Sunday 22 March 2026

If you have been following our Lenten reading plan, you will realise that we are now in the final stretch, drawing close to the three central events of our faith: Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.

So, I encourage you: keep pressing on with your Lenten journey

Like a mountain climb, you are nearing the summit.

“You’ve come a long way to get here. I can see the strain in your steps, the air is thinner now, your legs are heavier, and every part of you wants to stop. But this is what we expected near the summit. Don’t look back, fix your eyes on the peak. Just take the next step… and then another. You’re closer than you think.”

This week, we remember Jesus in Gethsemane, where He shows us what that next step looks like. He goes to pray in solitude, drawing close to the Father. When He returns to the disciples, He finds them asleep, no encouragement, no shared burden. What torment and disappointment he must have felt.

He goes back to the father a second time to pray. Again, He returns, and again, they are asleep.

A third time, He withdraws to pray, surrendering fully to His father’s will: “not my will, but Yours.”

Then He comes back to the disciples with clarity and resolve, ready to move toward His ultimate purpose, the cross.

What was wrestled through in prayer becomes strength for action.

And for us, in this final stretch toward Easter, the call is the same:

Keep returning to God. In every moment of weakness, in every step that feels heavy, surrender again. For it is in that place of surrender that God prepares us to walk faithfully forward.

So, church family stay with Jesus through these final steps of the reading plan. For it is here, in the closing stretch, that faith is refined, and hearts are prepared to truly encounter the power and hope of Easter.