God has brought the Body to the season of grace and hope.

February 26th to April 9th is the season of Lent, and in this season, God wants the Body of Christ to examine themselves. Lent is a forty-day journey of self-reflection and self-denial that prepares the believer for Holy Week, leading to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.

Throughout this period, Christians are invited to examine themselves as they remember the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus on their behalf.

It is also a time for setting aside our past sins and failures in light of the blessed future hope of who we will become by God’s grace. Accompanying this season of repentance is fasting, almsgiving, reflection, and prayer. Traditionally, this season has been marked by fasting from food and entertainment as a way to experience, in some way, Christ’s own self denial. These 40 days of self-denial are meant to help believers identify with and understand the depths of Christ’s own self-denial on our behalf through his suffering and sacrifice on the Cross.

Why forty days?
The number {forty} is deeply scriptural: God sent rain for forty days and nights during the great Noah flood; Moses spent forty days on Mt. Sinai with God; the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years before gaining the promised land; and Jesus went into his own wilderness and fasted for forty days, where He was tested and tempted by satan before He began His ministry.

During this season of Lent, we are called to remember our mortality and express our need for God’s mercy and forgiveness. We are invited to remember that one day we will return to the dust from whence we came, and it is by God’s gracious gift that we will be resurrected from the dead and given everlasting life.