Lent- What it IS & What it Isn't

Joel 2: 12-13, “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief but tear your hearts instead.”

Reflection Questions: 

1. Where have I drifted from intimacy with Jesus?
   
   
2. What distraction consistently replaces prayer or silence?
   
   
3. What feels uncomfortable about slowing down with God?

 3-Day Devotional Guide:

Day 1 – Awareness
 Read Joel 2:12–13 slowly.
Journal where drift may be forming.

Day 2 – Honesty
 Write a private confession prayer — specific, not vague.

Day 3 – Silence
 Spend 10 uninterrupted minutes with no phone, no music, no agenda.

Most Holy Father, I don’t want to drift through another season spiritually numb. I feel far from you Lord and I know it’s because I put things in my life that distract me from You. Wake me up Lord, show me what You want for me as I lean into this season of Lent. I want to change my thoughts from ‘giving something up’ to being full of all I need. If I have replaced intimacy with You with comfort and distraction Lord, forgive me. I am here Lord, I ache to return to You, help me to get over myself and lay down my excuses. I don’t want to be legalistic Lord, I want true intimacy and connection with you. Tear my heart where it has hardened. Soften me again. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Transcript

Lentʼs True Meaning

Welcome back, fam. I'm so glad you're here. Today, we are going to continue our chat about this season of Lent.

When most people hear the word Lent, they think about giving something up, chocolate, coffee, social media. But Lent is not about what we give up. It is about connecting with God in the most intimate way.

Joel 2, 12 and 13 says, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning. Don't tear your clothing and your grief, but tear your hearts instead. That line stops me.

Don't tear your clothing, tear your heart. In other words, don't perform repentance. Feel it and be changed into the likeness of Christ.

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loss journey, releasing the weight once and for all. So I think it's really important, as we start this conversation today, to remember that Lent is not about outward adjustments and giving things up.

It's about an inward awakening to what God wants to do in you and for you. And if we're honest, many of us don't need another spiritual routine.

We need to get back to true connection with our Heavenly Father beyond a devotional or a quick prayer at night. Many of you are like me.

Spend time with Him daily, do all the right things, check all the boxes, but even I feel I get into a Christian routine and I don't actually have a true connection. Not because I've abandoned Jesus, but because I've drifted.

And drift often happens in subtle ways. We make excuses as to why we can't get up five minutes early and pray and read our Bible, yet we have time to check our inbox and social media notifications.

We don't wake up one morning and decide to love Jesus less. Like our priorities just get messed up. You get quote unquote busy.

But really, if we're honest, we're just distracted. We scroll instead of pray. We numb instead of repent.

We compare instead of worship. We overspend instead of trust. We indulge instead of surrender.

And slowly without noticing, our intimacy with our Father thins. You still believe in God. You still attend church.

You still call yourself a Christian, but something feels distant. Lent is God's mercy interrupting that drift. Before Jesus began his public ministry, before the miracles, before the crowds, before the sermons, he went into the wilderness.

In the Gospel of Matthew 4, we read that the Spirit led him into the wilderness for 40 days. 40 days, 40 days of fasting, 40 days of solitude, 40 days of confrontation and being tempted by the enemy. It was just hunger.

It was just temptation. It was just him and the Father. That is the model for Lent.

Not out of performance or legalism, but intimacy. It's not about what we look like. Lent is a season where we intentionally enter a wilderness with Jesus.

In the wilderness, let's face it, it's uncomfortable. Because when the noise quiets and our hunger kicks in, the truth of our distance with him, it gets really loud. And when we remove constant scrolling, we notice our anxiety.

When we remove overspending, you notice insecurity. When we remove food comfort, we notice loneliness. And when we remove pornography or fantasy, you notice dissatisfaction.

The wilderness exposes what comforts we're covering. And that exposure feels really threatening at first. But it's God's mercy.

He wants better for us. We cannot heal what we refuse to confront. Let me say that again.

We cannot heal what we refuse to confront. Repentance is not God calling us out. It's His loving way of disciplining His children in an effort to help us live more like Him.

Isn't that all we want?

Return to God

The word repent literally means to turn, to turn your face back toward God, to say, I haven't been facing other things, Father, and I've tried to do life without you, even when I know that never works. I want to face you again, Jesus. Heal me.

Lead me. And here's what's beautiful for Him. God is not shocked by your drift.

