Lent Begins Ash Wednesday, March 6
If you’ve had experience with a traditional church denomination, you’re probably familiar with Lent – the 40 days leading up to Easter. (Technically, Lent comprises the 40 days before Easter, starting on Ash Wednesday, not counting the Sundays, or 46 days in total.) You may have been encouraged to “give up something for lent.” If you were a child you might have tried to give up homework or chores, but that probably didn’t fly with your parents! Instead, you may have given up sweets, meat, or watching TV. But why? What does giving something up have to do with Easter?
Lent is a church tradition that isn’t mentioned in the Bible. It’s certainly not required for Christians and keeping it will not earn you extra credit with God. But that doesn’t mean it has no value. It can be a helpful tool to help us grow in our relationship with God. The practice of giving something up does several things. The 40 days reminds us of when Jesus went into the wilderness, fasted for 40 days, and then was tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13). Forty days is a long time to go without something we enjoy; during this partial fast we feel the temptation to indulge and we are more aware of our human limits. This reminds us to turn to God for strength (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) and highlights our need for the Spirit’s help to resist temptation in every area of our lives. It helps us remember that we need God more than anything else in our lives. We may feel a void that the thing we have given up usually fills, and realize that we can depend on God to satisfy that void (Matthew 5:6). Giving something up like social media or movies may also leave more time for reading, meditation, worship, and prayer. This is a great time to focus on the significance of Easter and to remember that we really do need Jesus – without Jesus’ death, we would be condemned to eternal death – his death pays the penalty for our sins. And his resurrection shows his power over death and gives us hope that we too will be resurrected after we die and live forever with Jesus. Observing lent can help us to have a fresh and vivid appreciation of Good Friday and Easter.
This year, we encourage you to pray and consider if you would like to observe Lent, Wednesday March 2 to Saturday April 20 – it’s between you and God if you want to include Sundays or not! You may sense God asking you to:
- Give up something – a particular food or beverage, social media, TV, movies, etc.
- Spend extra time each day in prayer, reading, meditation or worship. You may want to use a seasonal devotional book, such as:
- Contemplating the Cross: A 40 Day Pilgrimage of Prayer, by Tricia McCary Rhodes ($9.99 kindle, $15.72 paperback)
- Reliving the Passion: Meditations on the Suffering, death, and Resurrection of Jesus as Recorded in Mark, by Walter Wangerin Jr. ($5.49 kindle, $14.99 hard cover)
- An online devotional, such as www.ilent.org or www.bible.com/reading-plans/83-lent-for-everyone
There are copies of the two books mentioned above on the information table if you want to take a look. You can order them yourself or ask Gill to order one or both for you. Remember, the discipline of observing Lent has no spiritual value in itself. But observing Lent may well help you develop a deeper and more real relationship with our awesome God. And that has priceless spiritual value!