How do you prepare your heart for Easter?
Ancient Christ-followers observed Lent over a 40 day period leading up to Easter Sunday. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, believers devoted themselves to the practices of prayer, abstaining, and generosity in preparation for Easter celebration! Here at Hope, we recognize that our congregation is made up of people from all different backgrounds and church traditions that may or may not have observed Lent. This year, we are providing resources and events to help you and your families prepare your hearts for Easter by observing Lent together.
Ash Wednesday Service
Come join us this Wednesday, March 1st from 6:30-7:30 PM as we observe a special Ash Wednesday prayer night. This will be a powerful time to prepare our hearts for the Lent season.
Scripture Reading
What better way to prepare our hearts for Easter, than spending time with Jesus? Over the next 40 days, we'll be jumping into a scripture reading plan that follows Jesus from the last days of his earthly ministry through his death, resurrection, and ascension. This plan includes a short, daily scripture reading, with more devotional content and reflection questions available in the YouVersion Bible App.
Wednesday, March 5 | Matthew 26:6-13
Thursday, March 6 | Matthew 26:14-16
Friday, March 7 | Matthew 26:17-19
Saturday, March 8 | Matthew 26:20-25
Complementary Resources
We have also curated a wealth of resources to help you engage with the ancient practices of prayer, abstaining, and generosity during this season of Lent.
Family Resources For Lent/Easter
These resources have been curated by our amazing HopeKids Team, to help you engage with your children and families to explain what Lent is, why we observe it, and how it can help us to grow with God!
Practicing The Way
These practices of prayer, fasting/abstaining, and generosity are all detailed in John Mark Comer's Practicing The Way book and discipleship course. His nonprofit, by the same name, has created a wealth of free church resources to help you become more like Jesus through learning about and implementing these ancient practices. They also have a podcast called the Rule of Life Podcast - we've linked a few relevant episodes that we hope can help you in your journey of spiritual formation.
Weekly Check-in & Reflection
We've included a few questions for you to return to each week to help you perform a self "check-in" throughout this Lent season.
Prayer
What am I praying for this Lent Season, and how has prayer impacted those things?
Abstaining
How has my abstaining or fasting challenged me and pushed me towards Jesus?
Generosity
Where was I generous this week, and what can I be generous with this week?
