Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him...Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
Mark 14:1,10-11
Lent is that special time of the year when each of us is called to see what is truly “in our hearts.” And to help us do that, we do as Jesus did: We go into the “wilderness” for 40 days; we pray, fast, and remind ourselves again to be faithful to what our true calling is: “The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”
Father, each time I long for the thing I’ve chosen to give up, I pray that You would allow that longing to remind me of the sacrifice Jesus made for me. That out of my small sacrifice, I would remember an infinite love and sacrifice I can’t even begin to comprehend…a love that drove Jesus to completely surrender His position, power, and authority to become a man and sacrifice His life to pay an eternal, moral debt I could never pay. May my heart be overwhelmed with gratitude by Your love in this season.