Giving It Up For God

Giving It Up For God from FUMC Allen on Vimeo.

We often hear that people are giving up all sorts of things for the season of Lent. Some give up sweets, others give up chocolate, and yet others give up caffeine or alcohol. In recent years more and more people are giving up social media and even TV. Any of these sacrifices are no doubt admirable as long as we take on some spiritual discipline that leads us to a closer walk with Christ. This Lent we will consider what it means to give up attitudes and behaviors that often separate us or limit our becoming the very person God created us to be. Such attitudes often separate us from God and other people. For example, take “Pride.” What if we gave up that attitude and practiced relying on God? How might it feel to ask others for help and even asked others to hold us accountable for living the Christian life? We give up attitudes and behaviors that separate us from God to embrace more Christ-like attitudes to live a more Christian life. It could mean that we deepen our journey with God, we enrich our faith, and our we improve our prayer life. Over the next seven weeks, we will consider giving up attitudes and behaviors such as pride, control, gossip, and more. We hope we’ll be guided toward giving up viewpoints, perspectives and the heaviness they cause in our life so that we can be set free to embrace the ways of Christ. There’s only one thing left to ask, “What will you give up for Lent?”