Tearfund Lent Devotional Day 1: Believing In Change

Believing in change

‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ (Matthew 3:2, ESV)

This is the third time in recent years that I have scrambled to make a change to our planned devotional content. Yet again, the world seems to have shifted.

In 2020, there was the pandemic. In 2022, the invasion of Ukraine. And now, a tragedy on an almost unthinkable scale in Turkey and Syria.

It wouldn’t be possible to summarise the turmoil of the last few years. But I don’t think it would be too hard to summarise how we are all feeling:

Tired.

It can be a weary thing, to live in such relentlessly tumultuous times.

But the seasons continue to turn, and we find ourselves arriving at Lent once more. It is a time to examine our spiritual lives – to lean over and look into that dark pool of weariness and see what might be held within.

Have the last few years changed the way we see the world? The way we see God?

Because, for me at least, it is certainly difficult to look at a world of war and broken earth and bodies being pulled from rubble and remain hopeful.

When John the Baptist was preparing the way for Jesus, his call that resounded around the wilderness was: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ (Matthew 3:2, ESV)

It is a call that Jesus himself repeated at the start of his own ministry (Matthew 4:17). The word ‘repent’ here is, in the original Greek, metanoeó. It literally means to change the way you think. To shift your mind, purpose or inner self.

Is change possible? Can our circumstances change? Can we ourselves change? Can this fragile and fearful world change?

Jesus believed in change. He called us to it. ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Or, to paraphrase: ‘Things don’t have to be this way; Spirit is here – God is on the move.’

In our weariness it can be all too tempting to say, ‘this is just the way things are’. Despair sees only closed doors, but faith is open to the possible.

This is why Tearfund believes practical support must go hand in hand with the spiritual. It is why we see Bible studies as a vital part of community development. And it is why, in the wake of conflict and disaster, our local partners provide trauma and mental health support.

There is much going on in the world that might bring us to despair. The challenge to us this Lent is to see things with a different and more daring vision. For the kingdom of heaven is at hand. A better world is possible, and is breaking through in countless ways every day.

This Lent, let us repent. Let us believe that things can be different. And let us re-commit ourselves to being part of that change.

Jesus, Saviour, Healer, Transformer – thank you that your kingdom is at hand. Keep us from despair; open our hearts to the possible. Help us to play our part in the transformation of this world. Amen.

Gideon Heugh

Gideon writes for Tearfund and is a poet and environmentalist