Uncovering the Love of Jesus: A Lent Devotional

This year, Asheritah Ciuciu's devotional Uncovering the Love of Jesus is helping us focus, celebrate, and reflect throughout the Easter season, also called "lent."

Thoroughly grace-filled, Christ-honoring, and Biblical, the devotional provokes thought and praise for all the love Jesus showed us through His perfect life, His sacrifice, and His victory over sin and death.

Some things I appreciate about the devotional include:

• Focus on grace, not works; the gospel, not religious structure.
• Walks through stories and examples of Jesus' love throughout Scripture
• Call to sacrifice sinful attitudes and habits in order to love others, rather than giving up "stuff"
• Concise, creative, and adaptable format for families with or without kids, and individuals

Quotes I appreciated include:

• "We are called to love...not so they will apologize to us. Not so they will see how spiritual we are in loving them even though they've wronged us. But to love them simply so they will experience God's love anew."
• "Personal relationships with messy people is the way of love."
• "Jesus doesn't require steadfast faith to ensure His steadfast love."

If you'd like to marvel, treasure, and explore Jesus' remarkable love throughout the Easter season, I recommend this devotional.

I had read more than a hundred Christian books in my 50+ year life. This is one of the handful which had moved me to tears. A great devotional. Highly recommended!

p.s. Below please find some favorite passages of mine fyi.
The Samaritan woman’s only hope was to wait for the coming Messiah, the true prophet who followed Moses, who would set all things right. She was burdened by her past choices and trapped by her present circumstances. If only the Messiah would come. When Jesus asked her to call her husband, she admitted she had no husband, most likely feeling shame because of how often she’d already been married and now she was just living with a man. Jesus does not rush her for the answer. He doesn’t chastise her. He doesn’t belittle her. Instead, He does the unthinkable. Jesus reaches across every manmade boundary to quench her deepest longing…with Himself. And as if that weren’t enough, He honors this Samaritan woman by choosing her to be the first person to whom He reveals His identity as the Messiah: “I am he.” Pg44
“If you are willing, you can make me clean.” It’s not a request. It’s a statement of fact. This man had seen Jesus heal others, and he knew Jesus could do it. Pg47
Envy and love cannot dwell in the same heart, because one is self-promoting and the other is self-giving. Envy makes us feel sorry for ourselves; love compels us to give ourselves. Envy causes us to sacrifice other’s good; love causes us to sacrifice ourselves for others’ good. How has envy robbed you of the opportunity to love? Pg82
Good shepherd, I would be lost without You. Thank You for loving and serving me even though You deserve all my love and all my service. Forgive me for being envious of others who seem to have the things I want. Help me instead cling to You and find my joy and satisfaction in You alone. Make me a servant of those around me, and pour out Your blessings through me richly. Amen. Pg82
It’s Jesus’ love that compels Him to anger against those who abuse and misuse the helpless. His anger burned against the disciples when they tried to keep the little children from Him. His anger burned against the moneychangers who made a profit off of those who came to worship at the temple. His anger burned against the religious leaders who misled the people placed in their spiritual charge. The God of both the Old and the New Testament is the same God, made fully known in Jesus Christ, whose anger burns out of love. Pg131
The next time you’re tempted to respond sternly, consider giving yourself a time-out, stepping away from the situation for a few minutes to take a few breath and ask God to show you how you can reveal His character. Then go out and love that person as Jesus loved His disciples. Pg145
Jesus lovingly shatters our illusions of power and control, and reveals the fear we each cover up inside. Will we choose self-preservation or will we throw ourselves on the mercy of Jesus? Pg185
What then kept Jesus on the cross?...Every blow He didn’t reciprocate was love…every moment He stood naked and mocked, every step toward Golgotha, every gasping breath, every nanosecond from the kiss in the garden to the cessation of His heartbeat…love. Pg201

This is a practical devotional that doesn’t feel like a chore to read during the Lent season. Even though I fell behind on some of the days, it was easy to catch up since the sections are so short.

I like the format and the explanations of the Bible passages. I will be doing this again next year!!

I never really got into the “LENT” aspect of my faith journey. And, I’m still not sure what it is about.

