Lent Lessons

Lent can be a spiritual time to ask God what needs redemption in our lives.

Today is the first day of Lent. It will last for forty days, not counting Sundays, and will end with the celebration of Easter. The forty days come from the time Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness, being tempted by Satan. Afterwards, He began His ministry. In a sense, it was a preparation for the work God had planned for Him.

For Christians, it’s a time of repentance, prayer and reflection. It’s not a Biblical practice. It’s more of a church doctrine and not all churches participate in Lent.

Lent is not really a joyful time. Self-reflection, is a hard look at what needs to be changed about ourselves in order to draw closer to God and to better serve Him. Repentance means to stop doing something we are not supposed to be doing, and to ask for forgiveness. Neither of those are fun activities.

It’s always tempting to skip the whole Lent thing and go right to the Easter celebration, and we can. There’s no Lent Police walking around to make us participate in Lent.

But, over the years, I have come to look at Lent as an opportunity. Easter is our highest holiday. It’s our day of redemption. In order to fully participate in that celebration, we have to give some careful thought about what needs redeeming.

Are we carrying around unresolved anger? Are we carrying around guilt over past hurts? Are we carrying around unforgiveness? Are we carrying around pain? Do we have relationship issues that need repair in some way?

Easter gives us the opportunity to place all of these heart crushers at the foot of the Cross. Jesus will redeem them for us. There is only one requirement: We have to ask.

He cannot redeem what we refuse to lie down and if we aren’t willing to do some honest soul-searching, we can’t even admit what our needs are. This is where quiet time, prayer, and reflection come in.

Many people choose to give up something for Lent and that’s fine if that’s how they want to honor the season. Others choose to pick something new up, like daily Bible reading. That’s also fine. Over the years, I have done both and have benefited from both.

But, we can also choose to intentionally use this time to ask God to show us what we need to change in order to be more Christ like and to deepen our faith. The bottom line is that observing Lent makes Easter much more joyful.

Perhaps you needed reminding today.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