Lent and fasting

“The penitential season of Lent is a season of the Church year which commemorates the forty days Jesus fasted and prayed in the wilderness before he began his public ministry.”

  

The season of Lent is soon approaching and with Lent comes the question, do I give up something or do I add something and if so what? Lent is meant to be a time to grow closer to God yet is that actually what happens or do we just end up giving up something and forget the reason behind it? I know that in the past few years, I had decided to give up FaceBook for Lent since if you know me, then I am on FaceBook quiet a lot yet it seems to me that once I gave up FaceBook, I soon filled up the time with something else. Yes for a week or so, I may have used the time to read scripture and grow closer to God yet I always found myself forgetting why it is that we give up something or add something during the season of Lent.

As the above quote states, Lent is a time where we are supposed to remember the 40 days that Jesus fasted and prayed in the wilderness before he began his public ministry. That gets me to thinking, how often do we take time to fast and pray before we enter into ministry or start something new? How often do we take the time to seek God’s will and connect with Him before entering into ministry or even while we are in ministry? I know that before I entered into the ministry that I am apart of right now, I spent many days praying and seeking advice from others that had been my mentor or an influence and could help me discern what God has for me. I spent time regularly asking God what He wanted for me and where He was leading me and truly trying to connect and see what He saw. However, it seems to me that once we enter into ministry, we soon forget to take a step back and fast to connect with God. We see all the hurting, all the work that needs done, all the people that need help, our agendas, etc yet and we are non-stop.

We need to remember that Jesus fasted and prayed before publicly doing ministry and we need to follow His example. We need to learn to take a step back and fast and connect with God before we take the next step forward. The enemy wants us to be busy and only concentrated on what needs to be done rather than fasting and connecting with God but fasting is an important factor of the Christian walk. Typically, fasting is seen as going a certain amount of time without eating and only drinking water but fasting can be an act of taking a day without social media or something else but taking the time that we would typically be eating or being on social media to pray and to seek God and grow closer to Him.  

Fasting is something that I know that I need to work on and that when I do fast that I actually end up spending that time with God and in His word and praying rather than filling the time up with something else. Too often, I feel like we get too caught up in always doing things and being busy that we forget to slow down and connect with God. We forget what fasting is meant to be about and we can’t seem to quiet our minds. We have to be thinking about something all the time, we need to be busy, we need to be preparing for the next agenda item, etc but again, we need to realize that the enemy loves when we do that and it’s in times like that, that we need to fast and fast together so there is accountability. Scripture says, where 2 or more are gathered there He is also, so should we fast together and spend that time together in prayer and connecting with God, seeking His guidance and His plan for our lives, our next steps, the places we work, etc?

So again, I ask since it’s the Lent season, is there something that is consuming me that I need to fast from in order to connect with God and pray? Same for you, as the reader, is there something that you need to give up for 40 days during the Lent season? As Christians, we should be yearning to grow closer to God and to spend time with Him. So, do you have that yearning, do you spend time with God daily, and how can you change things so that you are fasting and praying during this Lent season? How would things be different, both in your personal life and in your work setting, if you started fasting this Lent season? How will you make sure that you keep on track with your fasting this Lent season and not fall back to old habits? Who will you tell?

Fasting should allow us to have total reliance on God, it should bring us closer to Him, it should be a time to be in prayer and seek His guidance and will, etc. It’s not about us, but it’s about God and becoming more Christ-like in the journey. What are you going to do?