Thursday Read: The First Day of Lent - Beginning the Journey
Yesterday's ashes marked the beginning; today begins the actual work. Lent stretches forty days ahead (excluding Sundays, which are always mini-Easters even during Lent), mirroring Jesus's forty days in the wilderness. This isn't arbitrary - forty represents complete testing, full preparation, thorough transformation in Scripture. Noah's flood, Moses on Sinai, Israel in wilderness, Elijah's journey to Horeb, Jonah's warning to Nineveh - all forty days or years of significant preparation.
Jesus's wilderness experience provides the template. Matthew records that after his baptism, "Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry" (Matthew 4:1-2). Notice: the Spirit led him there. Wilderness testing wasn't punishment or accident - it was divine preparation. Before public ministry could begin, private character had to be tested.
Satan's three temptations targeted Jesus's identity and mission. "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread" (Matthew 4:3). Use your power for personal comfort. "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down" (Matthew 4:6). Force God to prove his promises through spectacular display. "All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me" (Matthew 4:9). Take shortcuts to glory, bypassing the cross. Each temptation offered something good through wrong means.
Jesus responded to each with Scripture: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3). "Do not put the Lord your God to the test" (Matthew 4:7, quoting Deuteronomy 6:16). "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only" (Matthew 4:10, quoting Deuteronomy 6:13). He defeated temptation not through sheer willpower but through knowing and applying God's Word.
This is why Lenten practices matter - they're not earning God's favor but preparing your heart. Fasting reveals what you're really trusting in by removing it temporarily. When you give up food, social media, or whatever comfort you've made functional savior, you discover whether God is actually sufficient or if you've been sustaining yourself through other means.
Almsgiving (giving to others) addresses your relationship with possessions and people. Generosity reveals whether you actually believe "it is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35) or if you're still hoarding, accumulating, protecting what you have. Giving forces confrontation with fear, greed, and self-protection.
Prayer deepens your relationship with God. Not just asking for things but actually spending time in his presence, listening as much as talking, worshiping as much as requesting. Prayer reveals whether God himself is your desire or just your means to other desires.
Together, these practices address the three relationships sin destroyed: with yourself (fasting), with others (almsgiving), and with God (prayer). Lent is intentional repair work, forty days to rebuild what was broken, restore what was damaged, return to what was abandoned.
But here's the crucial question: what will you actually do differently these forty days? Not what sounds impressive or looks religious, but what will genuinely prepare your heart for Easter? What comfort have you made into a functional savior that needs removing? What generosity would stretch your trust in God's provision? What prayer practice would deepen your relationship with him?
The goal isn't suffering for suffering's sake. The goal is preparation - removing obstacles to intimacy with God, examining what you're actually trusting in, training your heart to find in Christ what it's been seeking elsewhere. Forty days to prepare for resurrection by facing honestly what required it.
