Today is Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It falls on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter. It can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.
Jesus spent forty days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, during which he endured temptation by Satan. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this forty day period of prayer and fasting.
Ash Wednesday gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of believers as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. The ashes used are typically gathered after the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday are burned. (Palm Sunday is the Sunday when Jesus rode through Jerusalem on a donkey, before he was crucified that Friday. The people praised Him by waving palm branches)
Ash Wednesday is a day of repentance and it marks the beginning of Lent. Ashes were used in ancient times to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults. An example of one expressing one's penitence is found in Job 42:3-6. Job says to God: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. The other eye wandereth of its own accord. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (vv. 5-6, KJV) The prophet Jeremiah, for example, calls for repentance this way: "O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes" (Jer 6:26).The prophet Daniel pleaded for God this way: "I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes" (Daniel 9:3). Just prior to the New Testament period, the rebels fighting for Jewish independence, the Maccabees, prepared for battle using ashes: "That day they fasted and wore sackcloth; they sprinkled ashes on their heads and tore their clothes" (1 Maccabees 3:47; see also 4:39). There are many examples of Godly people who fasted and prayed and put on ash to show their regret from sin or to petition God for an answer.
For us, today, we get ashes on our foreheads to honor Christ as the ultimate sacrifice, the fulfillment of the old testament law, the replacement to animal sacrifices. But really, those ashes on our foreheads symbolize that WE are the living sacrifice, that we must die daily to ourselves so that Christ can live in us. As living sacrifices, we have to ability to crawl off the altar. We have to willingly place ourselves back there every morning when we wake up. (Warren, The Purpose Driven Life). Fasting and repentance is a fantastic way to do that. You offer God a huge piece of yourself everyday, thus dying to your flesh and becoming that living sacrifice. If we starve the flesh, we will feed the spirit....and God will fill that starving flesh with Himself...the greatest gift of all. Over the next 40 days, give something up everyday to remind you of God's sacrifice or something that hinders your walk with Him and watch Him do a mighty work.
Jesus spent forty days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, during which he endured temptation by Satan. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this forty day period of prayer and fasting.
Ash Wednesday gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of believers as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. The ashes used are typically gathered after the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday are burned. (Palm Sunday is the Sunday when Jesus rode through Jerusalem on a donkey, before he was crucified that Friday. The people praised Him by waving palm branches)
Ash Wednesday is a day of repentance and it marks the beginning of Lent. Ashes were used in ancient times to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults. An example of one expressing one's penitence is found in Job 42:3-6. Job says to God: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. The other eye wandereth of its own accord. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (vv. 5-6, KJV) The prophet Jeremiah, for example, calls for repentance this way: "O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes" (Jer 6:26).The prophet Daniel pleaded for God this way: "I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes" (Daniel 9:3). Just prior to the New Testament period, the rebels fighting for Jewish independence, the Maccabees, prepared for battle using ashes: "That day they fasted and wore sackcloth; they sprinkled ashes on their heads and tore their clothes" (1 Maccabees 3:47; see also 4:39). There are many examples of Godly people who fasted and prayed and put on ash to show their regret from sin or to petition God for an answer.
For us, today, we get ashes on our foreheads to honor Christ as the ultimate sacrifice, the fulfillment of the old testament law, the replacement to animal sacrifices. But really, those ashes on our foreheads symbolize that WE are the living sacrifice, that we must die daily to ourselves so that Christ can live in us. As living sacrifices, we have to ability to crawl off the altar. We have to willingly place ourselves back there every morning when we wake up. (Warren, The Purpose Driven Life). Fasting and repentance is a fantastic way to do that. You offer God a huge piece of yourself everyday, thus dying to your flesh and becoming that living sacrifice. If we starve the flesh, we will feed the spirit....and God will fill that starving flesh with Himself...the greatest gift of all. Over the next 40 days, give something up everyday to remind you of God's sacrifice or something that hinders your walk with Him and watch Him do a mighty work.
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