Lent begins this week! Lent is a season on the Christian calendar where people connect to God through spiritual disciplines.
Imagine any hobby or sport or academics that you want to excel in. Anything requires discipline to improve, either by studying, practicing, eating healthy, even sleeping properly. What would you do to get closer to God? Studying the bible? Practice prayer, loving others or serving? Eating healthy content that feeds your heart and mind? Resting and “sabbathing” as he commands us? This is Lent!
Lent’s major spiritual discipline is abstinence, meaning giving up something, but it’s less about giving up something but rather taking up something else to devote that time and effort to God. It’s about putting God back on His throne of your life.
Here’s some tips on Lent
-Do pray and find out what God wants you to give up. Do make this a spiritual discipline of dependence on God rather than a pure act of willpower.
-Do take something up. Replace your “idol” with God. If you give up time wasters like youtube, replace it with hearing or seeing someone talk about God’s Word. If you give up social media and watching cat videos or celebrity news, take up finding out how to pray for your friends on a daily basis. If you give up your smart phone, take up a physical bible, or learn to worship on an instrument. 1 Thessalonians 1:9 describes how one turns away from idols and turns towards God. Don’t forget to turn to God!
-Do plan to have God to replace your idol. Don't replace your idol either with nothing or with something equally wasteful. Some commit to not watching YouTube, and replace it with Tiktok. This is NOT what Lent is about. Plan to replace it with bible reading, prayer, podcasts or even allowing yourself to videos of spiritual development or fellowship.
-Do something realistic rather than something too lofty. "I am going to eat only bread and water, not ever lust, speak only praises of God's goodness, high five every person, fix everyone's problems and leave no carbon footprint for the next 40 days.” Be realistic, maybe do only one of these ideas, but also AIM HIGH and don't sell yourself or the Lord short. Change only one thing at a time.
-Do aim to give up for the full 40 days, but also do expect to be tempted or even fail. You are human and your salvation does not depend on your fasting from something.
-Don't give up if you do fail and you're not an evil person for messing up. Pick up from where you fell off the wagon!
-Do it with friends who can help you along and keep you accountable, pray with you and have fun! Write on our discord channel what you’re doing and see if others will walk with you on the same Lent!
What can you fast or abstain from? Think of ACTIONS or ATTITUDES:
What actions can we fast from?
When we fast from something, it traditionally is something like food, and it can range from junk food to chocolate to meat to even solids, like Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness. But we can also fast from time wasters like tv, Netflix, internet, video games, social media like Snapchat, Discord, tiktok, Instragram, and youtube. I have teens fast from instant messaging which consumed a lot of his time and he chose to interact with people through talking.
What would you do if you decided to give up that which eats the most time (except sleeping and homework)?
-Give up salt or sugar or tasty things – When things taste different, it reminds me you to think about God.
-Give up on buying fast food – Give the money to something or someone who needs it
-Give up time wasters (smartphones, video games, websites, social media, hobbies or activity that isn’t productive) – Give your time to the Lord through service, reading or prayer.
-Give up chocolate or addicting food or addictive behavior like binge watching or video games – Break the Lordship of your life over addictions and give Lordship to Christ.
What attitudes can we fast from?
We can change the way we think which sometimes isn't healthy or God honoring and learn throughout Lent to change it to what we can see Jesus thinking or doing.
-Give up bitterness to take on thankfulness
-Give up procrastination – take up initiative
-Give up on foul language – take up blessing people
-Give up lust – take up praying to see people as God sees them
-Give up on complaining – focus on gratitude
-Give up on bitterness – focus on forgiveness
-Give up on worry – learn to trust in God
-Give up on hatred – Return good for evil
-Give up anger – Be patient
-Give up gossiping – Control your tongue and what you say
If you want to take up one of these, message me (Pastor Matt) and we can talk about what scripture passages motivate/instruct/empower you!
Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
Here’s the questions you need to answer for yourselves:
What can you give up to devote more time to the Lord?
How can you spend that time with God?
What happens after Lent? Do we revert back to our old ways?
They say it takes 6 weeks of repeated behavior to break or make a habit. That’s 42 days before you break or make. If you find that the Lord is honored by you giving up something completely, then good, do it.
If it was a fast to devote to the Lord the time and heart and prayer for a break through, then treat it as such. You are not a bad Christian for going back to your habit after Lent. But this can be an opportunity to change something in your life.