He saw it forming. He watched you numb out. He noticed the comparison.

He saw the quiet compromises. And instead of withdrawing from you, He invites you back. Return to me.

Not return when you fix yourself or when you feel like you're ready or you clean up your act. Return now. Lent is not about punishing yourself for sin.

It's about softening your heart towards grace. Some of us have been functioning spiritually on autopilot. We know the language.

We know the verses. We know the worship songs. But do we know Him right now?

Are we listening? Are we obeying? Are we intimate?

Are we ready to give up our excuses and lean into what He wants to do in us? Are we aware of that conviction? Or have we learned to just ignore it?

When we live without something for 40 days in an effort to honor Jesus and His sacrifice, the entire point isn't to live in misery. It's to recognize your desire for something beyond God. It's His way to remind us that He did make us to crave.

He just wants us to crave Him and not the desires of our flesh. Lent is not meant to make you feel miserable. It is meant to wake you up.

It's meant to show you what you desire most and when you feel that loss, to pray and seek God and His will for your life. Lent is intended to waken our desire for Jesus, to awaken sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, to awaken a hunger for God again.

Practical Application

Lent means long, so I'd like to ask you a hard question today. What areas of your life have you drifted? And are you ready to lay that down to return to Him?

I'm not asking where someone else has failed you or where culture is broken or where have you personally grown distant. Is it your thought life? Is it in your private habits?

Where have you personally stepped back from Him? Is it in comparison to who you see on social media? Maybe it's comfort eating or scrolling first thing in the morning or late into the night instead of sitting quietly with the Lord.

Be honest with yourself, my friends, this is not for Instagram. This is not for anyone else's approval. This is God's call to lay down your flesh and seek His space, the tearing of your heart.

This Lent season is a gift because it creates intentional space for us to return to God. 40 days to examine, 40 days to confess, 40 days to surrender what has quietly taken up too much space in your heart.

And here's the promise, when you return, you don't find an angry God. You find a father who never moved. You find the mercy that is waiting.

You find intimacy that can be rebuilt. This week, I don't want you to focus on what you're giving up. I want you to focus on who you are returning to and sit in that.

And those times where you miss what you're living without this season, ask the Spirit to reveal distraction in your life. Because this season is not about behavior modification. It's about heart restoration.

It's about connecting with Jesus again and learning to recognize how the enemy distracts us with the things of the world. So I want to challenge you to begin with an honest prayer today. I want to come back, Jesus.

I'm here. Cleanse my heart, Father. Forgive me.

I need you today. So as we close, I want you to ask yourself a few questions. Where have I drifted from intimacy with Jesus?

And what distraction consistently replaces prayer or silence? And what feels uncomfortable about slowing down with God? I also want to encourage you with a three-day devotional guide as you lean into Lent this year.

On day one, we're going to focus on awareness and reread Joel 2, 12, and 13 slowly. And then write down in your journal where you have felt that separation from God, where you have felt yourself drifting from true intentional connection with Him.

And then on day two, write a private confession prayer. Be specific. Repent.

Remember, repent means to turn. Not 360 back to where we started, but a 180. Be specific.

Let Him change your heart. And then day three, silence. Spend ten uninterrupted minutes.

No phone, no music, no agenda. Do it a couple times a day if you can. Find time to reconnect.

Ask Him. Say that Psalm 139, 23, and 24 verse. Search me, God, and know my heart.

Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there's any offensive way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting.

And He will. Most Holy Father, I don't want to drift through another season spiritually numb. I feel far from You, Lord, and I know it's because I put things in my life that distract me from You.

Wake me up, Father. Show me what You want for me as I lean into this season of Lent. I want to change my thoughts from giving something up to being full of all I need because I have You.

If I replaced intimacy with You in comfort and distraction, Lord, please forgive me. I'm here. I ache to return to You.

Help me get over myself and lay down my excuses. I don't want to be legalistic, Lord. I want true intimacy and connection with You.

Tear my heart where it has hardened. Soften me again. It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. Hey sis, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds and share it with a friend?

Also, please leave a quick review for the show on Apple Podcasts. It lights me up to know this podcast is helping you. Okay, it's time to go make a protein shake and get my sweat on.

No more standing in the kitchen waiting for motivation to appear. I will meet you back here for another episode. God bless.