Lent Season Daily Devotional
In the last few years I have felt God "pulling on my heart" to lead our church to grow closer to Him. The Christian Lent season is a good time to start. It runs for forty days between Ash Wednesday through Easter (not counting Sundays). It is a time of reflection, devotion and commitment to God.
Lent is closely associated with "Fasting". Biblical fasting is the abstinence or limitation of food or liquid for a certain time period. The key is to do it while making sure you do not put your health in jeopardy. Whenever you get the urge to drink or eat something you read a devotional, your bible or send out a prayer instead. While I believe in this type of fasting, I do not want to encourage anyone to go over board especially for forty days. But if giving up something for lent is more traditional for you, I would suggest you skip a "daily treat" for forty days. Some examples might be no soda, no desserts, no snacks etc.
An alternative to that type of fasting is what I call "Devotional Fasting". During this Lent season I would love for our church to take a few minutes everyday and read a daily devotional together. The Upper Room has developed excellent recourses and devotionals where our entire Key West UMC can participate.
What I love about that idea is that we can all be focusing on the same scripture and repeating the same prayer everyday together as one body. I will encourage all of you to keep our church in your prayers during lent as well as our communities' economic situation.
I believe this type of Devotional Fasting will also help us to grow closer as a Church. Keep our minds focused daily on God and his needs as we prepare for the miracle of Easter.
You can purchase an "Upper Room" devotional magazine in our church office or in the back of the church sanctuary for one dollar. You can also get it for "free" by linking up to this website and finding the Upper Room Daily Devotion in the front page.
If any of you are like me. One of the first things I do every morning is go to my computer read my emails and catch up on the daily news on the internet. I can spend a few minutes every day growing closer to God without even turning off my computer. Whether you read it in the magazine format or online, this can be a fun way we can share and grow in our faith together!
In the last few years I have felt God "pulling on my heart" to lead our church to grow closer to Him. The Christian Lent season is a good time to start. It runs for forty days between Ash Wednesday through Easter (not counting Sundays). It is a time of reflection, devotion and commitment to God.
Lent is closely associated with "Fasting". Biblical fasting is the abstinence or limitation of food or liquid for a certain time period. The key is to do it while making sure you do not put your health in jeopardy. Whenever you get the urge to drink or eat something you read a devotional, your bible or send out a prayer instead. While I believe in this type of fasting, I do not want to encourage anyone to go over board especially for forty days. But if giving up something for lent is more traditional for you, I would suggest you skip a "daily treat" for forty days. Some examples might be no soda, no desserts, no snacks etc.
An alternative to that type of fasting is what I call "Devotional Fasting". During this Lent season I would love for our church to take a few minutes everyday and read a daily devotional together. The Upper Room has developed excellent recourses and devotionals where our entire Key West UMC can participate.
What I love about that idea is that we can all be focusing on the same scripture and repeating the same prayer everyday together as one body. I will encourage all of you to keep our church in your prayers during lent as well as our communities' economic situation.
I believe this type of Devotional Fasting will also help us to grow closer as a Church. Keep our minds focused daily on God and his needs as we prepare for the miracle of Easter.
You can purchase an "Upper Room" devotional magazine in our church office or in the back of the church sanctuary for one dollar. You can also get it for "free" by linking up to this website and finding the Upper Room Daily Devotion in the front page.
If any of you are like me. One of the first things I do every morning is go to my computer read my emails and catch up on the daily news on the internet. I can spend a few minutes every day growing closer to God without even turning off my computer. Whether you read it in the magazine format or online, this can be a fun way we can share and grow in our faith together!