What if Lent Could Rekindle Your Faith? Exploring the Kerygma
Life can take us on unexpected paths, and sometimes our faith journey can feel like it’s taken a detour. If you’ve found yourself distant from your faith, or if you’re simply curious about exploring it again, this Lenten season offers a gentle invitation to reconnect. These daily reflections focus on the Kerygma, the core message of Christianity – a message of love, hope, and new beginnings. We’ll be exploring eight key “Acts” of God’s story, from creation to our present call to partnership with Him. There’s no pressure, no judgment, just an invitation to consider a different perspective and perhaps rediscover a connection you thought was lost.
Act 2: Paradise and Choice – The Temptation and the Question of Trust
Theme
Humanity, created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), is presented with a beautiful choice: to walk with Him in the Garden of Eden. This isn’t a world of forced obedience, but a world where we are free to choose love (Genesis 2:16-17). Sadly, we choose to enter “the Devil’s domain” succumbing to temptation (Genesis 3). The effects are devastating – broken fellowship with God, shame, and sin entering the world.
Genesis 3:1-5
Now, the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals of the field that the LORD God had made. He asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows 1 that the moment you eat 2 it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, who know what is good and what is bad.”
Reflection
In this passage, we witness the serpent’s insidious attempt to undermine God’s invitation. The serpent’s question, “Did God really tell you…?” is not merely a request for information but a subtle challenge to God’s integrity. It sows the seed of doubt, suggesting that God’s commands are restrictive and that He is withholding something good. This act reveals a fundamental aspect of God’s character: He gives us free will, even the freedom to doubt and reject Him. Yet, it also exposes the serpent’s strategy of distortion, twisting God’s loving guidance into a picture of tyranny. God’s invitation is one of love and protection, but the serpent paints it as a limitation. As we journey through Lent, this passage reminds us that the invitation to intimacy with God requires trust. We must choose to believe in His goodness, even when doubt whispers in our ears. This passage invites us to examine the places where we question God’s motives and to reaffirm our trust in His loving invitation to a life of communion.
Prayer
Loving Father, in the midst of temptations and doubts, help me to hear Your voice of truth. Strengthen my faith, that I may trust in Your goodness and embrace Your invitation to a life of love. Open my heart to recognize the serpent’s deceptions, and grant me the grace to choose You above all else. Amen.
Action
Take a moment to reflect on a time when you doubted God’s goodness. Write down the doubt, and then write down a truth from scripture that counters that doubt. Offer this reflection to God, asking for renewed trust.
The Kerygma
When Time Allows Reflect on the Posts in Library and Musings
Sharing
Jesus last words on Earth were to his disciples, can be found in Matthew Chap 28 when Jesus told his disciples, “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Jesus calls all of us to share in his redemptive mission here on Earth. I would ask you to share this Scripture reflection with your family, your friends and your acquaintances, and then share it with a couple of individuals that you may may not be comfortable sharing with, keeping in mind always the words of Jesus, And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age
Author was assisted by AI in the drafting of this Post