Lent begins today. Traditionally for churches that observe Lent, it is a time of reflecting on Christ’s sacrifice for our sins and a time of repentance. Often times this season is marked by fasting or giving up something.
Lent has become THE most transformative forty days of the year for me because starting eight or nine years ago, I began adopting a transformative discipline for 40 days. I have done everything from praying for an hour a day to giving up use of my car. Even if you’re not from a tradition that observe Lent, forty days of a spiritual discipline can be life changing.
Last year, I released a packet of eighteen reproducible handouts of various disciplines. The disciplines are a mix of study, prayer, and action opportunities. You can get your set of handouts immediately by entering your name and email address in the box below.
What’s new this year?
Normal I add three new disciplines to the pack each year. This year I haven’t. Why? I have been pouring myself into creating a free online prayer training. The reviews I have been getting about the training have been outstanding.
If you’re serious about growing your relationship with God or growing as a disciple, few activities accelerate spiritual growth more than prayer. In the videos I cover:
- A strategy from Jesus’ prayer life that can help you pray more frequently and more readily experience God’s presence
- How to quickly and easily conquer the biggest problem people have with prayer (Can you guess what it is is? Watch video two to find out.)
- And the 5 core elements of a growing prayer life.
You can get access to all three videos here:
FREE PRAYER TRAINING VIDEO ACCESS
I wouldn’t wait to view these because I will be pulling them down in less than a week.
What’s inside:
Prayer Disciplines
B.L.E.S.S. Prayer–A prayer form from the book “Love to Pray: A 40 day Devotional for Deepinging Your Prayer Life.” by Dr. Alving VanderGriend. The acronym stands for Body, Labors, Emotional needs, Social Needs, and Spiritual Needs.
Pure Praise–A 3 fold formula for praising God that is based upon a pattern I recognized in David’s Psalms. This prayer method deepened my intimacy with God tremendously.
Confession–A prayer model to guide people in a discipline of daily confession.
Examen–A classic prayer model from the Ignatian tradition. I find this one really pumps up your spiritual awareness.
Five Finger Prayer–A wonderful easy prayer mnemonic that prompts you to pray for 5 different groups of people. This is one is a wonderful option for children or parents wanting to expand their children’s prayer lives.
Bible Reading Disciplines
Acts in 40 Days–A checklist of readings to complete the Book of Acts in 40 days.
Matthew in 40 Days–A checklist of readings with tips to get you through a the gospel of Matthew.
Mark in 40 Days–A checklist of readings with tips to get you through a the gospel of Mark.
Luke in 40 Days–A checklist of readings with tips to get you through a the gospel of Luke.
John in 40 Days–A checklist of readings with tips to get you through a the gospel of John.
Lent Top 40 Bible–40 top bible stories to give someone a quick overview of the Bible.
Action Disciplines
Better Body Holiness–Suggestions for increasing your physical health in order to serve God more faithfully and with greater energy.
40 Bags in 40 Days–A discipline to eliminate clutter and excess (not to sound cliche’ but this one changed my life and started my passion about Lenten disciplines)
Love Notes–A discipline of writing thank you notes daily to people who have touched your life. The people who have done this one find it a profound experience.
Media Habit–Let go of a media habit like surfing Facebook or watching Television.
Tame the Tongue–A discipline of refraining from being verbally negative or gossipy.
Faith PEGS–An acronym to spiritually guide your intentions for the day. This grew out of my own bible study and was very formative for me.
Fast and Contribute–A discipline with a mission emphasis.
Be sure to bookmark this page or save the link for future reference.
What if I don’t do Lent?
If Lent is not normative to your tradition, I would encourage you to download the packet anyways because the exercises aren’t necessarily tied to Lent. Anyone could adopt the suggested disciplines at anytime and benefit from them.
Blessings,
John Arnold