Think of the 7 deadly sins – pride, laziness, envy, greed, anger, lust and gluttony. Every single one of them centers around our self – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Satan himself was thrown out of heaven because he became prideful and wanted to be like God – it was all about himSELF. And that is how Satan operates to this day. He gets us to focus on self. It is a struggle daily to keep “self” off the throne of our life. We tend to want to be “god” of our own life. That is why atheist choose not to believe there is a God because deep down they want to be god of their own life and choose not to be submissive to the one true God who created them. They can’t see God and because they are so focused on the god of their life – self – they deny God’s existence.

In our society today, some of the prevailing philosophies of our time that are influencing the downward spiral of our society, also stems from the sin of self.

The Philosophy of Individualism
“What’s in it for me?”
Have you ever asked a child to do something and they answer, “what will you pay me to do it.” That same idea has permeated the whole culture of the United States. The fruits of individualism are greed, selfishness and exploitation.

The Philosophy of Hedonism
“If it feels good, do it“
We also see this throughout our society, and where many see it as freedom it is really a road straight to enslavement to many cravings and addictions. The fruits of hedonism are laziness, lust and gluttony.

The Philosophy of Minimalism
“What is the least I can do?”
Matthew Kelly, in his book, “Rediscover Catholicism” said “Minimalism is the enemy of excellence and the father of mediocrity.”

All of these philosophies are running amok in our culture – from the making of laws in Washington, to the Supreme Court of the land, to teachings in our school system, and even in our homes and families – and it all stems from the sin of self.

Exodus chapter 20 lists all of the ten commandments. The very first one is “you shall have no other gods before me.” Most people think God was referring to all the various “gods” that people of that age believed existed or they think about the god of money or possessions in this age. I believe that the main “god” God was talking about was the god of “self”.

So think about every sin you commit each and every day. What is the root of that sin? I believe if you meditate on that, you will see that the root is always the same – SELF.

So how do we get “self” off the throne of our life? How do we defeat such a powerful sin and foe as SELF? The answer is found in Romans 7:24-25. Paul says, “what a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

I got to thinking about things I could do daily to try and keep myself off the throne of my life. Here is the list I came up with.

1. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18a: Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances. If we just pray once a week or even once a day, it is just not enough. Throughout every day we need to be in constant touch with Christ. For myself, I have set alarms on my phone throughout the day to remind me to stop and pray – to give thanks, to ask for forgiveness, to praise him and/or pray for the needs of others.
2. Philippians 4:8: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. What do you think about all day long? Yes, we have to keep our minds on our work when we are on the job, but we need to guard our mind to make sure that we are only allowing good, upright, pure things into our minds.
3. Galatians 5:13-25. I will not put the whole verse here but read these verses for yourself. They are powerful. Focus especially on verses 14, 16, 17, 24 and 25. We need to live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit of God.
4. 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify we from all unrighteousness. We need to be constantly aware of any thoughts, words or actions that are not pleasing to God and repent immediately of anything that is unpleasing.
5. Hebrews 12:1-2: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out of us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Christ should never be far from your consciousness. How many times today did you talk to and/or think about Christ?

Lastly but the most important one to me is:  Luke 9:23, then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

I believe Christ combined those three things in that verse in that particular order for a very important reason.

First, we must deny ourself. How often do you think about denying yourself something? Maybe it is the donut in the breakroom or a new car or a new pair of shoes. I’m not saying that we are called to deny ourself every little thing, but as you start to practice denying yourself in some of the littler things, you start focusing more on what God would or would not want you to do or have.

Second, we must take up our cross daily. This means that we must die to our self daily, and it is a daily thing. Each day, when we wake up, we should immediately pray and surrender our life and our day to God. Throughout the day, it is best if we can take a minute to take inventory and see if we are still allowing God to be in control or are we on “auto-pilot” which means our “self” is not dead.

Third, we must follow Christ. We Christians tend to want to run ahead of Christ or at the least walk beside him. He needs to be out in front. He needs to be in control. Peace is found when we are watching  Him and allowing Him to show us the best way we should go throughout our days.

Self – It is a hard thing to control, but it is possible. As Paul said, it is only through Christ that we can have victory over Self.

There is no doubt that what they allegedly did was horrific and the lives of the victims and victim families are forever changed.

