Lent is a wonderful season to turn our attention more deliberately toward God. It can be a time to focus on God and explore some of the differences between reaction and response, discernment and judgement, and about intentionally letting God transform us into people who have the hearts and wisdom to help in God’s transforming of our world. These forty days are about slowing down, tuning into the Spirit and being more available to God’s transforming work in the world. Lent is not about the practices that we take on or the things we give up. Lent is a season of honest self examination and renewed reliance on God’s grace, trusting that the Spirit uses repentance and reflection to conform us more fully to Christ.
Many people choose a focused Lenten devotional to support this practice. We have several resources in our church library and are happy to offer two excellent Presbyterian devotionals available this year.
One way to walk through Lent is to keep company with a wise guide. Our library includes the Augsburg “40 Day Journey With…” series featuring voices such as Howard Thurman, Parker Palmer, Kathleen Norris, Martin Luther, Julian of Norwich, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Joan Chittister, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Madeleine L’Engle, and Maya Angelou. Each offers daily readings shaped by their theology, poetry, or spiritual practice. Choosing one voice for forty days can become a kind of apprenticeship. You begin to notice how Thurman listens for the inward teacher, how Julian refuses despair, how Bonhoeffer holds costly grace and real world courage together. Lent becomes less about information and more about formation through proximity.
Another path is to let Scripture lead you in a sustained way. The Presbyterian Outlook’s Lenten devotional, Discipleship in a Divided Age: A Lenten Journey through Matthew’s Gospel, walks carefully through Matthew with an eye toward what faithful discipleship looks like in a fractured world. If you would like a copy, reach out to Shannon, and she will send you a PDF. This is a thoughtful option if you want daily structure rooted directly in the biblical text.
If your heart is drawn toward creation care and the widening horizon of God’s work in the world, Presbyterians for Earth Care has released their 2026 Lenten Devotional online in both English and Spanish. It is written by volunteer clergy and lay leaders across the United States and from the Red Presbiteriana para el Cuidado de la Creación. If you would like these emailed to you daily, please click here.
Another option is to go back each week and re-listen to the sermon, either on YouTube or on our FPCA podcast. Hear it again and jot some notes down. You would be surprised at how much you get from a second hearing.
May God use this Lenten season to bless you and shape you.