Lenten Live Series 2026 #2 – Spiritual Formation
by Kathryn Clarke
Increase your awareness that God is in the room with you; remember his presence.
A. Ask the Holy Spirit to increase your awareness.
B. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how Jesus is disposed toward you or how he wants to impact you.
Trust comes in on foot and leaves on horseback.
Increase your trust in Jesus by reminding yourself that you trust in him, even while you may have trouble trusting people.
A. Tell Jesus you trust him.
B. Ask Jesus to increase your trust in him.
The truth is that God is in the room. You are in God’s presence. God can draw us further and further into the truth.
Be patient with your jumping mind; be playful.
Imagine there was a machine in the room that pulsed calm, peace, love, trust, balance, compassion, understanding… would you switch this machine on?
If you are involved in a pattern of negative behavior, you may not want Christ in the room. But he is there. Think of it as if you were stuck in a corn maze and couldn’t find your way out, but Jesus is in the maze with you and also looking at it from above. He has the way out. He is drawing you closer and closer to the exit. Be alert to his inspirations and trust that because it is not “judgment day,” it is “helping you get better day.”
Consider the Scripture passage: “Where are they? Has no one condemned you? …Go and sin no more.” (John, 8:10-11).
Try to do better and keep trying.
This exercise is about you. This is not time to focus on others, but time to focus on the fact that Christ is with you and that you trust him.
Christ provides a stream of steady, mature esteem for you.
We can refine our awareness by wondering how Christ is viewing a situation, and then asking him.
With God you might find:
- A sense of being loved.
- An awareness of the temporary nature of life.
- Remembering that the difficult moments pass.
- An awareness of the courage available to you.
- Remembering that later, after this moment, you will be glad you behaved well.
- Are you grateful for a good moment or a person? Christ will join you in thanking the Father.
- Are you feeling joy? Christ will become part of that.
- Do you feel his compassion? God’s compassion is a mature call to strength. He never says “poor you,” but always, “it will be okay.”
- Christ is never phony or inauthentic.
Being fully loved by God and becoming more and more aware of his presence does not make us immune to mistakes. We just become more aware of them.
We become comfortable with uncertainty about our behavior. If there is an omniscient presence in the room, and we know it is not us, we become less sure of ourselves, less certain about our opinions and analysis. We become more thoughtful and less prone to judging others, less arrogant.
In Heaven, everyone exists in the Spirit of the Trinity. We, too, have that presence around us, albeit behind a veil of understanding. Hence, our need for faith.
On Earth, the more we remember to notice God’s presence, the more active he can be for us.
“The more you trust, the more you trust.”
