Dear Friends,

It’s wonderful to be writing to you in this season of Lent. Many of us will have undertaken fasts and disciplines for Lent. During Lent, we may give up something such as eating chocolate or crisps, or we might take on a new discipline of prayer walking around the block. There is no set fast or discipline that Christians follow, rather it’s about finding a Lenten discipline that suits you.

We use these fasts as a way of joining in Jesus’ fast during his forty days in the desert where he was tempted by the Devil. You might be thinking, well why fast, what is the point of it? We aren’t in a desert, so why do we need to fast?

There is no requirement to fast during Lent, but it has become a common practice amongst many Christians around the world throughout the life of the church. The reason that fasting is practised so widely in the church, especially at Lent is that fasting has always been a significant discipline of prayer throughout the history of the church. To clarify, I am not saying that we must fast in order to pray well. By no means. However, for many Christians, the discipline of fasting has helped them to focus their prayer life and how they hear God. By removing habits, possessions, and indulgences from our daily lives, can benefit our prayer lives in a variety of ways.

1. More Time To Pray

At a very practical level, giving something up gives us more time to pray. Cecily and I have given up TV for Lent, and by giving up TV we have been able to use that time watching TV towards praying together and reading the Bible. We have also had more time to talk together about our faith and what God is doing in our lives. We would have not had this time for prayer without our Lenten disciplines.

2. Removing Distractions

Our world today is full of distractions and an overload of information. In the internet age, we are exposed to more information in a day than most people would see in weeks and months. Being able to put aside some of the distractions helps our minds slow down so that we can hear God better. It’s like switching off your mobile phone so that you can give your full focus to the conversation that you are having. In this way Lent can help us push aside the distractions and obstacles that get in the way of us hearing from God. This is why the early Desert Fathers and Mothers would escape to prayer in the desert – so they could get away from distractions.

3. A Call To Pray

Giving things up at Lent can be really hard. It’s frustrating when you get that sweet-tooth craving but you cannot satisfy it with a giant block of Diary Milk like before. But these constant frustrations can be reminders throughout your day to think back to why you have given this thing up. You have given it up as part of your prayer life. I often find it helpful to use these points of frustration to turn and think of God, to take a moment to pray and talk to him. In doing so, I find that I am talking with God more than had done previously because now I have all these additional prompts to stop and pray.

Whatever you have chosen to do for Lent, I encourage you to keep your eyes open to see if your discipline benefits your prayer life in these ways, or maybe in other ways that I haven’t mentioned.

In This Together

As a final point, so often in Lent we fixate on how Jesus was alone in the desert, and as a result we feel that Lent is a practice we must do separately on our own. However, if we think back to our reading from last Sunday, we see that Jesus was not alone in the desert. First, the Holy Spirit came upon him at his baptism and went with him into the desert. Second, the angels waited on Jesus in the desert. During his fast in the desert, though Jesus had taken a step away from the regular world, he was never alone. And we too are not alone in Lent. God’s Holy Spirit is always with us, even when we find it hard to recognise his presence. Also, as church, we exist as a family. We don’t do our life of faith on our own. Just this morning I was praying with my prayer triplet on Zoom. Though we are far apart, we are each able to walk alongside each other as we share this walk of discipleship. There are sisters and brothers of the faith who are there to journey with you in Lent, and I hope that you can benefit from the joy of our fellowship in this Lenten journey together.

If you have been enjoying my content, then sign up to my new newsletter to enjoy my latest content in your inbox and more.