Lent starts tomorrow. Are you ready? What does it take to “get ready for Lent?”
It’s a trick question. You don’t have to do anything to get ready for Lent. Typically, Lent is a time of fasting and giving up of something dear to us. This falls to food most of the time. However, I like the idea of giving up something else by taking on something; give up time.
What do I mean by “give up time?”
"The Holy Spirit" by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
We each have a precious 24 hours in a day. No more and no less. Every person ever born, living now, or to be born in the future only has the same amount of time you and I have. It is the most precious commodity we posses. Giving some of it up, even a little bit is one of the greatest gifts we can bestow upon someone else.
This year during Lent, give up some of your precious time to God. Starting tomorrow morning I will post one or more scriptures. I will make these posts each day. My goal will be to post them in the morning but I will most likely fail at that on one or more days. For me, as long as I get it posted on the day, I will have met my goal. I will exceed it each day if I can get it done in the morning.
What I am proposing for you to do is to spend some of your precious time reading God’s word AND praying to Him for guidance concerning whatever you read. Yes, I will post something each day, and yes you could use that to fulfill this giving up of your time for God but you do not have to. Read whatever you want so long as while you do it, you physically pick up a Bible and open it. That’s the catch.
If you’re reading what I’m sending out, it doesn’t count to just read the scripture I’ve copied and pasted on the screen. I want you to pick up a physical Bible and turn pages. I want your fingers to feel the words, not just your eyes. There is something powerful and connecting contained in physical books. Scripture in the Bible is no different.
If you do not own a Bible, you can purchase an inexpensive one at the book store for less than $10 in a wide variety of translations. I happen to be partial to the King James Version, but I quote the New American Standard Bible here because I find people comprehend that one better. You read the one you like.
If you are on a tight budget and cannot afford a $10 pew Bible, talk to the pastor of your local church. If he or she cannot get you a copy of the Bible for Lent I submit you need a new church. If you do not have a church, go to whichever one the Spirit leads you to and tell them what you are looking to do. I bet they find you a Bible.
In closing, let me say this. We are entering the Christian season of Lent. During this time so long ago Jesus Christ entered into His last days on earth, and He knew it. If you knew without a doubt the next forty-six days would be your last on earth, what would you do differently from what you had planned mere moments ago? God bless you and Godspeed.