As Lent begins, God offers us another opportunity to prune ourselves and move closer to God. This is our true goal in life, to live in such manner that will reflect the glory of God always. However, as beings made of flesh and blood, we often succumb to the temptations of the evil one and fall away from God.

Through sins, we lose God’s grace, we separate ourselves from the source of life and  suffer the consequences. LENT is a season of purification, when we embark on the journey that helps us to discipline the body so that we have the strength of soul to live life pleasing to God. It is thus imperative to prepare for this journey so as to make it beneficial to us.

Yes, Lent is the season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. But how are you going to be involved in it? What are you as a person going to do? Fasting should not just be for the fun of it, in fact, what fun is there except for those counting the number of days they have fasted. To derive maximum benefit, one should examine one’s life and determine the weakness to be uprooted and direct one’s gaze during the fasting period to combat that problem. For instance, it is gluttony or avarice or pride or indolence? If you have a goal to accomplish, then fasting will not be in vain. The same with prayer.

Christians are already called to pray in season and out of season, but during Lent, one needs to intensify one’s prayer life. We need to pray more and pray better. We also need to pray for certain intentions or engage in the practice of prayer so that we can be in the presence of God for more than we have been in the past. In fact, for the Christian, the goal at Lent is not how to be in the presence of God during Lent, but how not to be out of God’s presence always. Lent is thus the platform that lunches us in the embrace of God perpetually.

We also pray during Lent because we are conscious of the fact that the Devil is prowling round like a roaring Lion, looking for who to lead astray, but through prayer, God forms a protective shield around us, and we can elude the grasp of Satan. Why then would a Christian not immerse himself or herself in prayer?

In our Christian journey, the practice of mortification is essential because quite often the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. The flesh has to be trained meticulously to align to the dictates of the spirit. This is not going to be easy until one has learnt to consciously deny oneself, so that human desires are not the powers ruling over us but the love of God. Mortification keeps us attuned to the things of God, because the man of the flesh cannot understand the things of God.  You don’t need to become spiritual, as people created in the image and likeness of God, the spirit is already in us. So, we are not bodies having souls, we are spirits, dealing in human flesh. Each of us is endowed with the spirit of God, so we have the very life of God, hence it should not be difficult for us to tame, control the body.

What then do we do with what we have let go, such as the food and drinks and other favourite stuffs and past times? We cannot ascribe the delight of their enjoyment to ourselves again, otherwise we lose the value we would have saved. Hence, for every food we denied ourselves, the value or worth of it should be directed to the poor and needy. The money for the clothes we decided not to buy should be spent on the poor who will bless us for our goodwill towards them. Imagine doing this constantly during Lent, it will surely become a habit even after Lent and of course a source of continuous blessings.

Lent is not Lent unless you are getting blessings from your Lenten observances. Deepak Chopra once said that “Awakening is not changing who you are, but discarding who you are not.” It is the same for Christians during Lent. We must discard those things we have burdened ourselves with so that the beauty of life bestowed upon us by God can be made manifest. Even the famous psychologist, Carl Jung agrees with us on this that “the privilege of a lifetime is to become who you really are.” And we are children of Light, led astray by the evil one, so at Lent, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. There is no doubt that the Christian journey is not an easy one, but the end goal is certain, eternal life with God.  This definitely is worth fighting for. May our Lenten observances not be in vain but purify us to have a share in the riches of God’s Kingdom.