But, I do know that this little devotional is a helpful guide. Not only does the author explain Lent and why it should be observed; this is divided into weeks and days to help guide individuals and families through it with activities, prayers, challenges, and further reading.

It is small and compact. Easy to keep on a bedside table, desk, or toss in a bag for travel.

Strong and sturdy, it can withstand repeated readings.

Makes a great gift as well.

"Uncovering the Love of Jesus: A Lent Devotional" by Asheritah Ciuciu makes me look forward to Lent. The book is beautifully presented. The entries are thoughtful and encouraging as well as focused lessons. This book would make a wonderful gift to one self or another. I can't wait to break this out again for upcoming Lent.

The is book beautifully written and added a tenderness to my Lent devotions especially through such a hard season because of the pandemic. Asheritah Ciuciu has a sweet way with the precious stories of Jesus.

I am so grateful that I had a chance to read this devotional. While designed for the season leading up to Easter, this book can be read at anytime due to the focus on the gospels. The daily readings are manageable and include short prayers. I appreciated the thought provoking reflections and the practical application questions. The book contains weekly family activity ideas and bonus material is available online. I enjoyed all seven weeks. The devotional is refreshing without being overwhelming. I plan to use it again. I was given a copy of this book by the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Uncovering the Love of Jesus is a Lent devotional by writer and speaker Asheritah Ciuciu. From my understanding, Lent is a tradition that has generally been observed by the Catholic church. In recent years, I have seen a growing number of protestants participating in Lent and I've been interested in learning more about it. Uncovering the Love of Jesus helps readers understand the history of Lent as well as its purpose. In the introduction to the book, Asheritah wrote, "Despite the resurgence of interest in rituals and traditions among evangelical millenials, Lent is not new, nor does it belong to any particular denomination. Historical records reveal the church has been observing a period of fasting and preparation before Resurrection Sunday since the time of the apostles, though it wasn't formalized as a universal practice until the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325," (pg.10). The daily devotionals begin with multiple Bible verses and a section titled Read the Story that includes a Scripture reference for the biblical text from which the devotional content is derived. I really enjoyed and am deeply grateful for this aspect of the book because unlike many devotionals, Uncovering the Love of Jesus actually encourages readers to open their Bibles and read them. Another aspect of Uncovering the Love of Jesus that really encouraged my heart is the book's emphasis on God's character which is clearly expressed in the titles for the devotions as well as their content. Some of these titles include: Jesus Drives Out Fear, Jesus Seeks the Lost, and Jesus Offers Hope. This devotional is faithful in pointing readers to who Jesus is according to the Bible and I really enjoyed it! As part of the book's introduction, Asheritah wrote, "I pray you will see and savor Jesus in a fresh way in the Gospels and in your life, and that your love for Him would 'abound' more and more in knowledge and depth of insight (Phil. 1:9), that He would become more precious to you, and that you would find yourself utterly enraptured with Him in a way that compels you to give of yourself toward others," (pg.13). This is a devotional that one can read through individually or together with family members. There are activities for families to do each week leading up to Easter that correspond with the daily readings. The activities follow the same outline and include prayer, Scripture reading, discussion questions, and a hymn for families to sing together. I look forward to doing these activities with my children when they are older. I enjoyed Uncovering the Love of Jesus and highly recommend it! I received Uncovering the Love of Jesus compliments of Moody Publishers in exchange for my honest review.

Coming into the celebration of Lent next week with Ash Wednesday, we will be reading Uncovering the Love of Jesus: A Lent Devotional around our dining room table. Asheritah Ciuciu brings the observance of Lent into everyday life with daily devotions and suggestions for fun family activities and celebrations.

The love Jesus put on display was characterized by sacrifice, the embodiment of a selfless my-life-for-yours. Viewed through this lens, Lent becomes a participation in sacrificial love. The question, “What should I give up for Lent?” is no longer an “equation of earning; it’s a response of gratefuless.” (15) We don’t give up chocolate or Netflix or social media to earn more of God’s love or favor. God’s love is already given in full measure.

What if, instead, we all entered into our Lenten celebration with the question, “Who is God calling me to love?”

Many thanks to Moody Publishing for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which, of course, is offered freely and with honesty.