Last night, my children were thinking about what they would give up for the next few weeks, and I tried to guide them. First, they were not instruct each other on what to give up. Second, Lent isn’t essentially about giving up stuff.

If we deny ourselves during the weeks leading up to Easter, we do so in order to promote our devotion to our heavenly Father. If we give up using Facebook, drinking colas, eating desserts, watching movies or reading novels, we want to do it so that we put ourselves in a place where we remember our Lord more than we did before. Perhaps when Easter comes, we will have taken an axe to one of our idols because we rejected something during Lent and will have a quieter spirit, a more submissive heart, for our daily routine. We will have tried to let go of trivial supports and leaned more on the Lord.

But maybe giving something up isn’t what we should do over the next few weeks. I mean, maybe it isn’t all we should do, because our intent is to wean ourselves off of worldly things and love Christ Jesus more, see God the Father working around us more, and know the Holy Spirit within us more than we did before. So maybe we should plan to study the Bible or memorize parts of it or learn to pray using the Psalms. Maybe we should find someone willing to meet us weekly for a discipleship study or a few people to help us serve our church and community.

“To suppose that whatever God requireth of us, that we have power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none effect.” – John Owen (quoted by the Spirit-filled Puritan)

That’s the point of denying ourselves during Lent. We want to forget our own power (or the illusion of it) and rely on Christ Jesus, our Savior and King.