lent day 21 - half way

We are half way through Lent.  So how's it going?   If you opted to give up chocolate or swearing or alcohol or wearing lycra have you stuck to your guns, wobbled a bit, or did you give up on day three?

I made two ' resolutions' for Lent.  One was to write this blog - and as you can see, so far so good.  It is a daily challenge to tune in and work out what to say..... but mostly, even if its right at the last minute as Im actually sitting at the keyboard, I get there.   The second one was to try to talk less.   I know I talk way too much.   Haven't been doing so well on that one 😊

The thing is, it can be a bit of fun to give up something like chocolate for 40 days.  And it can even be a tiny bit of a challenge to resist the feelings of temptation which may occasionally confront.   But the things we usually try to tackle over Lent are not the deep character flaws which really merit our attention.   Those things, our deep fears, our proper addictions, our seriously destructive habits can't always be cut out of our lives by willpower in a matter of a few weeks.    Those things can be a lifelong battle.   How many of us struggle with putting on weight as we get older?   We know what we need to do to shift it - but doing those things somehow defeats us.  Or if we have some success for a while it is so easy to slip back into the old habits and end up back where we started - or worse off.    We might not all be alcoholics or drug addicts or food addicts but we definitely all have the ability to become addicted.   We all have areas where our willpower is weak.  We can all be led into temptation.   Lord deliver us from Social Media  !! 😃

Jesus knows this.  He knows that willpower alone will not break the ties that bind us.  Which is why He became a curse for us when He died on the cross - and why He sent the Holy Spirit who is the only one who can lead us into TRUTH, and bring FREEDOM to captives.    Jesus told us to pray
'deliver us from evil and lead us not into temptation'  precisely because He knows that evil and temptation crouch daily at our doors.   

Lent is a time when we reflect on Jesus submitting Himself entirely to the will and purposes of God.  This enabled Him to resist temptation and stand firm in the face of the taunts of the enemy.   Our small sacrifices at Lent merely serve as a reminder to us that there is no other way to truth and freedom than by complete submission to the Father.   So at the halfway point let's re-focus and keep looking to Jesus.  As we discipline ourselves in the small things we can ask Him by His Spirit to deal with the really big issues which go beyond the ability of willpower alone to resolve.