Living Like Jesus in Challenging Times
Press the Pause button and pray | Palm Sunday message | Holy Week 2025 | Jesus Christ | Christianity
Palm Sunday and Your Lenten Journey
Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
A blessed Palm Sunday to you, dear readers. We Jesus followers commemorate His entry into Jerusalem where the crowd waived palm fronds and praised Him as their king just as the Hebrew prophets had foretold. As those ancient words echoed in their minds, some in the crowd put their cloaks on the road in front of the donkey Jesus rode.
Zechariah 9:9 (BSB)
9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your King comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
A few days later, the crowd would cry out for His death, for the death of Emmanuel, God with us, for the death of the Son of God Whose true nature was revealed during His glorious Transfiguration on Mt. Hermon.
That death, as we know, led to His tremendous victory that sets us free.
Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Your Life
Changing Your Lenten Focus
This Sunday is the first day of Holy Week, or Passion Week. The focus of our Lenten journey sharpens as we now spend time reading about and meditating on Jesus’ journey toward the cross.
Our pastor has focused on these topics:
Refocusing our thoughts about Lent
Knowing who we are, and Whose we are
On Ash Wednesday, our pastor issued a challenge and gave us all this card:
Because of Jesus’ journey to, and triumphal entry into, Jerusalem and what He accomplished there, you and I can experience His victory for He also enters in triumph into our lives!
Fellow Jesus followers, you are saved by God’s grace through faith. You have been crucified with Him, adopted into God’s family, snatched out of the kingdom of darkness; and returned to God’s kingdom of light, love, hope, and freedom.
You and I can know who we are, and live out that knowledge in our daily lives, because of Whose we are. Therefore, we can change our focus from giving up things to giving ourselves over to God’s power in our lives and watch Him do amazing things despite what’s going on in the world around us.
Knowing Who We Are Because of Whose We Are
Our pastor challenged us to live each day as Jesus’ ambassadors in this lost world that desperately needs to see Jesus in us. We put the card on the refrigerator to remind us how to change our focus, live for Christ, and have Him live through us to reach others.
Pause for a moment and look at the card again. Feel free to download it to your device or to your computer.
During this season of Lent, we have looked at the card during some challenging times. We focused on giving up complaining, worrying, getting angry, gossiping…and we chose to put on Jesus, the full armor of God, instead.
Sometimes with much prayer!
We chose to express gratitude, to trust Him instead of worrying. We chose to forgive others, to focus on goodness and hope, and persevere (stand firm) in our faith.
And, Jesus saw us through each challenge, comforting us, guiding us, and giving us the wisdom we needed.
Your Turn
Remember the verse our pastor wanted us all to memorize during Lent?
1 John 3:1 (BSB)
1 Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
Have you memorized it yet? Need some help? Here’s a video to help you memorize:
Behold What Matter of Love - The Maranatha Singers [2 mins 3 sec]
Press Pause and Pray
During my Lenten journey, as I faced one challenge after another, the Lord gave me a simple rhyme I want to share with you:
When life’s challenges come your way,
press Pause and pray.
Dear readers, pray to your victorious King of kings and Lord of lords. Spend time in His presence.
Many times the circumstances, the challenges, may stay the same. However, Jesus can—and does—change how we view those challenges and walk through them. Jesus changes us to be more like Him.
Wait on Him.
Always remember that He loves you.
One day, you’ll be home with Him, so stand firm, family!
Maranatha, come (again) Lord Jesus.
Soli Deo Gloria!
If you’re a not-yet follower of Jesus Christ, please come along on this journey with us. You are welcome here.
And, I invite you to read my series on the book “What Does God Want?”.
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I saw that card before or right as Lent started and its been my Facebook profile ever since. I wish I was better about following it, but I'm trying. Pray 🙏 for me to stop complaining about my pain, and be stronger in my journey to get closer to God.
Keep up your good work!
Love the post and your thoughts. Downloaded the card and will be sharing it and focusing on it this week. But not just week but for weeks to come because Lent isn't just a season it's a way of life...giving up, surrendering to Jesus daily.