Lent 2015
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of Lent. With this article I want to introduce to you a few concepts to keep in mind throughout this season of Lent. First, I want to say that we keep in mind that Lent is not a game. I am sorry if that is offensive; I do not mean to insult anyone's intelligence, but what has come to my mind this past week is the potential for people to get caught up in what they are giving up instead of why they are giving something up. It is important to remember that we, as followers of Christ, should be living in a constant state of Lent. This period of time is set aside for deeper denial and reflection we normally don't enact in our life. God calls each of us to different levels of denial so it is pointless to compare what people give up. This brings me to my second point of this paragraph. Lent is not about what we are giving up, so much as it is about why are we giving something up. When Christ journeyed into the desert he didn't say to himself, "I'm giving up bread, maybe water, and possibly sun screen as well". No, Christ gave up himself. And isn't that what we are ultimately striving to achieve through Lent? We as Christ's followers are denying ourselves, not just to grow closer to God, but to bring glory to Him. The only way to bring glory to God is by denying our will.
Christ gave up his will, because he understood that our human will separates us from our Father. So, during this period of Lent we give up something that we know bars us from truly listening to God. Now when I say this I don't mean it bars us in a sinful fashion necessarily. It may or may not. But really it does bar us from truly listening to Him, because whatever we gave up becomes a temptation to us. If it did not hold us back from Him then it would not be a temptation. The fact that it is a temptation shows us that what we have given up has the power to lure us away from hearing His voice and performing his will. If you've been following my posts you'll know that temptation does not have to be a bad thing, in fact it is a necessity of our life.
God desires that we harness that temptation and use it to grow closer to Him. We cannot harness that temptation all by ourselves though, which is why we rely on the Holy Spirit to intercede on our behalf. This leads me into the paramount factor of freedom during Lent, but also our lives.
Most people think of freedom as having the ability to do whatever they please. This type of "freedom" is built on a reward system. I make a good choice; I get a gold star. I make a bad choice; I get a punishment. This is not, I repeat, not the mindset we should have when approaching Lent: If I do good now...be rewarded later on. I failed on the thing I gave up for Lent, now I feel like a failure. Christ did not have this mindset when he was tempted. Jesus knew that reward/punishment based freedom is simply slavery in disguise. Lent is a time of denial which ultimately leads to liberation. Christ denied himself, thus he triumphed. People may say, "Christ was fully God so he couldn't have given into his temptations anyway". This makes Christ sound like he does not have any freedom, whereas Christ understood, but more so exercised freedom better than we do.
Earlier I said "doing whatever you please freedom" is actually slavery. Here is what true freedom is: Comprehending that the right choice is the only choice to be made. Let's bring this back to Christ in the desert. When the Enemy told him to turn the stone into bread he was presenting Jesus with a "reward/punishment freedom". If Christ would have turned the stone into bread he would have been rewarded with nourishment, thus serving HIS desire not God's desire. If Christ would have rewarded himself he would have become a slave to himself, but he comprehended that it was not about serving himself, but about serving God's will. So the only choice to be made was doing God's perfect will thus enabling him to be truly free. This is a hard concept, and I still do not fully grasp it so if you have questions, I would love to talk about it with you. Let's try and apply this concept to you personally during Lent. Let us say you gave up soda for Lent. You come home, and you just so happen to be parched. Your temptation for that soda is just too much so you drink one. Now you have rewarded yourself, fulfilling your desire. Now, where you free to drink that soda? Not really, because your temptation ruled you, and now has enslaved you to your guilt of tripping up during Lent. Let's rework that scenario real quick. You're home and parched. Temptation begins welling up inside of you, but you remember you don't live on soda alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Through the Holy Spirit, you master your temptation, don't drink the soda, and exercised true freedom, allowing only your God to rule you. Hopefully this additional example clarifies what true freedom is all about.
This freedom we've been talking about does not apply only to what you're giving up in Lent. During Lent we may give up one item or practice, but if you want to get the most out of Lent you have to see the deeper meaning behind what you're giving up. Lent is not a fad and neither is what you're denying yourself. What we give up reaches into deeper parts of our lives, not just the surface area. Separate lessons can be learned from giving up one thing, and the lessons may not all have a surface connection with what you gave up. The underlying correlation is denial along with stewardship of self.
If you give up social media for Lent then ask God to help you become a better steward with the time that has now been freed up. If you gave up sugar then now is the perfect time to enact healthier substitutes. God shows each of us what to give up for Lent in the area He knows He needs to reach us the most. Through this time He wants to help us build servanthood with lasting effects. And when Lent does end, He gives us back what we gave up, because He knows we have become better stewards. Through your absence from social media God can pour into you wondrous revelations that you can later share, because you had that time away to listen to Him. Once forty days had passed for Christ the angels came and ministered to him...but Christ never stopped living in the spirit of Lent.
