Wondering What to Give Up for Lent?

We’ve begun the forty days of Lent, traditionally a time Christians devote to contemplation and repentance. It’s a time to take stock of our lives and root out some problem areas.

Yesterday my pastor related the 40 days Christ spent in the desert at the beginning of his ministry to the days of Lent. If you remember, Christ was tempted or tested in three ways in the desert at the end of those 40 days. All three ways are ways that you and I are tempted and are worth thinking about during the 40 days before we celebrate Easter.

Here’s the first temptation. Christ was fasting and praying. Of course, after 40 days He was hungry. Satan appeared and suggested that Christ turn some stones into bread. Well, why not? What would be so bad about that? Christ created bread later in his ministry--and we know that He was going to eat bread many times in the future. And there’s nothing wrong with eating bread when you are hungry, right? But Christ rejected Satan’s suggestion and said, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." We know He was emphasizing that it is more important to feed on the words of God.

The first temptation was an appeal to immediate gratification of a physical desire, and not necessarily an evil physical desire. Just an immediate gratification at a time that was set aside to pray and fast--to feed on God. Creating bread was a distraction from prayer and fasting, and it was all the more tempting because it appealed to a normal and natural human desire to eat.

What are the natural desires in my life that distract me and allow me to put off feeding on God? In my life, that natural desire tends to be for leisure. I want to open a novel and read the next chapter although I haven’t managed to find time to crack open the Bible today. I want to veg on the couch watching a rather stupid TV program rather than spending time doing something more constructive spiritually. For other people, I imagine the temptation might be to get a bowl of ice cream or chips, surf the internet, just quickly skim through that file for the meeting tomorrow, think about what to cook for dinner. All pretty normal, natural desires, but they can serve to distract and delay from feeding on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God if we just give in to them without thinking about if this is the right time or place to gratify them.

So that’s my challenge for Lent: to take notice of the natural impulses that distract me from feeding on Him and to “give them up” for Lent—or rather, to give them up to God and ask that He help me resist and instead to devote the appropriate time and attention to Himself.


Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Matthew 4:4

"Therefore...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 12:1