The Lenten Season

I have gotten a lot of questions about Lent so I have decided to break it down for everyone.

Lent starts on TODAY, Ash Wednesday.

The Bible does not mention Ash Wednesday or the Lenten celebration as a custom, however, the practice of repentance and mourning in ashes is found in Ezekiel 27:30 And they will make their voice heard over you And will cry bitterly. They will cast dust on their heads, They will wallow in ashes.

Ashes were used in the Bible, to express mourning

During Ash Wednesday services, the pastor rubs a cross with ashes onto the foreheads of worshipers. In our church, the ashes come from the Palms from the previous Palm Sunday

We call Lent a Celebration because it is the time of the year when we prepare for the return of Jesus 40 days before Easter. The 6 Sundays in this season are not counted. In the bible, Jesus spent forty days in the desert before he began his ministry to the public and received constant attacks from Satan.  in Matthew 4 1:-2 it says 1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

The traditional purpose of Lenten  is to prepare Christians through prayer, penitence and self-denial for the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. Most people do not KNOW that Easter or Resurrection Sunday is the biggest day in the Christian year! This is the day we celebrate Jesus being  resurrected from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion and sitting on the right hand of God the Father Almighty!

The modern custom to also give up something a Christian enjoys or loathes in during the Lenten season is not required or part of any rule, it is merely a time to do like Jesus and fast and pray. To give Jesus a sacrifice and focus more on him. It is a fasting period were some choose to give up meat, candy,sweets, etc and during that time focus on Praying and growing closer with God. It isn’t merely a “test” to see if for 40 days you can stop eating candy or you will stop doing a task, it is the time of the year you should be the closest with GOD!

In the book of Isiah the 58th Chapter and 3rd Chapter Verse 3-7, it speaks of fasting as this:

3‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers.
4Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the LORD?

6“Is not this the fast that I choose:to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
7Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

So this Lenten season fast not  because you think it is “Right” or a “ritual” fast because Jesus called for us to fast in times such as this. Jesus wants us to grow closer to him and his word to grow closer to our purpose. Pray that during the Lenten season Jesus will move those things that are flesh and allow more of himself to come in! I promise when Easter comes you will be a renewed spirit!

So what are you giving up for Lent and Why?

Peace and Blessings!