What is Lent and How Can I Practice It?
The season of Lent is the time between Ash Wednesday and Resurrection Sunday. In this season we reflect on Jesus’ great love for us and all that he did for us. Throughout church history, followers of Jesus take on specific practices to help cultivate deeper reflection, dependance, and awareness.
We are providing a worksheet for a few practices you may like to try this lenten season - Solitude, Fasting, Intercessory Prayer, and Confession. These practices are modeled or taught by Jesus throughout his life and ministry as he makes his way to the cross and resurrection.
These practices are not avenues to try to achieve spiritual grandeur or to gain more of God's love. Instead view them as avenues into God's presence - ways in which you can open yourself up to God and reflect more deeply on Jesus’ gift of grace. Feel free to try just one over the course of Lent or try a new one each week. Ask for the Holy Spirit to guide you in this Lenten journey, focusing not on doing more but being more, with God, in alignment with His heart towards you and others.
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The desire of solitude is to “leave people behind and enter into time alone with God.” Solitude is the basis for many of the other disciplines, and a great place to start the journey through Lent. For many, silence and solitude are challenging and uncomfortable — not only hard to come by in a busy, loud world but also unnatural to our busy and loud minds and hearts. Silence and solitude helps us to quiet ourselves and the voices of the world and hear God. Solitude allows us to bring our mixed up thoughts, emotions, and to do lists to God — to slow down, be still, and center on God. In this space of solitude, we can come back to our truest identity, as a beloved child of God. Its also in this space that the Holy Spirit can bring new insight, order, or peace. Jesus himself practiced solitude, frequently getting away from the crowds to spend time with the Father. See how and why Jesus practiced solitude in the scriptures below. Then try for yourself one or two of the exercises below.
Scripture: Matthew 4: 1-11, Luke 6: 12-19, Matthew 14: 13-21, Matthew 14: 22-27, Luke 22:39-46
Exercises:
In a place free of distractions and where you can't be interrupted, sit in silence, remembering you are in the presence of God. Sometimes saying or meditating on the phrase “God you are here” or “Lord you are near”. Breathe slowly, inhaling God’s breath of life, exhaling all the burdens that weigh on you. Simply be alone with God. As distractions or thoughts come, hand them over to God or gently bring yourself back to centering on God’s presence. Before you leave and go back to your normal day, try to carry God’s presence with you, maybe closing with “God thank you for this time with you, you go with me into the rest of the day”
Set aside some time for solitude and examine the following questions: How and when do you resist being alone? When have you felt most comfortable being alone? Most uncomfortable? What do you resort to doing when you are alone? What tends to occupy your mind when you are alone? What sense of God do you have when you are alone?
Spend 15 minutes alone with God, you can do an activity (walk, run, drive, etc), but dedicate the time to God, saying “God, I am here, You are with me”. After the time is up, consider how that was for you to be alone with God. Was it hard? Good? Did God speak to you in any way?
Take some time to read the above scriptures, noting how Jesus practiced solitude. Why did he practice solitude? How did solitude help him in his life and ministry?
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The desire of fasting is to let go of something (an appetite, a craving, a want) in order to seek God and depend on Him as our true sustenance and to make space for prayer. During Lent,
this self-denial reminds us of Jesus giving up his own life for us. Fasting gives us a physical reminder of our emptiness and opens us up to intentionally seeking God’s will and grace in a way that goes beyond our normal rhythms. Fasting can look like abstaining from a meal or particular foods to be intentional with God but it can also look like abstaining from specific habits or comforts (television, phones, social media, games, shopping, criticism, complaining, etc). The heart behind fasting is not to do an extreme “diet” or manipulate God but instead to trade the ways we try to sustain ourselves with the ways God can nourish our souls. We set aside our ways of being so that we can listen and attend to the voice of God and his nourishment alone.
Scripture: Matthew 4:4, Matthew 6:16-18, Isaiah 58:6-7, Acts 13:1-3
Exercises:
Spend some time thinking about what sustains you. When you feel empty or restless, what do you do to fill that emptiness? What is your attitude towards fasting or self denial? Reading the scriptures above, why do you think scripture talks about fasting? Why has it been an important practice within Christianity? How do you sense God asking you enter into fasting this lenten season?
To deepen your understanding of how Jesus denied himself for our sake, choose one thing (food, habit, or comfort) to fast from during Lent. If you need help thinking about what to fast from, make two lists: one of needs, and one of wants. Ask God to show you where to fast from one of (or some of) your wants.
