10 Bible Verses for Lent
However you feel about Lent, the season can be a time for reflection, repentance, and renewal. It is a time to draw closer to God, to turn away from distractions, and to focus on deepening our faith.
While we might not all agree on what that looks like, we can at least agree these are all good things.
But how do we do them?
In this post, we’re going to examine ten different passages that provide instruction for exactly that.
Table of Contents
Joel 2:12-13
“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Lent is a call to return to God with sincerity and humility. Joel reminds us that God desires a change of heart more than outward religious displays. If you just follow the motions of fasting, praying, and even going to church, you aren’t being truly sincere in your walk.
These practices are only worthwhile if they reflect a true heart’s desire for dwelling in the presence of God.
Matthew 6:16-18
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Watch as I cleverly avoid the argument surrounding Ash Wednesday and this passage.
So anyway, Jesus here is responding to the actions of the Pharisees who followed the customs of their day with a heart more interested in receiving praise from men than honoring God. Jesus makes it clear that when we fast—or do anything, really—we shouldn’t do it with a prideful motivation of earning our own glory. In fact, we should take care to make sure our actions are done in such a way that we don’t make it obvious to others what it is we’re doing for the Lord.
It’s also worth noting here that Jesus uses a very specific word: “When you fast.” On some level, there’s an expectation that the practice of fasting is something we will participate in. There’s an implication here that for believers, fasting should be a common practice.
Isaiah 58:6-7
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”
This hits at the almsgiving aspect of Lent, which is caring for the poor among us. Passages like this remind us that our relationship with God and the things we do to honor him should benefit the people around us.
We should have a heart of love and compassion for others just as God has a heart of love and compassion for us.
Matthew 4:1-2
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Real. I took a fourteen-hour long power nap and woke up starving once, so I think I’m qualified to say “hungry” might be an understatement here.
That aside, what this passage shows us is that Jesus himself endured a period of fasting, so we shouldn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that Catholic Lent is the work of the devil. When we embark on a similar journey to commit ourselves to the Lord and abstain from certain things, we introduce a bit of tension in our daily lives that makes us uncomfortable.
This is unique because each instance where you can’t partake in whatever you’ve abstained from encourages you to reflect on Jesus and his ultimate sacrifice for us. When you go to reach for that Hostess Cosmic Brownie and remember last-second you can’t eat it for another ten, twenty, thirty, however many days, the ache of not experiencing that chocolatey goodness should naturally point your mind to the reason you decided to give it up in the first place.
And while cosmic brownies are good (even if not good for you), taking a small season out of the year to give them up in exchange for that experience is undoubtedly better.
Psalm 51:10-12
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
“The joy of your salvation.”
How many of us have heard the sermons of new Christians being “on fire for the Lord!” only to have that fire fade to a few flickering embers over the resulting years, months, weeks… hours? Complacency and comfort are the two biggest enemies of most American Christians today.
Lent, as previously mentioned, is an opportunity to voluntarily disrupt our sense of comfort to really bring our mind back to the joy of our salvation.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
In this age of American splendor, decadence, and status-chasing, Lent presents an opportunity for us as Christians to stand out from the world and represent who our God is and what he has done for all mankind.
People understand going on a diet to lose weight or for health complications, but a diet for your God? Many mock the idea, asking why it matters to God whether or not you eat meat in an arbitrary twenty-four hour (or longer) timeframe.
While this misunderstanding and mocking can be frustrating to endure, it actually presents an opportunity for us to set the record straight and explain that Lent is a season of reflection on the greatest sacrifice ever made that offers redemption from sins for all people everywhere.
So the next time someone starts heckling you for your beliefs, reflect on how you as an ambassador of Christ can conduct yourself so that everyone—both the heckler and those watching—can observe the character of the God you represent.
Philippians 3:8-10
What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death
First, Lent is not a process that earns you more righteousness. To anyone who believes the practice of Lent makes you more righteous than those who don’t practice it, I invite you to examine Jesus’s interactions with the Pharisees and Luke 18:9-14.
HOWEVER!
Voluntarily committing yourself to fasting and abstinence in order to consciously give things up in an attempt to better appreciate what Jesus did for us is a good thing. Such an experience will, if done properly, grow your faith and appreciation for the ultimate sacrifice paid to redeem us of our sins, as well as help you become a person of greater discipline.
If you’re going to participate in the season of Lent, treat it as an opportunity to privately grow in your own walk with Christ alongside fellow believers who are doing the same thing. Don’t try to outdo someone else in how much you’re sacrificing, and don’t look for ways to boast about how pious you are.
As Galatians 5:25-26 says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
How many of us have said, “I just wish I knew God’s will for my life?”
Often when we say this it’s because we’re concerned about a fork in the road or a feeling that we’ve somehow gotten off-track with our lives. Do we take that job offer and move out of state, or do we stay with our current career? Should we send our kids to public school or instruct them at home instead?
I think what Paul’s getting at in this passage is that these questions and concerns are the typical pattern of this world, and we can all too easily become consumed by them. God’s will for our lives very rarely looks like a glowing neon sign pointing at the choice we should make in every situation, and because we think these decisions are so important, we develop feelings of unease and anxiety since we don’t want to make the “wrong” choice.
Lent, again, calls us to a period of renewal and focus on God’s will. When our minds are renewed by God, we realize that what’s really important in our day-to-day life is just abiding in God. Whether we take that new job offer or stay in our current career, whether we send our kids to public school or instruct them at home—none of these things really matter so long as we’re always abiding in God no matter what decision we make.
Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Another great aspect of Lent is that it creates a feeling of connection with those around us and those who have come before us. It is a time to fix our eyes more firmly on Jesus and the sacrifice he paid for our sakes. It can be difficult at times to maintain our focus on the Lord, but knowing that the observance of Lent is a tradition so old it stretches back to the fourth century really helps put into perspective that we’re not alone in the struggles we endure.
With this in mind, we become encouraged to continue running our race with endurance like the many, many Christians who came before us.
James 4:8-10
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
The creator of the universe and everything in it earnestly wants us to come to him; imagine the king of the entire world earnestly wanting an unknown beggar and criminal to walk up to his throne so that the two of them can share each other’s company.
It’s insane, really—but that’s the God we serve.
Lent helps put this into perspective by revealing our own weaknesses and insufficiencies. It’s a time of grieving and mourning our sin and prior separation from God that culminates in a celebration of Jesus’s loving sacrifice that redeems us and allows us—that dirty, broken-down beggar and criminal—to approach the creator of the universe and have a seat at his table.
Lent is more than just a tradition we argue about year after year; it’s an opportunity for transformation.