The season of Lent is upon us. For those unfamiliar, Lent refers to the 40 days in the run up to Easter. Christians spend this time in a spirit of repentance and reflection to prepare their hearts for remembering Jesus’ death and resurrection. It’s common for believers to practice the three pillars of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
For Christians who have observed this season every year for many years. Therefore, there can be a temptation to just go on auto-pilot and run through the same motions once again.
Give up chocolate/sugar (and personally benefit from a bit of weight loss on the side)
Give up social media (a good excuse to go offline and enjoy a mental health break)
Give up non-essential shopping (and save a bit for your bank account)
I’m genuinely not knocking any of these things, and there can be real spiritual value in sacrificing worldly comforts for the sake of discipline and redirecting your focus towards God. What I am trying to do, though, is challenge us all to reflect more deeply in our hearts the motive behind why we observe certain practices. It should draw our hearts closer to God.
When we pray, we shift our gaze to our heavenly Father
In addition to fasting, prayer is also one of the key pillars in this season of Lent. It might not be as (ironically) “fun” or visibly obvious as giving up coffee or junk food, but I would argue that prayer might just be the most powerful way to prepare our hearts. Why? When we pray, we shift our gaze to our heavenly Father and engage in intimate conversation with him, which ultimately deepens our relationship with him.
I find it particularly helpful to pair my prayers during this season with daily Lent devotionals based on Psalms. They help guide my reflections so that I can be more intentional in how I shape my prayers. Of course, any Scripture reading would be of great value, but I personally enjoy spending time in the Psalms for Lent due to its emotionally poetic nature. This makes a personal response to the reading seem more natural.
Perhaps you’re better at praying than I am. However, I find that if I’m not intentional, a lot of my prayers can end up being a long shopping list of requests to God. In this season of Lent, I’m so excited to feel more motivated to stay disciplined in my daily prayers and focus on God more rather than myself.
Together as a church family, let’s be intentional this year over Lent to deepen our prayer life, and maybe even develop healthy long-term spiritual habits that will last well past Easter!
