Lent

March 14, Day 8

Many people commemorate the 40 days before Easter by choosing to fast in some way. Some give up chocolate, caffeine or food in general. Others turn off media outlets or choose to wake up a bit earlier every morning, a sacrifice of sleep, to spend more time with God.

The big idea is to identify with Christ in His suffering and focus that time or desire more fully on Him. I didn’t grow up practicing this tradition, but I like the idea of having a tangible reminder that redirects me to Jesus.

Yesterday when I answered the question about what I didn’t want Jesus to ask me to give up, it revealed (again) an area of dependence in my life—sugar.

I move toward sugary snacks out of familiarity, routine, boredom and a desire for comfort. That might sound bizarre to some of you, but it’s true for me. Sugar influences my day more than God does at times. It’s a substance that I have to evaluate and guard against continually, or an unhealthy dependence begins again. I am in a season of unhealthy dependence right now.

For this 40-day fast, I could have chosen something easier, something that would have been inconvenient to give up for 40 days but would have ensured “success” at the end. But in light of the passage in Matthew 19:16-30, I couldn’t help but sense that I would have been only trying to look religious and in doing so might miss the presence of God with me. The young man in the Gospel of Matthew was calculating about his worship, and he walked away when a real sacrifice was required. When Jesus upped the ante and asked the young man for the things he depended on apart from God, the young man walked away, sad.

Read about how to do a technology fast and find other resources on fasting.

I do that. I give in to things like sugar because they don’t require anything from me. In the next 40 days, I want to bring those sin patterns to God. I want all facets of my life to bow to Him alone.

Should I fail to resist sugar’s hollow charms at some point over the next few weeks, I want to keep my error in perspective with these questions. Maybe they will be a help to you as well.

What is your hope for Easter Sunday? Do you want to celebrate how much self-control you have? Or, do you want to celebrate the fact that you have a great Savior who meets you in times of defeat?

https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/life-and-relationships/holidays/lent.html

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

4 Not so the wicked!
    They are like chaff
    that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Do A Social Media Detox By Jason Zook

Social Media Detox

 

From there, I closed my phone and moved to my laptop. I moved my mouse to my Bookmark Bar in Google Chrome and deleted the shortcuts to FB and Twitter (the only social sites in my toolbar). I typed my Facebook URL into the address bar and quickly navigated to my Settings, while opening another tab to Google “How to turn off all Facebook notifications.” Ten seconds later I had turned off email notifications. I closed those tabs and moved to Twitter. One click to Settings and another click later, email notifications were turned off for Twitter as well.

All notifications were turned off. All apps were removed. And I felt an immediate feeling of freedom living without social media.

The first day of my detox ended with a feeling of relief and freedom. I was relieved that I hadn’t caved and secretly checked one of my social accounts. And I had a sense of freedom from the shackles of notifications and rabbit holes of links, photos and feeds.

Just ten days in to my detox I started to feel like my attention span increasing and the length of time I could focus on one task was greatly improving.

Psalm 103

Psalm 103

Psalm 103 New International Version (NIV)

Psalm 103

Of David.

1 Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

6 The Lord works righteousness
    and justice for all the oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses,
    his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
    nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,
    so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
    he remembers that we are dust.
15 The life of mortals is like grass,
    they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
    and its place remembers it no more.
17 But from everlasting to everlasting
    the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
    and his righteousness with their children’s children—
18 with those who keep his covenant
    and remember to obey his precepts.

19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
    and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Praise the Lord, you his angels,
    you mighty ones who do his bidding,
    who obey his word.
21 Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
    you his servants who do his will.
22 Praise the Lord, all his works
    everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Every man must choose his world

Every man must choose his world.  If we who follow Christ, with all the facts before us and knowing what we are about, deliberately choose the Kingdom of God as our sphere of interest, I see no reason why anyone should object.  If we lose by it, the loss is our own; if we gain, we rob no one by so doing.  The “other world,” which is the object of this world’s disdain and the subject of the drunkard’s mocking song, is our carefully chosen goal and the object of our holiest longing.

Jim Cymbala

 

 

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

 

The Bible is a relation of facts, the truth of which must be tested. Life may go on all right for a while, when suddenly a bereavement comes, or some crisis; unrequited love or a new love, a disaster, a business collapse, or a shocking sin, and we turn up our Bibles again and God’s word comes straight home, and we say, “Why, I never saw that there before.”

from Shade of His Hand, 1223 L

James 3: 13-18

The Wisdom from Above

13 Who is wise and has understanding among you? He should show his works by good conduct with wisdom’s gentleness. 14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t brag and deny the truth. 15 Such wisdom does not come from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where envy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every kind of evil.

17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without favoritism and hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.

Psalm 92

 

Psalm 92[a]

A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.

1 It is good to praise the Lord
    and make music to your name, O Most High,
2 proclaiming your love in the morning
    and your faithfulness at night,
3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
    and the melody of the harp.

4 For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord;
    I sing for joy at what your hands have done.
5 How great are your works, Lord,
    how profound your thoughts!
6 Senseless people do not know,
    fools do not understand,
7 that though the wicked spring up like grass
    and all evildoers flourish,
    they will be destroyed forever.

8 But you, Lord, are forever exalted.

9 For surely your enemies, Lord,
    surely your enemies will perish;
    all evildoers will be scattered.
10 You have exalted my horn[b] like that of a wild ox;
    fine oils have been poured on me.
11 My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries;
    my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.

12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
    they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
13 planted in the house of the Lord,
    they will flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They will still bear fruit in old age,
    they will stay fresh and green,
15 proclaiming, “The Lord is upright;
    he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

Satan underestimated God

 

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

 

Ephesians 2:13, NIV

God is righteous and just. But God is also loving and merciful. He cannot be less than Himself. Satan, in his temptation of Adam and Eve and in his plan to defeat the purpose of God, failed to take into account the very character of God. He failed to realize one very important thing – how much God loved the man and woman He had created and the depths to which His grace would go in order to bring them back to Himself. It never entered Satan’s wicked, self-centered imagination that God would commit the fullness of His eternal, divine nature to bring man back into a right relationship with Himself. It never occurred to Satan, who ever seeks his own preeminence, that the Creator of the universe would lay down His own life in atonement for man’s sin. But that’s exactly what happened. The solution to the problem of sinfulness is the cross of Jesus Christ.

Blessings, Anne Graham Lotz