A Lenten reflection and prayer guide to prepare our hearts and minds for Holy Week. Curated by The Park Forum.

John 14.1
[Jesus said,] “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”

Lenten Morning: Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled | by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Jesus was going to his last bitter agony, and to death itself, and yet he overflowed with sympathy for his followers. Had it been you or I, we should have asked for sympathy for ourselves. Our cry would have been, “Have pity upon me, O my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me!” But, instead of that, our Lord cast his own crushing sorrows into the background.

Jesus knew that he was about to be “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;” he knew that he should soon be in an agony through bearing “the chastisement of our peace;” but ere he plunged into the deep, he must needs dry the tears of those he loved so well, and therefore he said most touchingly, “Let not your heart be troubled.”

Though he knows that he is to be put to a shameful death, yet feels no fear, but bids his disciples to trust him implicitly. The black darkness of the awful midnight was beginning to surround him, yet how brave his word — “Believe also in me!”

While we see here his confidence as man, we also feel that this is not a speech which a mere man would ever have uttered had he been a good man; for no mere creature would thus match himself with God. That Jesus is a good man few question; that he must be God is therefore proven by these words. 

Would Jesus bid us trust in an arm of flesh? Is it not written—“Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm”? Yet the Holy Jesus says, “Ye believe in God, believe also in me.” This association of himself with God as the object of human confidence in the time of trouble, demonstrates a consciousness of his own divine power and Godhead; and it is a mystery in whose difficulties faith takes pleasure, to see in our Lord Jesus the faith of a man for himself, and the faithfulness of God for others.

Lenten Evening Prayer: The Daily Examen
1. Opening prayer of invitation: become aware of God’s presence (2 minutes).
2. Review the day with gratitude (3 minutes).
3. Pay attention to your emotions (3 minutes).
4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it (5 minutes).
5. Closing prayer: look toward tomorrow (2 minutes).

Today’s Readings
Exodus 35 (Listen – 4:31)
John 14 (Listen – 4:13)

Lenten Reflections
Part 2 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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