When fasting is difficult, share your thoughts and feelings with Jesus. What does Jesus say to you?
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Jesus enters into the darkest depths of our humanity and our world, so that He can bring new life and reconciliation. During Lent, we can enter into this with him through intercessory prayer. Adele Calhoun states the desire of “intercessory prayer is to turn my concerns and worries into prayer, to enter into God’s heart for the world and pray from there… No concern is too trivial for God to receive with loving attention. However, intercession is not a means of manipulating heaven into doing our will. Rather it is a way we become aware of God’s prayer for a person and join in that intercession” In this our heart increasingly longs for what God longs for.
If you would like to engage in intercessory prayer in a group setting or learn from observing others in intercessory prayer, please join the prayer team in the House of Miracles (Annex Building, upstairs) at 9:00 am on Sunday Mornings.
Scripture: Romans 8:27, Philippians 4:6, Ephesians 6:18
Exercises:
Use the Lord’s Prayer as a pattern for intercession:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” — Spend some time thanking God for his fatherly love and attention. Ponder who he is, adore his majesty, holiness, sovereignty, and goodness.
“Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” — Turn your intercession to God’s purposes in the world. Consider what God’s kingdom agenda might be in your relationships and in the world. Pray for these things. What might partnering with God look like?
“Give us this day our daily bread” — Pray for your needs and those whose lives are closely linked with your own. Pray for those in danger, suffering, and in places of decision making or costly love.
“Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors” — Where are you trying to bring your kingdom rather than putting your efforts toward God’s kingdom agenda? Confess where God’s priorities have been replaced with your own. Bring any grudges, bitterness, or pride to God, dwelling at the foot of the cross, remembering that because of Jesus you walk in freedom and forgiveness.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil” — As you look ahead to your day, notice the tasks and interactions ahead of you. Where might you get off track? Pray for the Spirit to work in you, to grow you and guide you. Ask for protection and courage for the day.
“For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” — End your time of intercession with prayers of trust in God’s goodness and his redemptive plan.
Pay attention to the moments when people come to mind. Sometimes they come to you out of the blue. As a person comes to mind, offer them up to the Lord. If time allows, turn to God and ask him “What is your prayer for this person?” Listen and pray. Ask God if there is any way you need to act in follow up according to His will.
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The desire of confession is to deepen our understanding and acceptance of God’s love and transformation. In confession we bring our true selves, our needs, our weaknesses, our burdens to God. In confession we seek the transformation, the healing, and the freedom that only Jesus can bring. Adele Calhoun says that to confess is “to surrender my weaknesses and faults to the forgiving love of Christ and intentionally desire and embrace practices that lead to transformation.”
While we generally associate confession with the discovery and admission of sin, we may want to consider that we need to seek a deeper confession. We may need to be set free from how we develop identities based on what we do, what we have, and how we want people to think of us. We may need to confess our “strengths” that keep us self-dependent instead of God-dependent. We may need to confess how much we “help” others only to gain a good image, or how active we are because it is our way to find acclaim and admiration, or to earn God’s love. Confession can be done privately or, you may choose to talk with a trusted person. In all this, remember the heart of God is not that we are stuck in our faults and failures, but instead set free and transformed. God wants to do this work, in and through us, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Scriptures: Proverbs 28:13, Psalm 32:1-5, Psalm 38:15-18, James 5:16, 1 John 1:5-9
Exercises:
What experiences have affected your ability to give and receive forgiveness? Talk to God about what that means. Then set aside some time for confession and self-examination. Then ask yourself, “Who have I injured recently through thoughtlessness, neglect, anger and so on?” As the Holy Spirit brings people to mind, confess your feelings about these people to God. Ask for forgiveness and help to change. Pray about what action you can take to begin to heal the relationship.
Are there ways after confession that allow you to step into God’s grace more fully? What keeps you from reliving your wrongdoings over and over? How do you not get stuck? Reflect on how to move through confession and how you can embrace God’s gift of grace and forgiveness more fully.
Additional Resources
Lectio 365 Lent Series | Online devotionals ideal for adults and teens.
The Sinner/Saint Lenten Devotional | Explore the gift of repentance that turns us back to Christ and his finished work. Ideal for adults.
Trusting God in the Wilderness | An invitation to journey like Jesus did in his 40 days of temptation in the wilderness. If we desire God, the wilderness is where transformation occurs. Ideal for adults.