LENT: 40 Days of Prayer
The 40 days (46 with Sundays) of the Lenten season begins on Ash Wednesday, February 18, 2026. Traditionally, Christians would receive ashes on their foreheads as a sober reminder that we will return to dust and to relate to Jesus’ death on the cross. While Advent is a time of joyful anticipation in preparation for Christmas, Lent is commonly regarded as a period of sober observance in preparation for the death and resurrection of Jesus. Lent is a meaningful way to connect and relate to Jesus in His rejection, arrest, suffering, death, burial and ultimately His resurrection.
A Call to Faithfulness: A 40-Day Lenten Devotional
Join us this Lent as we are calling the church to 40 days of decrease and increase that may include fasting, focused prayer and reflection to draw you into communion with Jesus during His last days leading up to Easter. Traditionally, this is the same season of Lent that Christians and Catholics alike have practiced in a variety of ways for over 1,800 years: across cultures, continents, and languages.
It is a time when we focus our attention on the descent of Jesus into the darkness of His suffering and death, and into His ascent of triumph in His resurrection on Easter Sunday. Just as Jesus voluntarily decreased Himself, this season we join Jesus as His body by voluntarily decreasing (fasting) in our lives, sharing in the sufferings of Christ as an act of worship and increasing (feasting) through our communion with Jesus through reflection and focused prayer.
We would like to invite you to join your church family in experiencing Lent this year.
Here are two ways you can participate.
Focused Prayer and Reflection: Set aside a specific time(s) morning, midday and/or evening. You can use this Lent devotional as your guide for your time of communion with Jesus. This year, we will be walking through Hebrews 10-13, seeking to understand how Jesus’s life on earth changes our relationship with God and how we can become more like the people listed in the hall of faith.
Fasting: Fasting is a way of exercising the fruit of the Spirit, self-discipline, by voluntarily giving up something (food/beverage, entertainment, social media, habit, etc.) as an act of sacrificial worship and dependence on God. Fasting (with the right heart posture) reveals our weakness, humbles us and purifies our walk with Jesus. It draws us into both our desperate need for a Savior and the staggering reality that Jesus entered into the ultimate fast, the ultimate decrease for us!
Daily devotionals are available in pdf format on our website. Devotionals can also be accessed via the Prayer Chain email. Sign up for the email Prayer Chain.
Lent Encounter
We invite you on Ash Wednesday February 18th, to set aside distractions and enter into a unique evening of reflection and prayer as we begin Lent, walking with Jesus to the cross. The sanctuary will be set with five self-guided stations designed to cultivate a sensory experience of reflection and prayer as we begin the season of Lent. The experience will take about 30 minutes to complete and will be open 5:45-8:45pm in a come-and-go format. This is a great event for all ages. Kids 5th grade and under should be accompanied by an adult. Don’t miss this incredible evening!