Today marks the beginning of Lent. The 40 days of Lent points back to the 40 days of temptation Jesus faced in the wilderness. It’s not the flashiest set of days on the Christian calendar. Whereas Advent leads up to the birth of our Savior and Easter celebrates his resurrection, the 40 days of Lent are set aside as a more somber time of reflection, preparation, and even self-denial.
Often seen as a time to fast—from food, social media, TV, purchases, or something else that seems to have a deeper hold on us than God—though good to do, Lent is about much more than giving something up.
Lent is an opportunity to slow down, to hit pause on the frenetic world and force our eyes—and hearts—to hold still. As much as we love the love of God in our lives, we allow space to remember our sin and humanity. We came from dust and to dust we will return. We search our hearts and recognize the brokenness inside of each one of us that made Jesus’s death and resurrection on Easter necessary.
To that end, this year we are offering a 5 day/week Lenten resource. We know everyone is busy, so each day’s prompts are designed to be completed in 5 minutes or less—you can take a brief pause from your day and do them as offered, or you can spend further time reflecting and studying to make a lengthier study time if you wish. Weekends are off or can be used to catch up on missed days. Each Monday we will post the five prompts for that week on the Riverbend Blog.
Our theme for our passages this Lent is Return to Me. To set that up, let’s take a look back at the Fall in Genesis 3:4-8:
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
The serpent’s lie to Eve was that God was withholding good from her, and she believed it. Adam did as well. It was not enough that they had everything they could ever need, living in a perfect place—deep in their hearts, they fell to the temptation that God is not enough. They went their own way.
The next 40 days, we will spend time thinking of where we have gone our own way, thinking God is not enough in our own lives. But the good news is God has provided us an invitation. As he did numerous times through the Old Testament and even in the Gospels, he invited his people: “Return to me”.
As we journey to the Friday Cross through to Easter, we will see that God has offered us that same invitation, “Return to me,” through the death and resurrection of his perfect Son. This time, it is an invitation that echoes into eternity.