However, I pray that Christians will not only pray for the victims but that they will also pray for the young man now in custody for these crimes. Remember that God loves and died for this young man as well as for you, me, and the young man.

When I was listening to Bill O’Reilly, he was saying that the older brother was in Hell and that the other would receive capital punishment and soon be in Hell also. I’m sure Bill meant well but He is not God. I’m not the judge to say where the brother is. It may be Hell. But the brother in custody has not died yet. There is still a chance for him to repent and turn to God.

I used to be an ardent believer in the death penalty but I cannot be any longer. If there is even a small chance of someone repenting and turning to God then I pray they will. I keep thinking back to the Son of Sam serial killer, David Berkowitz, who murdered several people back in the 70s. Ten years later, he accepted Christ as his Savior and is now a witness for Christ within the prison. He does not seek to be paroled. He is exactly where God can use him.

So my prayer is that this young man may be allowed to live, in prison, and that Christ will bring someone into his life that will bring him to repentance and to Christ. I also pray for the victims that Christ will help them to be able to forgive and to come to Christ or in a closer walk with Christ.

Well, the answer is that the Catholic Church most definitely DOES teach that all Christians are saints.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is a book that details everything that the Catholic Church believes, says:

The Church is held, as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as ‘alone holy’, loved the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he joined her to himself as his body and endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. The Church, then is “the holy People of God,” and her members are called “saints” (CCC 823).

The only reason I can think of as to why she asked me that question is that the church throughout history has canonized certain saints and hence you here us talk about St. Therese of Lisieux or St. Teresa of Avila, or St. Francis of Assisi, etc. She must have made the assumption that because we canonize certain saints that we must believe that only those people are saints and not all Christians.

Canonization means to sanction or approve authoritatively, especially ecclesiastically.

Here is the reason why the Catholic Church canonizes saints at all:

By canonizing some of the faithful, i.e., by solemnly proclaiming that they practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God’s grace, the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the saints to them as models and intercessors (CCC 828).

In God’s Word, we are urge to imitate people of great faith, so that we too can grow in holiness.

1 Corinthians 4:16
Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

Hebrews 6:12
We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Hebrews 13:7
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

3 John 1:11
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good.

1 Corinthians 11:1
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

My self I love to read the biographies, autobiographies, and writings of various saints. Recently, I’ve read The Story of a Soul which is an autobiography by St. Therese of Lisieux and “Come Be My Light” which is a biography along with some of Mother Teresa’s writings.

Just these two books alone, show me an example of two Christians who had totally abandoned their self, were humble and totally obedience to God. When you read about the lives of some of these extraordinary Christians, you just want to change and follow their example.

These books have taught me and gave me a desire to deny myself, take up my cross daily and really follow Jesus. They have taught me what it is really like to suffer for Jesus. And the Bible does teach us to suffer for Jesus; to share in His suffering of the Cross.

Many people, including Christians don’t like the idea of suffering. But Christ suffered and died for our sins and we should expect a certain amount of suffering in our own lives. I used to not handle suffering very well at all, but after reading about the lives of some of these saints, I now see suffering as a way for me to relate to what Christ did for me during His Passion.

1 Peter 4:1
Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.

1 Peter 4:13
But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

If you have come to a point in your life where you realized that you were a sinner in need of a Savior and you repented and asked Christ to forgive you and if you accepted Him, by grace, through faith as your Savior, then you are a Christian and you are a saint. As a saint, we are to grow in holiness and we can only do that as we imitate Christ and allow Him to transform us.

Matthew 18:2-4
He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child, will be the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.”

James 4:10
Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.

1 Peter 5:5
Cloth yourself with humility

What is Pride?

Primarily pride is rooted in you taking God’s place in your life. You are on the throne. You make all the decisions in your life. You handle all the problems. Have you totally submitted every area of your life to God or are you still in control of some areas? That is pride. You think you can handle things better than God. Like Satan you are making yourself like the Most High (Isaiah 14:14). I heard a phrase recently that said Pride is Anti-God. No wonder God talks about it all through the Bible and was our example of humility while He was on earth.

Pride is needing to feel better than other people in some way. We are much more familiar with this aspect of pride. We like to be esteemed, loved, honored, praised, preferred, consulted and approved. I have trouble in this area especially in my thought-life.

