Well the wife and I were talking over a few thing about the Christian walk leading a house hold and so on, we get to the point where we say let's pray (yes we do that to :)) so reb starts with the words Lord what is it you want us to give up?
Now I don't know about your life, But here is a snap shot of mine, I am a little over 40, I work shifts earlies and lates (6am till 2pm 2pm til10pm) so I don't have a massive social life when I am off work you can find me at home 95% of the time I don't go out drinking, don't watch football cricket rugby or other outside sports, I don't get many chances to go to games nights, I don't have a nation of people knocking on the door of phoning me up for social events. No stop this isn't a plea for a social life this is still about prayer.
So reb prays what do you want us to give up? I immediately I have this thought why would God want us to give something up? What is to give up, eating, breathing, socialising. No God might want us to take up something. No put the rocks down a min you can stone me later. What if God wants us to take up something people aren't knocking on my door so if I take up something I can take the gospel to them, not all sacrifices are hurtful some may be enjoyable let God out the box and you might see that your not to give up but take up!
Nice one, Mark! I went through a long phase in my life just giving stuff up because I thought that is what God wanted. I forgot the more important counteraction of taking stuff up - we create space in our lives but what for? For more important things. Sacrifice is no good for its own sake or as part of a quest for greater holiness. Sometimes when we kick stuff out of our lives, it only makes room for more bad habits to take their place ... Jesus said something about that when he spoke of a house being cleansed only for the demon that was sent away to come back with all its friends.
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