“Lenten Affirmation!”

“Lenten Affirmation!”(Mt.6:16-21).
Today marks the beginning of Lent season 2025. The day is called “Ash Wednesday,” as on this day, Christians receive Ash on their foreheads. The Ash symbolically reminds us of human frailties and mortality. It reminds us of the need to reconcile with God.
The penitential Lenten season lasts for forty days, ending on Holy Saturday – excluding Sundays. Fasting is an essential part of this season; to people who can withstand the fast. We emphasise this because there are people with some health challenges that they have to eat at certain regular intervals.
Fasting may last for the whole day from 6am – 6pm without eating and drinking. Fasting may include abstinence from intimacy with your partner.
For health reasons, some people observe a white fast where you can eat what is not, cooked, boiled, or fried, and which does not contain any kind of oil.
Is fasting necessary for Christians? The answer is in the affirmative. Fasting was a regular part of Jesus’ ministry, beginning immediately after his baptism, where he fasted for forty days and forty nights. This is important since our fasting does not in any way meet up that wilderness fast of Jesus.
Jesus did not oppose fasting. On the contrary, he prescribed us: “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put on oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
There is no showoff in personal devotion. It is between you and your Father in heaven. Fasting should not be a hard and fast rule that must be adhered to; it is a choice on how to use it as a way of getting closer to God and also distancing yourself from the worldly attractions that pull you away from God.
That may explain why closely following this prescriptive text on fasting is the teaching about treasures in heaven.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Lenten Affirmation Statement: I will deliberately store up my treasures in heaven through fasting and total devotion to the LORD!
Ash Wednesday prayer: Holy Spirit, prompt me daily to keep to my Lenten affirmation of absolute personal devotion to my LORD. Amen!
Have a blessed Ash Wednesday! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
05/0202025.