At the beginning of this year, I started a new spiritual discipline where I stop and pray at various times of the day and ask God to show me any words, actions or thoughts I have that, up to that point, that were not pleasing to Him. I would then confess them and ask Him to forgive me. It was during these times that God began showing me all my prideful thoughts and actions. Then I asked Him to bring any prideful thoughts to my attention at the moment they popped in my brain, and He has been doing that. I never realized before just how many prideful thoughts I have in a day.

Pride is being constantly aware of yourself. Trusting in yourself is to be constantly aware of yourself: how do I look, how am I being treated, calling attention to self, what do I think, etc. There are two areas to this aspect of pride: High self-esteem where a person is arrogant and thinks they are better than everyone else. The other area is Low self-esteem. They are still thinking about the self – what a failure they are, getting down on themself. They are just as self-absorbed.

How do we get rid of pride?

Philippians 2:5 says that our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus and in verse 8 it says that Jesus humbled himself. We should imitate Christ but first we need to really know Christ intimately. We need to spend as much time each day with Christ in prayer and scripture reading. We need to begin each day by acknowledging our dependence upon God, expressing our gratefulness to Him and casting all our cares on Him. In 1 John 5:14-15, John writes that if we ask anything of God that is according to His Will, He will hear us and give us what we ask for. Let us ask for Humility

In the book, Imitation of Jesus, Thomas A Kempis writes:
God never refuses the humble; rather He delivers and comforts them and fills them with His grace. He also opens to them the secrets of His heart and draws them to Himself, raising them to the heights of glory because of their humility. Humble people are always at peace, even when they are put to shame, because they trust in God and not in the world. So, if you wish to reach the height of perfection, never think of yourself as being virtuous until you know sincerely in your heart that you are the least of all.

I’ll leave you with this wonderful prayer for humility called the Litany of Humility.

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, hear me
From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus;
From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, Jesus;
From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, Jesus;
From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, Jesus;
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, Jesus;
From the desire of being preferred, Deliver me, Jesus;
From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, Jesus;
From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, Jesus;

From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, Jesus;
From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, Jesus;
From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, Jesus;
From the fear of being calumniated (slandered), Deliver me, Jesus;
From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, Jesus;
From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, Jesus;
From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, Jesus;
From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, Jesus;

That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it;
That others may be esteemed more that I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it
That in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it
That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it
That others may be praised and I unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it
That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it
That others become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

AMEN

Isaiah 43:18-19
Forget the former things; do not dwell in the past. See, I am dong a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

Philippians 3:13-14
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do. Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

John 8:1-11
The story of the adulterous woman brought to Jesus. The Pharisees wanted to know what Jesus thought should be done since the law says that a woman caught in adultery should be stoned. But Jesus didn’t answer them right away, he just wrote in the dirt. They continued to ask him and he rose and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then he continued to write in the dirt while one by one the woman’s accusers walked away. Jesus said, “Woman, where they they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Sometimes as mere humans, we have a tendency to hang on to the guilt of our sins. However, once we confess our sins, they are covered by the blood of Christ. He is faithful and just and forgave our sins and cleansed us of all unrighteousness. Now each day we have to keep our eyes on Christ, the author and perfector of our faith and strive to sin no more. We cannot attain sinlessness in this world but we can, with God’s help and grace, say “NO” to sin as often as possible.

Now this becomes harder when you have an addiction (drugs, drinking, smoking, porn, shopping, over-eating, computer games, TV, etc) and keep committing the same sin over and over. But I find that with my addiction, as I’ve begun to practice “denying myself”, that the object of my addiction is having less and less of a control over me. My prayer is that one day in the near future, I will be far enough along spiritually that I can resist the temptation totally each and every time it comes.

So, as you live each day, examine your life and conscience continuously, confess your sins frequently and keep looking and going forward as you follow Christ.

2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test.

In the same way, we should examine our spiritual life and conscience throughout each day, to see how our actions, thoughts and words may have glorified God, and what ways they have fallen short. It is God’s desire that we grow in holiness but the only way to do that is to recognize where we fall short of His best for us. Stop for just a moment several times a day to think about the words you’ve spoken, the thoughts you’ve had, and what actions you’ve taken.

