I Give Up

As most of you know....I'm not of a faith that recognizes Lent.  After I did some research on Lent....I wonder why.  It's not necessarily something that should be experienced just by a particular set of people....I mean those of a certain faith, or belief....but I feel that all of us can benefit from "fasting" from something for at least 40 days...and spending time in prayer (not that we shouldn't do that every day)!!! 

I did a bit of research....and here was what I found that I could really relate to:

“Lent begins with this realization....that we are a people in exile. That we are wandering far from our true home. And thus the beginning of repentance isn’t merely the terror that one finds in wandering in a strange land; the beginning of repentance is homesickness. Lent teaches us to fess up to how often we settle down in the land of our exile as though it were our true home; attempting to still the yearning the Spirit has created by throwing at it physical or psychological pleasure, and how it never works.”

courtesy of Pastor Will Weedon

Sometimes I feel that I settle down and get a bit too comfortable here in my earthly home....take too much pleasure in things of this life....and let it trouble me more than it should....when all along I should be homesick...yearning for my heavenly home.
It reminds me of the words to the old hymn "Beulah Land"....

I'm kind of homesick for a country
To which I've never been before.
No sad goodbyes will there be spoken
for time won't matter anymore.

Beulah Land, I'm longing for you
and some day on thee I'll stand.
There my home shall be eternal.
Beulah Land -- Sweet Beulah Land

I'm looking now across the river
where my faith will end in sight.
There's just a few more days to labor.
Then I will take my heavenly flight.

Many people, during the season of Lent....choose something to fast from.  I'm going to do this again this year.  Won't you join me?  Think of something personal that it might be difficult to give up....and then remember that God gave up His One and Only Son to die for our sins....no sacrifice I can make will ever compare to what He did for me!!!

Daniel 9:3a (NLT)
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting.

Blessings to you!!!

In His Most Precious Love....and with mine!!!