to continue carrying on the mission of preaching His Gospel to all peoples. While Lent was a good time to give things up or add in extra sacrifices and times of prayer, we can continue deepening our faith and relationship with Jesus with new Easter resolutions.
But isn’t Lent supposed to be the time of renewal? Yes, and it is, but more in a refiner’s fire sort of way. Before Jesus could rise, He first had to endure suffering. But after His forty days in the desert, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit…” (Luke 4:14) and He began His work of proclaiming the Gospel of God.
After His passion, death and glorious resurrection, Jesus’ wounds had been healed and He had been “made new.” Easter, then, is when we get to see the result of our refining; we see how we have been made new through Christ. If we gave our all during Lent and allowed God to melt us, mold us and cleanse out our impurities, we are now ready to rise, pick up our mats and continue following Him.
And so, while Lent is now over and we might return to eating a few more pieces of chocolate or watching more TV again, it isn’t time to flop back on the couch and let our souls weaken again. It is time to let the Easter joy permeate our souls and lift us up; a time to use our newly-restored grace to do what the disciples did after Jesus rose and ascended to heaven.
They “went forth and preached [the gospel] everywhere…” (Mark 16:20). If you were able to develop some good new habits or add in some extra prayer times during Lent that’s great. Even if we didn’t quite get there, now is the time to sit down and designate our Easter resolutions. How will we let the excitement of Easter propel us into an even deeper and more joyful relationship with Christ? How will we keep our refined souls clean and pure? How will we share this joy of Christ with others?
