Lent

By Pastora Monique Lopez Ong

Lent is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting, and repentance leading to Easter. The word itself comes from an old English term for “spring,” but spiritually it is more like winter-cleaning for the soul. It prepares the heart for the resurrection of Jesus.

While the Bible does not command Christians to observe Lent as a formal season, the spirit of Lent is deeply biblical.

The number 40 echoes through Scripture like a drumbeat of preparation:

• 40 days of rain in Book of Genesis during the flood

• 40 years of Israel in the wilderness

• 40 days Moses fasted before receiving the Law

• 40 days Elijah journeyed to Horeb

• Most importantly, 40 days of fasting by Jesus in the wilderness before His ministry (Matthew 4)

Lent mirrors what Jesus did before stepping into public ministry. It is not about earning salvation. It is about aligning the heart. Think of it as a spiritual reset button.

In Book of Joel 2:12, God says:

“Return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Notice that it is not “Return with performance.”

It is “Return with heart.”

How Do We Celebrate Lent?

Here are practical, biblical ways to observe it:

1.Fast Intentionally

This could be:

• Food (like Daniel in the Book of Daniel 1)

• Social media

• Entertainment

• Anything that has quietly taken too much of your attention

Fasting creates space for hunger that only God fills.

2.Pray More Deeply

You might:

• Set a daily prayer time

• Read one Gospel slowly

• Journal reflections on Jesus’ journey to the cross

Many focus on the Passion narratives in Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke, or Gospel of John.

3. Practice Repentance

This is not shame. It is course correction.

Psalm 51 is often prayed during Lent.

It is David’s cry after failure.

It sounds like someone who knows mercy is real.

4. Give Generously

Lent invites us to move outward:

• Support someone in need

• Serve quietly

• Forgive someone

• Reconcile

The cross is vertical and horizontal. Lent should be too.

Lets dive into LENT 

Death that leads to life.

Death is painful. You are physically separated from your loved one. You will not be able to talk to them, hang out, make memories. It ends there.  

DEATH IS PART OF OUR JOURNEY.

IT IS SURE TO COME.

“For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return,” says Genesis 3:19 “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted," says Ecclesiastes 1:2-3

Whether we like it or not. we will have an end to this life. THIS IS REALITY. And yet many are still caught off guard. We still get shocked, we still get extremely devastated, it still hurts and its sooooo painful.  

Why did Death come?

Death is not God’s original design. In the book of Genesis 1–2, God creates and repeatedly says, “It is good.” There is no funeral language in Eden. No separation. People had access to the Tree of Life. Fellowship with God was uninterrupted.

Death was not part of the blueprint.

BAD NEWS: DEATH ENTERED THROUGH OUR SIN.

Genesis 2:17 says, “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God had warned Adam that “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) When Adam and Eve chose disobedience, something ruptured. And death entered the bloodstream of creation. Romans 5:12 explains it clearly:

“Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people.”

So biblically:

• Sin is the root

• Death is the consequence

Three layers of death unfolded that day:

1. Spiritual death – immediate separation from God

2. Physical death – eventual decay of the body

3. Relational death – shame, blame, broken harmony

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

DEATH is an ENEMY – it comes to steal, kill and destroy.

That is already defeated. – The last enemy to be destroyed is death. – 1 Corinthians 15:26

But Death Was Not Left Unchallenged: JESUS CAME AND CONQUERED DEATH

Here is the thunderclap of the Gospel.

Jesus enters the story.

Gospel of John 1:4 says:

“In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

Christ did not merely teach about life.

He stepped into death.

On the cross, He absorbed its penalty.

In the resurrection, He broke its authority.

1 Corinthians 15:20-22 says, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruitsof those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”

HOW TO OVERCOME DEATH AND LIVE VICTORIOUSLY.

Live Ready, Not Afraid 

Application:

Do not avoid the thought of death. Let it refine you. Let it awaken urgency, not panic.

Hebrews 9:27

“It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.”

Psalm 90:12

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Lent reminds us that life is short. Reconcile quickly. Forgive quickly. Obey quickly.

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. - Isaiah 38:1-4

Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

“‘This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: 8 I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down. - Isaiah 38:4-8

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” Die Daily to Sin.

Application:

Let something in you die before you die.

Romans 6:11

“Consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Luke 9:23

“Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily.”

Lent is not about fearing physical death.

It is about crucifying pride, bitterness, control, and hidden sin.

The safest death is the death of self before the cross.

LIVE WITH PURPOSE – so you wont regret anything when your time is up

If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord- Romans 14:8

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain- Philippians 1:21

HOW TO RESPOND TO DEATH

1. Give Honor and Praise to Our God.

This is a graduation. Our loved ones last breath, is his/ her first breath in heaven!

We cannot give any sacrifice to God in heaven. We will just worship him there. Here on earth we get the privilege to offer a sacrifice of praise in the midst of our pain.

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. – Hebrews 13:15

2. Avoid a sick heart/

Disappointment make us vulnerable to spiritual weakness such as unbelief, skepticism.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desired fulfilled is a tree of life. -Proverbs 13:12

Watch over your heart with diligence for from it flows the springs of life. - Proverbs 4:23

When our prayers are unanswered and when we see that miracles did not take place, many fall into the trap of disappointment, sometime questioning the goodness of God.  We can sometimes fall into unbelief. We need to guard our heart with the truth of God. God does not change. We don’t see the overall picture – we are the clay; not the potter. We work for God; God doesn’t work for us.  So we must trust that His plan is better than ours. We must surrender to God our hearts.

We must learn to declare Psalms 103 over us.

Praise the Lord, my soul,

    and forget not all his benefits—

who forgives all your sins

    and heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit

    and crowns you with love and compassion,

3. Grieve wth hope.

When loss comes, do not suppress sorrow. But do not surrender to despair.

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. – 1 Thess 4:13-14

With Jesus – its never goodbye but see you soon.

Do not try to be strong but instead be faithful. The effort to be strong in difficult situation will often lead a person to ignore the pain and problems and pretend to be okay when were not. Tragically the thing we ignore or bury will resurface in the future – ENLARGED.

Effort to be faithful requires me to embrace the pain knowing there is grace available for me should I seek my heart to seek Him first.

4. Trust Christ With Your Eternity.

Eternity is a serious business.  We don’t want to miss this.

The only way to overcome fear of death is to settle eternity now. Romans 8:1 says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” 1 Corinthians 15:55 says,

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

For the believer, death is not a courtroom. It is a doorway.