Making the Most of It – March 5, The Third Friday of Lent

I was reading something the other day and it reminded me of two passages of scripture.  First, the author mentioned Paul’s statement in Ephesians:

Ephesians 5:15-16 NRSV

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

And then he mentioned Jesus’ statement in the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 6:25-33 NIV

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Together these passages speak of something very important during Lent – “making the most of the time” or as the KJV puts it, “redeeming the time.”  So often in Lent (and life in general) we find ourselves trying to spiritually focus and yet completely distracted by the tasks of the day whether it’s school, friends, sports, whatever.  Even though we are fasting and trying to be self-disciplined in one regard we end up being distracted or undisciplined in another way.

It is very important during Lent to seize the moments we have as gifts from God and to make the most of them.  Jesus tells his hearers not to worry.  Why?  Because worrying doesn’t change anything and worrying won’t accomplish anything.  When we worry we just waste the time away and distract ourselves from the knowledge that God is in control.

Lent is a time when we look over all aspects of our life and see where we have allowed our self-will to push God out.  In Lent we look at everything and see where our pre-occupation with this world (through worry or even distraction) prohibits us from seeing God.

During Lent we need to take every task or every chore and turn it into an opportunity to see God.  Do you think of God when you’re doing your homework? Hanging out with friends?  At sports practice or playing video games?  So often we approach all of these aspects of life as if we don’t need God in them.  During Lent, as we learn self-discipline, we also need to learn to redeem the time.  We need to learn to orient our hearts toward God even when we are doing the most mundane and mindless thing.

As we fast we can let the moments of our cravings help us in this regard.  Instead of having moments of “I can’t believe I can’t eat/do X until Easter!”  Let us use those moments and think of God.  Let us take those moments and say a simple prayer.  One of the earliest and most commonly used prayers of the early church is called the “Jesus Prayer” and it is perfect for times like this.

The Jesus prayer is simple:  “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”  As we learn to pray this prayer we learn to make ourselves mindful of God.  We learn not to worry, and we learn to make the most of our time – even the boring and mundane stuff…even homework!!  Saying this prayer also helps us to be mindful of our need for living a life of repentance that we talked about yesterday.  Saying this prayer, doesn’t belittle us, but rather makes us mindful of God and our need for him and our need to purge ourselves from all sin.

Let us make the most of our time and focus on God.  As hard as it may be, let us make this Lenten season a time of physical fasting and spiritual feasting as we continually set our minds on Christ this Lenten season.

Closing Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.