God Gave Me the Do's and Don'ts for The Lenten Season

Lent began on February 14th. As the date neared, I started considering the things that I would give up for the Lenten season, and the day before Lent, I had made up my mind. And then, God, who has a sense of humor, but more importantly, a plan for my life, told me on the morning of Lent, the things that He wanted me to give up and the things that He wanted me to do during the Lenten season. This brings me back to one of my previous Blog Post where I mentioned that God is the eraser of our plans. And He is.

One of the things that God told me to give up for Lent was shopping. The only shopping that I could do during Lent was for food, hygiene products, and other necessities (I.e., garbage bags, paper towels, tissue). But He did not stop there. He also told me to discontinue online window shopping (is what I call it); meaning, no looking at ads for clothes and jewelry and furniture and house décor and stuff, and no visiting the websites of department stores to browse the merchandise. I will admit that I used to spend a considerable amount of time doing that, as well as shopping a lot. But still, I was like, God, you are OD’ing. Lol. Like, I can’t even look at ads that invade the social media platforms that I am on. But I obeyed. Well… sort of.

So, while I have not shopped for any clothing and basically nothing outside of food, hygiene products, and household supplies since Lent began, I did order some supplies for my small business (Post-it Notes and notebooks with my company logo on it). Now I remember that when I decided to order those items, it did cross my mind that God told me not to order anything besides food, hygiene products and other necessities (tissue…). But what I did was, I rationalized, and I told myself that God did not care if I ordered business supplies. But guess what? He did. God did care. And as soon as I hit the “order” button and my order was confirmed, the Holy Spirit convicted me. It is like the Holy Spirit deliberately waited until I hit that” order’ button… I was immediately overcome with guilt, and I felt bad, and I apologized to God. I repented and asked for forgiveness (and God forgave me).

The truth is, I kind of knew in my heart and in my spirit that I should not have ordered those business supplies, especially when I did not need them (that order could have waited until Lent ended) because I already have several brand-new notebooks and a large package of unopened assorted color Post-it Notes.  But I played the game of saying to myself, well God only told me that I am not to order clothing and jewelry and things like that… So, in ordering those business supplies, I was disobedient to God, and that does not please Him. And besides that, the feeling that comes from disobeying God (when the Holy Spirit convicts you), it does not feel good at all. It’s like the feeling of hurting God’s feelings and hurting His heart. That is how it feels to me. And I take it hard/it really cuts me deeply because I think of it as, how could I hurt and offend and disobey, and dishonor the one who is so good to me (and has always been), and who protects me and who makes sure that I have everything that I need, and who loves me so much and who is always so faithful. How could I hurt that person (God). And so, that it is one of the reasons why I make it a habit to be obedient to what God tells me to do. Another reason is because I already know the instructions that God gives me are for my good, and that they are attached to blessings, and will keep me on the path of righteousness (right standing with God) and will lead to the fulfillment of the promises that He has for me.

Now let me get to telling you what God told me to do during Lent, since I have already told you what He told me not to do. So, the morning that Lent began, after God gave me my list of “Don’t do’s”, He told me that I was to listen to a sermon (they are on YouTube) every single day during Lent (and I have done so since Lent began). Prior to Lent, I would listen a sermon like every other day or maybe every two days. One of the other things that God told me to do was incorporate more prayer time in my schedule/spend more time in prayer (and I have also done that since Lent began), and God told me to pray in the morning before I pick up my phone (to check emails, messages, go on social media). And I have definitely been doing that. God told me to do other things as well during this Lenten season, but I will not list them all.

I will say, however, that God knew exactly what He was doing concerning the instructions He gave me, and my obedience to God’s instructions has had such an amazing impact on me spiritually (and mentally), and it made me more disciplined in the things of God (in sticking to a God-routine of worship, studying the Word…). And that is a great achievement, I’d say.

Jeremiah 29:11 reads:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares that Lord, “plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

This is why I stress that we must trust God in the path the He lays out for us and the instructions that He gives us, and that we should be obedient. It is because God has such a big and bright future planned for us, but we must stay on track (on God’s track/path) in order to get there.

Be encouraged! God loves you.

It is my prayer that you have an encounter with God that changes your life.

Until next time,

Love and peace,

Yolanda Billingslea (Ms. B)

FYI: My Facebook Page name is Yolanda Billingslea (my profile picture has "Unbreakable" across it). Be inspired and encouraged by my daily posts.