Observing Lent isn’t about a denomination, or whether your church is liturgical or not. Lent helps us to put the Christian life into a biblical perspective. It’s a time to practice saying “no” to ourselves in little things so we can say a bigger “yes” to God in the bigger decisions of life.
We know the value of discipline to achieve our goals in every other area of life and this time of year reminds us of the importance of discipline in the Christian life.
The PDFs pictured below are appropriate for any church. You can use them as bulletin inserts with perhaps some additional verses on the back side or invitations or reminders about your Easter schedule. You can post them in newsletters or online, whatever works best for you to encourage your people.
These can be used at the start of Lent or anytime during the Lenten season as a devotion or challenge.
Not only are there already finished templates for you in these sets, but at the end of this post is the text content so you can make your own, or copy and paste that into any church publication you want.
CLICK on the first image in the sets below and you'll see a larger one that you can read.
How and why to use these meditations, bulletin inserts (or postcards or however you want to pass them on)
Remind people to think of others at this time
Easter is a great time to get people to come to church and to consider issues of life, death, resurrection and to consider Jesus. As your people prepare for Easter through Lent, challenge them to also make it a time to pray for unchurched friends. Encourage them to pray that their friends will be open to an invitation to come to church, to look at a website, to consider the Christian faith.
This article has two styles of Lenten bulletin inserts, one with a more general theme, one with an athletic theme. Each PDF has two images per 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet. You can use the back side to include invitations to events, websites or verses for additional study or a place for a prayer list for your people to use for friends to invite to Easter events.
Here's why you might want to use these with your congregation—
Olympic athletes don’t win a medal without years of discipline and practice. It takes training, practice, sweat, and tears to be worthy of the gold. Military leadership comes from years of progressing through the ranks. Combat experience is an essential requirement for the highest officers. A CEO isn’t selected from the latest hires in a company.
We’d judge an athlete, a soldier, or a corporate leader a cheat if that person tried to avoid the essential struggles necessary to reach a position worthy of admiration. Struggle before success is the expected pattern in almost every part of life, almost every part, except, some assume, for the Christian life. Somehow there is the mistaken notion in some Christian circles that coming to Jesus means an endless supply of ease and freedom from all troubles. To be fair, the eternal destiny of those who trust Jesus as Savior is salvation from judgment and condemnation, and nothing is more freeing than that reality, but the ease and freedom from trials are for our future in Christ and not necessarily our present. If we are to be faithful in teaching our people we need to remind them of the difficult realities of their faith. Lent is a helpful time to do this.
Jesus said that in this world we would have troubles. He repeatedly told his followers that the same troubles he experienced—rejection, misunderstanding, ultimately torture and death, were to be expected for his disciples. All the writers of the New Testament were itinerant preachers who lived poorly, were mistreated, rejected, mocked and most died a martyr’s death.
Resurrection followed three days in the tomb.
The Apostle Peter reminds us that before we can truly experience joy, we must experience testing and trials:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, . . . . In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:3-7. . . . .
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 1 Peter 4:12-13
Remind people to think of others at this time
Easter is a great time to get people to come to church and to consider issues of life, death, resurrection and to consider Jesus. As your people prepare for Easter through Lent, challenge them to also make it a time to pray for unchurched friends. Encourage them to pray that their friends will be open to an invitation to come to church, to look at a website, to consider the Christian faith.
Easter is coming
Don’t forget the end of the story. Don’t ever get so engrossed in the reminders of deprivation during Lent that you forget that tears are temporary and the end of the story is joy eternal.
Links to Ready-to-Print PDFs and the text file
Below are the links to the ready-to-print bulletin inserts, plus the ready-to-copy text of the inserts if you want to create your own.
Click on the following link to go to the file on the more general Lenten meditation: Lenten handouts
Click on the following link to go to the Runner-themed file Lenten meditation: Lenten Runner Card 2017
Text for the Lenten Meditations
You can use the text selections below in a newsletter, website or bulletin article or to create your own bulletin inserts. Just copy and paste wherever you'd like.
Text for Lenten Meditation with the Runner
Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. 1 Cor.9:24-27
How easy it is to admire discipline in athletes, but how hard it is to practice it ourselves.
Lent is traditionally the time when we commemorate our Lord’s 40 days in the desert as He began His earthly ministry. Throughout the ages, Christians have used this time for self-denial to train their bodies and spirits in godliness. Here are a few suggestions on how we might do that.
We can give up our time. We can give up our free time and spend more time with Jesus, in His word, or serving others. We can spend additional time in prayer for others.
We can give up control of our words. This is hard when we love to give our opinion and advice. For Lent we can discipline ourselves to listen carefully, to ask questions before we speak.
We can give up feelings of resentment. It may be true that no one appreciates us in the way they should, but no matter how difficult our day, our burdens are nothing compared to what Jesus bore for us.
We can give up a habit. Sometimes anger, bad attitudes, gossip or a judgmental spirit keep us from being as effective as we could be in ministry.
For Lent, ask the Lord to be your personal trainer, to show you what is keeping you from being the spiritual athlete he wants you to be. Age, abilities, don’t matter—obedience does. Listen to his voice; practice the spiritual training habits in the Bible, and use Lent as a time to become more effective in serving Jesus.
Run in such a way as to get the prize.
Lenten meditation, general theme
Below is the text for the Lenten handouts. There are three options for the title.
You can use this to create your own publications or online or in any social media no attribution or credit needed.
Lent for all of us
Self-denial Options for Lent
The less obvious and sometimes more costly forms of self-denial to consider during Lent
Self-denial is a slippery discipline, especially at Lent, when Christians traditionally give up something they like to eat.
Ages ago when believers gave up meat, eggs, and milk, they were suffering genuine hardship because they didn’t have many other options in their diet.
Today, giving up a certain food is easy—there is always more to replace it. No meat, no problem. We’ve got fish and soy products, blender drinks, and protein bars. In addition, there is always the thought lurking in the back of my mind that if I cut back on food a bit I might lose a few pounds.
There are other options for self-denial as we commemorate our Lord’s 40 days in the desert as He began His earthly ministry. To add to your commemoration of Lent, or to begin now or anytime, consider these disciplines that may not be as obvious as food, but can be quite difficult:
We can give up our time. We can give up our free time and spend more time with Jesus, in His word, or serving others. This can be a genuine sacrifice, because for many today there is little free time.
We can give up control of our words to Jesus. This is hard for us because we want to speak first, to give our opinion. For Lent we can give up our words so we can listen carefully to others.
We can give up feelings of resentment. Living the Christian life is hard and few appreciate how hard we try but no matter how difficult our day, remember Jesus sees your efforts and loves you.
Spend time alone with Jesus, as He did with His Father in the desert. Ask Him what He wants you to give up. Obey Him faithfully, in secret, and your Easter reward won’t only be a few lost pounds, but a closer walk with your Savior.
Please share your thoughts, comments, questions!