My dear brothers and sisters, during this time of Lent I pray you open your hearts to the understanding of God, that He may lead you deeper in this spiritual journey, that He may reveal to you true freedom, and that He may fashion you a new being that always lives in the Spirit of Lent. Always improve the present moment.
Christ gave up his will, because he understood that our human will separates us from our Father. So, during this period of Lent we give up something that we know bars us from truly listening to God. Now when I say this I don't mean it bars us in a sinful fashion necessarily. It may or may not. But really it does bar us from truly listening to Him, because whatever we gave up becomes a temptation to us. If it did not hold us back from Him then it would not be a temptation. The fact that it is a temptation shows us that what we have given up has the power to lure us away from hearing His voice and performing his will. If you've been following my posts you'll know that temptation does not have to be a bad thing, in fact it is a necessity of our life.
God desires that we harness that temptation and use it to grow closer to Him. We cannot harness that temptation all by ourselves though, which is why we rely on the Holy Spirit to intercede on our behalf. This leads me into the paramount factor of freedom during Lent, but also our lives.
Most people think of freedom as having the ability to do whatever they please. This type of "freedom" is built on a reward system. I make a good choice; I get a gold star. I make a bad choice; I get a punishment. This is not, I repeat, not the mindset we should have when approaching Lent: If I do good now...be rewarded later on. I failed on the thing I gave up for Lent, now I feel like a failure. Christ did not have this mindset when he was tempted. Jesus knew that reward/punishment based freedom is simply slavery in disguise. Lent is a time of denial which ultimately leads to liberation. Christ denied himself, thus he triumphed. People may say, "Christ was fully God so he couldn't have given into his temptations anyway". This makes Christ sound like he does not have any freedom, whereas Christ understood, but more so exercised freedom better than we do.
Earlier I said "doing whatever you please freedom" is actually slavery. Here is what true freedom is: Comprehending that the right choice is the only choice to be made. Let's bring this back to Christ in the desert. When the Enemy told him to turn the stone into bread he was presenting Jesus with a "reward/punishment freedom". If Christ would have turned the stone into bread he would have been rewarded with nourishment, thus serving HIS desire not God's desire. If Christ would have rewarded himself he would have become a slave to himself, but he comprehended that it was not about serving himself, but about serving God's will. So the only choice to be made was doing God's perfect will thus enabling him to be truly free. This is a hard concept, and I still do not fully grasp it so if you have questions, I would love to talk about it with you. Let's try and apply this concept to you personally during Lent. Let us say you gave up soda for Lent. You come home, and you just so happen to be parched. Your temptation for that soda is just too much so you drink one. Now you have rewarded yourself, fulfilling your desire. Now, where you free to drink that soda? Not really, because your temptation ruled you, and now has enslaved you to your guilt of tripping up during Lent. Let's rework that scenario real quick. You're home and parched. Temptation begins welling up inside of you, but you remember you don't live on soda alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Through the Holy Spirit, you master your temptation, don't drink the soda, and exercised true freedom, allowing only your God to rule you. Hopefully this additional example clarifies what true freedom is all about.
This freedom we've been talking about does not apply only to what you're giving up in Lent. During Lent we may give up one item or practice, but if you want to get the most out of Lent you have to see the deeper meaning behind what you're giving up. Lent is not a fad and neither is what you're denying yourself. What we give up reaches into deeper parts of our lives, not just the surface area. Separate lessons can be learned from giving up one thing, and the lessons may not all have a surface connection with what you gave up. The underlying correlation is denial along with stewardship of self.
If you give up social media for Lent then ask God to help you become a better steward with the time that has now been freed up. If you gave up sugar then now is the perfect time to enact healthier substitutes. God shows each of us what to give up for Lent in the area He knows He needs to reach us the most. Through this time He wants to help us build servanthood with lasting effects. And when Lent does end, He gives us back what we gave up, because He knows we have become better stewards. Through your absence from social media God can pour into you wondrous revelations that you can later share, because you had that time away to listen to Him. Once forty days had passed for Christ the angels came and ministered to him...but Christ never stopped living in the spirit of Lent.
My dear brothers and sisters, during this time of Lent I pray you open your hearts to the understanding of God, that He may lead you deeper in this spiritual journey, that He may reveal to you true freedom, and that He may fashion you a new being that always lives in the Spirit of Lent. Always improve the present moment.
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