Email subscribers will find it easier to access these weekly resources directly on the website, where readings are given in full along with additional video and music resources.
You can find the complete ENCOUNTERING GRACE resource for Lent 2026 here.
Reflections for Fridays in Lent
Friday 20th February
Friday 27th February
Friday 6th March
Friday 13th March
Friday 20th March
Friday 27th March
Encountering Insiders
Take five deep breaths and check-in with how you are feeling in body, mind and spirit. Take five more deep breaths and ask God to abide with you this Lent, and especially in this time today you have set aside for devotions.
In John 14, trying to answer the anxious questions of the disciples after the Last Supper, Jesus declares, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Sit gently with this idea for a few moments. And then give thanks repeating quietly, “You are my way. You are my truth. You are my life”.
On Fridays, we listen in on the covert visit that Nicodemus made to Jesus in John 3.
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’
Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’
Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’
Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’
Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’
Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’
- Remember that this is night-time in the middle east of the first century. Imagine the darkness, the shadows, the sounds and the scents.
- What is Jesus inviting Nicodemus to understand?
- What images that Nicodemus is familiar with does Jesus draw on to help Nicodemus think afresh?
- What emotions is Nicodemus struggling with when he says, ‘How can these things be?’ Do you find the same struggles in your faith relationship?
- Which verses in this reading are familiar to you? How far do they keep their meaning reading them in the context of this conversation?
- This Lent, as we take the pilgrimage road towards Easter, how much do you feel at the centre of things and how much do you feel on the margins?
You might like to say the Lord’s Prayer and use this collect:
Holy God, whose wild Spirit’s breath defies our frozen idols: take the night-time of our fear and make it a welcoming womb for us and all the world; through Jesus Christ in whom we are born anew. Amen
This is one of the songs that we use with our iSingPOP families.
Close this time with a moment of quiet and stillness, recalling
I am the way,
the truth,
and the life
Sit gently with this idea for a few moments.
And then give thanks repeating quietly
“You are my way.
You are my truth.
You are my life”.