Have you had prideful thoughts where you felt you had to pat yourself on the back? Have you passed judgment on someone? Have you been critical towards someone or something? As we begin to pay attention to our life, Christ will begin to show us areas that need improvement. For myself, He has revealed just how critical in my mind that I can be and all the many times I have prideful thoughts, thinking of myself as better than some others. He has actually revealed much more, but I won’t go over them all now. Now that I’m beginning to see where I need to change, I can cooperate with His grace and the Holy Spirit as He works to change these things in me.

Another way we can realize where we need to change comes from Romans 2:1:

You therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

You need to pay attention to what bugs you about other people, because whatever they are doing that really bothers you, you’ll find that same thing in you.

God showed this to me in the most humbling way. My grand-niece has a tendency to get upset when she doesn’t get her own way. It really aggravates me at times. I was very surprised when God showed me that I act the same way; sometimes outwardly like my grand-niece but most of the time just in my thoughts and my attitude.

In my family, we have a tradition of going out to a restaurant to eat when it is someone’s birthday and the birthday person gets to choose the restaurant. It was my grand-niece’s birthday and all of her choices were definitely NOT what I wanted to eat. Try as I might, I could not get her to change her mind, and I had to eat pizza at Chuck-E-Cheese. Before and on the way to the restaurant, my inward attitude was really bad. But God helped me to see that I was acting in my attitude just as badly as the way my grand-niece can act at times. It was a big eye-opener for me and now I try to stay aware of how I think and act in this area.

So we need to be aware of people who aggravate us. What is it about them or their actions that bothers us? Then we need to search our own thoughts and actions to see if we think or act the same way – especially pay attention to those people in your own family. I’m sure if you give it a try, God will how you areas that you need to improve.

When a person goes on a diet and follows it well, they lose pounds and gain a healthier body. On the diet of the soul we lose our imperfections, and gain holiness even if it is a little at a time. Join me in a brand new diet!

The Bible talks about Salvation as something in the past, in the present, and in the future.

PAST

As a Christian, there did come a time in our life when we realized we were a sinner in need of a Savior. By Grace and through Faith, we repented of our sins and allowed God to be the Lord of our life and were baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This washed away the original sin we were born with that came into this world through the sin of Adam and Eve.

Ephesians 2:5
God, who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 2:8
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.

Romans 8:24
For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?

PRESENT

Besides the past and beginning point of our Salvation journey, our Salvation is being worked out in the Present also. It is a life long journey while we are pilgrims and so-journers on this earth. This world and life is temporary, we should be looking forward to our heavenly home.

1 Peter 1:8-9
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

In the NASB translation, it translates the word receiving as obtaining. Komizo is the Greek word and it is a participle and is in the present tense. which shows an ongoing action.

Philippians 2:12
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

FUTURE

As long as we live as Christians, we are or should be living our Salvation. God works inside us through His Holy Spirit to transform us and change us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. Each person has free will and can either cooperate with God’s work and grace in our lives or we can resist and turn away from God.

Romans 13:11
And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

1 Corinthians 3:15
If it (each man’s work) is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

1 Corinthians 5:5
hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.

What Catholics believe about Salvation and Good Works

Catholics have been accused of believing that we gain our salvation through our good works. This is definitely not true. Good works without our faith and God’s grace is self-righteousness and that person is not saved. On the other hand, faith without good works is dead. We were created for good works. We believe in salvation by grace alone, yet grace must not be resisted, either before justification (by remaining in unbelief) or after (by engaging in serious sin). Read 1 Corinthians 6, Galatians 5 and Ephesians 5.

We believe Ephesians 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Other verses which show that we should be obedient to his commandments by His grace:

• Matthew 19:16-22
• Matthew 25:31-46
• John 3:36
• Romans 2:6-10
• 1 Timothy 6:18-19
• 2 Timothy 2:12
• James 1:12
• James 2:14-18

Good works should not be confused with Works of the Law (Works of the Torah). These Works of the Law that Paul talks about in Romans 3:20 and Romans 3:28 are the Works of Torah which are the laws concerning circumcision, food laws, and festival laws. The good works that God created us to do are things like feeding the poor, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, visiting those in prison, etc. It is also teaching, counseling, encouraging and admonishing others. It is forgiving offenses, bearing wrongs patiently, comforting the afflicted and praying for others. Basically, it is being obedient to whatever God is asking and leading you to do. If your relationship with Christ is strong, you will be loving God, and loving your neighbor as yourself.

Each person needs to examine their life. Are you living with and for Christ, or are you living for the World. 1 John 2:15 says, Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. So today choose who you will follow. God wants all to come to salvation.

