Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit,
returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being
tempted for forty days by the devil. And
in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was
hungry.
Luke 4:1-2
The number 40
is a special number in the Bible. It
signifies preparation for something special:
·
The rain lasted for 40 days in the great flood (Genesis
chapter 7)
·
Moses stayed on the
Mount Sinai 40 days (Exodus 24:18)
·
Jonah gave the people of
Nineveh 40 days to repent (Jonah
3:4)
·
And, before
starting His ministry, Jesus spent 40
days in the desert fasting and praying (Matthew 4:2)
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of
Lent. Traditionally, Christians have
seen the 40 days of Lent as an opportunity to parallel Jesus’ 40 days in the
desert. Jesus used this time to prepare
for His ministry, and ultimately His death on a cross, by fasting and
praying. As a tangible way of
experiencing Jesus’ 40 days in the desert, many Christians choose to fast
during Lent, as a way of preparing to rejoice at the resurrection of Jesus
Christ on Easter.
In the
Western church, we skip over Sundays when we calculate the length of Lent
because Sundays commemorate the Resurrection, and are therefore a time of celebration. But this is entirely up to you! Remember, this isn’t a time of suffering for
the sake of suffering. This is a time of
sacrificing our own wants
and desires to show God how desperate we are for more of
Him in our lives. This is a time of declaring our faith that
God will sustain us.
Lent is a time of reflection, discipline, and surrender.
Our team will be fasting over the next 40
days. Fasting is going without food (either
all food, certain types of food, or certain meals) for a defined period of time
with the purpose of experiencing more of God’s grace. It doesn’t matter what
you give up, but that you choose to sacrifice something you enjoy for a period
of time as a testament to the scripture:
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
Luke 4:4
We would like to invite you all to join us in our
fast. This is a time of pressing in deeper to God, of spending more time with Him, of getting to know ourselves better, and of coming to a place of
complete and total
surrender. We are hungry for God and we want more of Him.
My church back home has presented an additional
challenge to its body, and I think it is a great idea. In addition to giving up some sort of food, I
would also like to encourage you all to give up any type of speech that doesn’t
honor others, such as gossip, swearing, complaining, tearing others down,
sarcasm, etc. For some of us (myself included!), it will be easier to
give up food than to get control of our tongue, but this is so important:
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 18:21.
But no man can tame the tongue. It is
an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have
been made in the similitude of God. Out
of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.
My brethren, these things ought not to be so. James
3:8-10
My prayer is that this will be an amazing time of
reflection, surrender, desperation, and revelation for you all! And on Easter Sunday, we will all join
together and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
