LENT DEVOTIONAL GUIDE

 Download a PDF of this guide here.

WHAT IS LENT?

Lent began in the 6th century as a way for Christians to reflect for forty days on Jesus’s death before celebrating His resurrection on Easter morning. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, the church reflects on humanity’s mortality caused by our sin and the need for a savior to come and defeat death. By reflecting on the extent of our sin and the unnecessary weight of death, our hearts are prepared for the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. Lent helps us wake up to the depth of our sin and the brokenness it causes in the world and prepares our hearts to overflow with joy because Christ is risen. Lent reminds us that we are made from the dust of the earth and, because of death, we will return to dust. That’s why ashes are pressed onto our foreheads at the beginning of Lent, on Ash Wednesday. The ashes remind us that death is real and inescapable. The shape of the cross symbolizes the opportunity to repent.

FASTING AND GENEROSITY

Fasting and generosity are foundational practices for Lent. Remember, Lent mirrors the forty days leading to Jesus’s death on the cross. Jesus fasted many times on the way to the cross: He didn’t eat at the final Passover and didn’t eat again until after His resurrection. So, fasting helps us identify with Jesus in His death while we practice the things He did on the way to the cross. Fasting also helps us identify what we long for. When we can identify our longings, we can redirect our desires from other things to Christ. Fasting helps us repent and grow in gratitude. In the same way, generosity and service help us become more aware of the world around us. When we have a posture of generosity, we start to notice the things around us that are not quite right, and we give from what God has given us to see healing and wholeness begin to do their work in those issues. Generosity and service are attitudes and actions that flow out of gratitude. The more we see death and its effects in the world, the more we grow in gratitude for what Jesus did for us on the cross. 

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

Because fasting and generosity are foundational practices for Lent, we will focus on them throughout the Lenten season. Each week, we’ll continue in fasting, praying, and serving. As these foundational practices are laid, we’ll start to fold them together with Scripture. The prayer for each week of Lent is provided below. Read that prayer aloud to start the new week. Use the guide for each practice to get your bearings and pray through the assigned passages for each week. You don’t have to read all of the texts together at the same time—meditate on one each morning or in the evening before bed. Remember, the point of Lent is to prepare our hearts for Christ’s resurrection. If you find that you are distracted during Lent, bring your mind back to the enormity of what Jesus did for us on the cross. 

GUIDE FOR FASTING

What we occupy ourselves with shapes us and takes up space in us. It becomes our spirituality and that thing that we worship. Fasting is the practice of abstaining from something. In a spiritual sense, fasting clears us from what occupies us and brings us face to face with our appetites and our need to control our world rather than hungering after God. Fasting reminds us that we were created to flourish, but that cannot happen if we are tending to our hungers or keeping space for things that do not allow for flourishing.

Over the next six weeks:

1. Start with skipping a meal or abstaining from something for a short time and fill that space with prayer and/or Scripture meditation.

2. Break your fast with a feast; something that helps you delight in God.

3. Each week, incrementally increase the frequency and duration of your fast.

4. Assess your heart along the way—How is your hunger for God being satisfied?

GUIDE FOR GENEROSITY AND SERVICE

After we have spent time fasting, we should find our hearts and time expanding for others. The purpose of spiritual practices is to turn inward in reflection that we might turn outward in loving service to others. Generosity and Service are practices of community. Generosity and service are held together; generosity is the heart and service is the action. It is a sharing of our lives and what we have been given with the intention of giving up ourselves so that Christ may be more. When we live generous lives, we live vulnerable lives. We run the risk of being seen and known, but we do so with the hope of being loved and accepted. Generous people know they are beloved, and they want others to not only know but experience that belovedness, too. 

How can we live out generosity and service? Here are some suggestions:

• Pray for an “enemy.”

• Treat someone you struggle to love with kindness

• Surprise someone you are grateful for with a gift that shows your gratitude.

• Buy a meal for someone who might not eat otherwise, or invite someone over for dinner with whom you wouldn’t normally eat. 

• Give someone the benefit of the doubt.

• Extend or ask for forgiveness.

• Reach out to the group of members at Solid Rock who work with the International Institute of SW Missouri and serve refugees in our community alongside them. 

Each week throughout Lent we encourage you to choose one of these forms of generosity to practice that week. Some of these things will be easier than others. Try to do each of these things only once. Branch out and stretch yourself.

GUIDE FOR PRAYER

Prayer is talking with God. But, truly, prayer is about changing us rather than changing circumstances or even the mind of God. When we enter into prayer, we are opening ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit to shape our thoughts and actions into the very direction of Christ. We know that prayer can be difficult, so during Lent we will be practicing Centering Prayer.

A good entrance into prayer is the Lord’s Prayer, found in Matthew 6:9-12. Take this passage line by line, making it the foundation of your prayers.

Centering Prayer is a meditative way of praying that clears away all other thoughts but the ones that center us on Christ.

• Set aside some time (can be as little as 15 minutes). Attempt to clear your mind of any other thought. Focus on the presence of God.

• Pick a line from the Lord’s Prayer that feels relevant or appropriate for the week.

• End your prayer time by praying the entirety of the Lord’s Prayer.

• Throughout the day, return to that line, re-centering and re-orienting yourself to the presence of God.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

“This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

WEEK 1

(Feb 22 - 28)

Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations, and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

READINGS

• Genesis 2:4––17

• Psalm 51 

• Romans 5:12–21

• Matthew 4:1–11

  
  

WEEK 2

(March 1 - 7)

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities that may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

READINGS

• Genesis 12:1–9

• Psalm 33:12–21

• Romans 4:1–17 

• John 3:1–16

WEEK 3

(March 8 - 14)

Heavenly Father, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you: Look with compassion upon the heartfelt desires of your servants, and purify our disordered affections, that we may behold your eternal glory in the face of Christ Jesus; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

READINGS

• Exodus 17:1–7

• Psalm 95

• Romans 1:16–32

• John 4:5–42

WEEK 4

(March 15 - 21)

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

READINGS

• I Samuel 16:1–13

• Psalm 23

• Ephesians 5:1–14

• John 9:1–13

  
  

WEEK 5

(March 22 - 28)

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

READINGS

• Ezekiel 37:1–14

• Psalm 130

• Romans 6:15–23

• John 11:1–44

WEEK 6

(March 29 - April 3)

Almighty and everlasting God, in your tender love for us you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon himself our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and come to share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

READINGS

• Isaiah 52:13–53:12

• Psalm 22:1–21

• Philippians 2:5–11

• Matthew 26:36–27:66