I don’t believe he is too worried when we go to church once a week and maybe attend a Bible study every now and then and read a devotional and say a short prayer once a day. But when we begin to allow Christ to transform us and we start listening and obeying Christ and spending more time praying, reading Scripture and sharing Christ with others, Satan brings out all his arsenal against us and he knows exactly where we are the weakest.

The gospel scripture this coming Sunday, the first Sunday of Lent, is Luke 14:1-13 where Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit and led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days and while there, tempted by Satan. Satan knows that Jesus is about to begin His ministry to save mankind from their sins, so he goes on the attack. 1 John 2:16 says that we are tempted in three ways – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride of life (boasting of what we have and do). Jesus also was tempted in all three of these areas. First, Satan tried to get him to turn the stones into bread (the lust of the flesh). Second, Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and offered him power and glory (lust of the eyes). Last, Satan tried to convince Jesus to throw himself off the parapet of the temple because he is God, the son, and the angels would protect him (Pride).

In our own life, when the temptations come our way (and they will), we can at least rest in the knowledge that Jesus understands what we are going through. As Hebrew 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.” I don’t know about you, but that comforts me. Even when we fail and give in to the temptation, Jesus understands our weakness and is ready and willing to forgive us.

When reading all the Scriptures that are for this coming Sunday (Deuteronomy 26:4-10, Psalm 91, Romans 10:8-13 and Luke 4:1-13), I like to find a common theme that ties them all together for our growth and enlightenment. In Deuteronomy, when the Israelites needed help in their affliction, they called out to God and God heard their cry. In Psalm 91, it says, “I will be with him in distress; I will deliver him and glorify Him.” But the whole Psalm is about the Lord being with us in times of trouble. In Romans 10:8-13, the words, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” jumps out at me because when Jesus was tempted, he used Scripture to answer Satan. “IT IS WRITTEN”!

James 4:7-8 says, “Submit yourselves, then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.

Ephesians 6:14-18 says, “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occassions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Finally we need to remember, 1 Corinthians 10:13, No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

Temptations will be a part of our life until Jesus brings us out of this world and brings us into the Promised Land, our home in Heaven. We need to stay alert, keep our eyes and hearts on Jesus, and hide his Word (Scripture) in our heart. That means we need to memorize Scripture. I think it would be a great habit to start this Lent season and to continue throughout this year and years to come – to memorize one verse a week.

Thank you, Lord for all your love and mercies. Glory be, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and shall be, world without end. Amen.

Self is a powerful person. I don’t believe there are many of us who have not planted “ourSELF” firmly on the throne of our life.  Giving ourself totally over to God and having Him sit on the throne of our life means sacrifice – sacrific of SELF.

The 40 days of Lent is a annual retreat where God’s children imitate Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness. Forty has always been a significant number in Scripture. Besides Jesus, Moses spent 40 on the mountain to seek the face of God. The people of Israel were in the wilderness for 40 years in preparation for their entry into the promised land. Elijah fasted for 40 days as he journeyed in the wilderness to the mountain of God. All of these examples were people in a process of preparation. Jesus was preparing for His earthly ministry which He knew would lead up to his death and resurrection.

We are called to be in a state of preparation these 40 days of Lent to celebrate the feast of Easter, our Christian passover. The original idea of “giving up something for Lent” was for God’s people to die to self and give their SELF over to God. God sent His only Son to DIE on a cross to be the final sacrifice for our sins. He wants us to take up our cross, die to our SELF and follow Him.

So instead of giving up something frivolous for Lent that you have no intention of giving up forever, try instead to focus on good spiritual habits that you can establish during this 40 day preparation in honor of Christ dying on the cross for you. If you don’t currently have a specific time of devotion where you read Scripture and pray, establish a time. If you have trouble always being in control of your life instead of letting God have control, deny yourself – even if it is just little things. Example: you walk in the break room and there is a box of warm donuts there, deny yourself and give glory the God (don’t even tell anyone you did it) or someone cuts you off in traffic and you want to scream at the person who did it, deny yourself and pray for them instead (don’t even tell anyone you did it). Be creative this Lent season. What you do, do it so that God is more in control of your life and your SELF is less.

EASTER is coming soon!  Alleluia!

Luke 9:22-24
²² And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”²³ Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.