Sunday Worship: Lent 1: "Trusting God in the Long Wilderness"

This Sunday we begin our Lenten journey together in the wilderness with Israel in Numbers 21. As we walk with them along the “long way around,” we’ll recognize how easily impatience can reshape our memory of God’s faithfulness and thin our trust. We’ll see that the wilderness is not punishment, but formation — a place where God exposes what is harming us so that He can heal us. Just as Israel had to look at the image lifted up for their healing, we are invited to look honestly at our own sin and, ultimately, to look to Christ. This season is not about managing guilt; it’s about being made whole as we walk together toward Jerusalem. Our prayer is that we would not merely observe Lent, but truly enter it — allowing God to deepen our trust along the way.