Will you give up ice cream?

Today is the first day of Lent, "Ash Wednesday." Ashes made from palm fronds from the previous year's celebration of Palm Sunday traditionally are used mark the forehead as a reminder of mortality – the whole ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ thing. That reminder was to encourage the discipline of fasting that would prepare Christians to receive the Word of God during the 40 days that lead up to the celebrations of Easter.

Can such ritual turn our hearts to the Lord?

We may not follow the traditions of Ash Wednesday in our church, but we would benefit by taking time each of these 40 days during Lent to remember the Cross of Christ. Lent is a great time to renew the practice of fasting. Fasting, in the most narrow meaning, is about abstaining from all food. We can fast without such deprivation. We can enter the joy of fasting by setting aside some pleasurable pursuit or special food. Why? We do it to remind ourselves that we are subject to the Spirit. Fasting can be an act of obedience offered in faith to God that opens us to a new experience of the Holy Spirit’s Presence!

In each of us is a genuine spirit-body connection! What we do in our physical body has an effect on our spiritual state. Let’s not be overly simplistic. Will we become amazingly devout Christians just because we don't eat ice cream during the 40 days of Lent? No, but if we choose to fast (give up to God) some pleasure as an act of worship; if we add to true worship to our devotion, we invite the Holy Spirit to act in us. If we fast and think that our small sacrifice earns God’s approval, we have missed the point entirely. Religious ritual, done for the purpose of impressing God and/or other people, is worse than useless; it is a expression of sinful pride. That is why Jesus urged us to practice spiritual disciplines like fasting, giving, and prayer without telling anyone. Such choices, because they are acts of faith, must be very personal. Jesus told us to keep our fasting a private matter!

Jesus said, "when you fast, don't make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, who try to look pale and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I assure you, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. Then no one will suspect you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in secret. And your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you." (Matthew 6:16-18 NLT) If we 'show off' or if we judge those who do not practice a discipline as we do, we rob the disciplines of any value. They become nothing more than the display of religion and empty traditions or worse, a means of making ourselves feel better than someone who does not share our conviction.

Will you give up ice cream for Lent? If you do, do it for the purpose of seeking the Lord. (I think we might be better served by giving up some TV time for prayer, meditation or reading Scripture.) Don’t do it just because I said to. Rather, pray about it. Ask the Lord if you need to discipline your body to provide freedom for the spirit. Here’s a word from the Word about living in the Spirit. Think deeply and prayerfully on the promise of this passage.

"My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? …

But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way." (Galatians 5:16-18, 22-23, The Message)

______________________________

I Will Offer Up My Life

I will offer up my life
In spirit and truth,
Pouring out the oil of love
As my worship to You.
In surrender I must give
My ev'ry part;
Lord, receive the sacrifice
Of a broken heart.

Jesus, what can I give,
What can I bring
To so faithful a friend,
To so loving a King?
Savior, what can be said,
What can be sung
As a praise of Your name
For the things You have done?

Oh, my words could not tell,
Not even in part,
Of the debt of love
That is owed by this
Thankful heart.

You deserve my every breath
For You've paid the great cost.
Giving up Your life to death,
Even death on a cross.

You took all my shame away,
There defeated my sin,
Opened up the gates of heaven,
And have beckoned me in.

Matt Redman
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