Lent

I was listening to the radio the other day and they had an advert for a Lent challenge, where they would txt you Words of Christ every day for Lent.
It crossed my mind to give up Facebook for Lent... (but then - I probably don't have that much self control :S!!)

The other thing I thought is - why Lent? I mean, I know I know, it's Easter at the end etc - but surely if I want to give something up to focus more on prayer and Christ, I can do that anytime right? I should be reading my Bible and the words of Christ every day. I should be a living example of His love EVERY DAY, not just at Lent.

And the Bible says that prayer and fasting should be done in secret... that God sees in secret and rewards openly. In the Bible, it's the religious zealouts, the Pharisees who pray and fast openly... surely that's proving man's strength not Christs.

Paul says in the New Testament that it is easy to give ones life for a friend, but hard to give your life for an enemy... not exactly the same, but this principle - it's easy to do something (like giving up Facebook, Chocolate, Tea, Alcohol...) when everyone knows about it and is egging you on... But to do something in secret? and not just to do it for doing it's sake, but (as I was hearing on UCB the other day) to REPLACE the time we would have spent doing this thing, with Christ and reading more of the Bible and praying...

So here's my challenge (to myself as well as you...!) give up something... in July. Or September. Or November. Or anytime! Don't tell anyone you're doing it. And the time you would have spent on it... spend it in prayer :) xx