Thursday, March 19
Read: Psalm 130; Ezekiel 1:1-3, 2:8-3:3; Revelation 10:1-11
Today, we have an invitation to remember that Lent is a season that invites us into silence, repentance, and honest self-examination. It is a journey away from surface-level faith and into the depths of our dependence on God. Psalm 130 speaks to this posture: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.” The psalmist cries from a place of need. Lent begins there.
In our passages from Ezekiel 2–3 and Revelation 10, God gives His word to the prophet in a striking form: not as a message to be delivered immediately, but as a scroll to be eaten! Before Ezekiel is sent to speak and before John is told to prophesy again, each is commanded to receive the word fully, to take it into themselves so that it might shape them from the inside out.
To “eat the scroll” is more than just hearing or studying God’s word. It is to receive it so deeply that it becomes part of who we are. Lent presses this question on us: Do we skim the surface of God’s truth, or do we let it nourish, confront, and transform us?
John’s experience in Revelation adds another layer to this truth. The scroll is sweet as honey in his mouth, yet bitter in his stomach. God’s word is indeed sweet! It proclaims forgiveness, faithfulness, and hope. And yet the word is also bitter, because it exposes our sin, challenges our loyalties, and calls us to costly obedience. Lent is the season that refuses to rush past this bitterness. It teaches us that repentance is not a detour from grace, but the path through which grace does its deepest work.
Even still, bitterness is not the final word. Those who eat the scroll are not left in silence. They are sent. God’s word, once internalized, becomes a word to be lived and spoken in the world. But it can only be spoken truthfully if it has first been received humbly.
Lent trains us to hunger for God’s presence, truth, and mercy. It teaches us to wait, as the psalmist waits, “more than watchmen for the morning.” As we move through this season of waiting and fasting, we are reminded that we do not live by our own wisdom or strength, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
This Lent, may we not merely hear God’s word, but eat it! May we receive it in sweetness and bitterness alike, trusting that God is at work in the depths. Trusting that he is forming us into people who wait, who are nourished, and who are sent.
Prayer: Merciful God, as we journey through Lent, teach us to hunger for Your word and to receive it fully, both the sweet and the bitter. Let it shape us and form us into faithful witnesses of Your redeeming love. Amen.
Mr. Dillon Bryars ’25 is a candidate for ministry in the Global Methodist Church, currently pursuing a Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary.
