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Dear Friends,
Once again we are in the season of Lent.
What does the season mean to you?
What sort of ideas does it conjure up in your mind?
For many, it is associated with giving something up – to kick that unwanted habit, to go on that long-intended diet, or deny oneself those unnecessary extra luxuries. But if we do these things we really need to understand why we are doing them.
Lent is a forty-day season of preparation for Easter.
Lent began on Ash Wednesday, which this year was on the 5th March.
We could ask ourselves, why 40 days.
Just as Jesus fasted and was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days, so Lent is our time of fasting, prayer and repentance.
Lent is not referred to in the scriptures, but it has been a custom which Christians have practiced for most of the last two thousand years.
In many languages the word ‘Lent’ actually means ‘fast’.
This is where the custom of giving up something for Lent originated.
However, just to confuse things, Lent is actually 46 days rather than 40 days. Why?
The 40 days of Lent are supposed to be days of fasting, which means discipline and self-restraint.
But Sunday, the Lord’s Day, should never be a day of fasting, but a day of celebration!
So each Sunday we can suspend our Lenten disciplines and celebrate.
The focus of Lent was always threefold:
- It was a time to prepare new converts for baptism through
intensive classes and instruction.
- It was a time for long-standing Christians to review their
lives and renew their commitment to Jesus Christ.
- It was a time for back-sliders to be restored to the faith.
In every case it was a time for a serious, disciplined self-examination, a time spent in intensive prayer and repentance before the cross of Calvary.
So Lent is a time to examine ourselves carefully, to perhaps give our in-most thoughts a spring clean.
Lent is about being determined to follow Christ more faithfully.
It might mean more disciplined devotion, perhaps more practical service or more effective witnessing.
It might mean a commitment to attend the organised Lent Studies in our Churches.
Whatever it is, it is more than giving something up.
It is about giving something back to the one who gave us His all.
Consider today what Christ has done for YOU, then ask yourself, what can you do for Him, and use Lent as an opportunity to respond.
Every blessing,
Rev. Diane Hicks
Letter from our Minister
Rev. Diane Hicks
