^{Editor's Note: This post was written by Emmanuel College alumna Christina Spearman. She and her husband are associate pastors at a Pentecostal Holiness Church in the Mid-Atlantic Conference. Christina's post is one of a series about the historical season of Lent, which consists of the six weeks leading up to Easter.} 

I started observing Lent several years ago when a friend of mine told meabout her observance and her commitment to give up sweets. I was initially intrigued by the challenge, and I appreciated the goal-oriented nature. I honestly didn’t begin observing Lent to impact my spiritual development. I wanted to challenge myself and give up something that would impact my health. Lent grew from a physical and mental challenge to a spiritual exercise that I look forward to each year.

Now that I work at a Catholic institution, I feel that celebrating Lent helps me connect with the students in a different way and share a positive experience with them. This year, I gave up soft drinks and complaining. Honestly, one is going better than the other. I felt that I was becoming dependent on soft drinks to keep me awake and energized, and I wanted to break that habit. I also hoped that giving up soft drinks would challenge me to get more sleep, drink more water, and generally take better care of my physical body, something I think many Christians often overlook.

I knew that giving up complaining would be a challenge, but I didn’t realize exactly how hard it would be. I was shocked at the number of times I opened my mouth to say something negative during the first few days of Lent. I felt that I had become more negative over time, but I had no idea how much I was complaining. Every time I start to complain now, I try to stop myself and find something to be thankful for. When my job is stressful, I thank God that I have a job. When the forecast calls for snow (again!), I thank God I have shelter from the weather. When I feel too tired to cook dinner, I thank God that I have something to eat.

In addition to becoming more thankful, observing Lent has challenged me to be repentant for my negative thoughts and reminded me of the power of spoken words. I have many opportunities each day to speak blessings instead of curses and to honor God for what He has done in my life instead of complaining about things that are mostly trivial. For me to truly embrace the roles of salt and light, the way I speak must be different than many of those around me.

I know that I need to continue my Lenten commitment long after Easter Sunday. Cutting back on complaining is just the beginning. Practicing contentment is the next step for me. I have yet to learn how to be content in all things, but I know that I am getting closer to that goal with every complaint that does not escape my lips. I hope that soon the complaints will not form as quickly in my mind and ultimately my heart. Observing Lent provides me with daily reminders to deny myself, focus on Christ, and be mindful of the witness I am cultivating.

Seek God for the City is a 40 Day Prayer Initiative that begins on February 17 and concludes on Palm Sunday (March 28). Waymakers has provided the Body of Christ with a tool to pray for and affect community transformation.

The tendency of many is to pray for things that immediately concern them, or the people in their inner circle. Seek God for the City gives us a plan which enables us to impact entire communities, work places, and neighborhoods by saturation prayer.

Intentionally planning a time of saturation prayer and mobilizing a team to pray for everyone in their community is the right thing to do according to 1 Timothy 2:1-4. "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all people....This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:1-4).

"First of all" means that it's a top priority. Since God desires for all people to be saved his Word urges us to expand our prayers to match the heart of God.

Jesus reveals God's passion for every person in the Parable of the Lost Sheep. "What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying?" (Matthew 18:12).

We see the heart of God again in Matthew 9:36 "Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36).

"Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.'"

The point is this: That God is watching and working in every person's life. But God works in accordance with the prayers of His people. I encourage everyone to pray and make God’s hand evident in our community, workplace and neighborhoods by joining WayMakers, IPHC and many others during these forty days of focused prayer.

^{Editor's Note: This post was written by Dr. Doug Beacham, Executive Directof of World Missions.  Dr. Beacham's post is one of a series of guest posts on Lent.}

Ash Wednesday begins forty days of intentional discipleship reflection on the meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These forty days, known in the churches of the west (Protestant, Roman Catholic) as “Lent,” and in the churches of the east (Orthodox) as “Great Lent,” continue through Holy Week and conclude on Holy Saturday before Easter Sunday.

These forty days reflect the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness combating and overcoming the temptations of Satan: temptations that challenged Jesus’ identity as the Son of God (Matthew 3:3) and were manifested through power, arrogance, and trust in the material things of this world. These were not the final temptations of Jesus life (Luke 4:13), but the forty day encounter provided the needed spiritual preparation for our Lord’s ministry of the Kingdom of God.

The word “Lent” is a Teutonic word that originally meant the spring season. The practice of spiritual preparation during this season, often accompanied by intense fasting, dates back to the early centuries of the Christian faith when new converts prepared for their baptism, usually on Eastern Sunday. By the fourth and fifth centuries the practice had evolved to something similar to what we know today.

I grew up in the 1950s and 60s, a time when Christianity was more culturally pronounced in American life. So Lent was known to me though not particularly practiced in the Pentecostal Holiness Church. But two things occurred in the early 1970s that made this season more important to me.

First, I attended a Presbyterian seminary that opened more doors of understanding about many of the practices of the larger Christian community.

Second, through the ministry of the late Rev. Carl Campbell, then pastor of the Ray of Hope IPHC in Richmond, VA, I learned that these practices were not antithetical to our IPHC heritage, especially with our strong roots through John Wesley into the Anglican tradition. In those days, Ray of Hope had a large number of Spirit-baptized attendees from liturgical churches but who longed for the vibrancy and spiritual immediacy of Pentecostalism. Pastor Campbell wisely understood that they also needed connections to their roots and often used the church calendar, including the colors of the church year, in the Sunday services. It had a profound impact on me.

This year for Lent I am focusing my devotional Biblical reading on the three passion prophecies of the Synoptic Gospels (e.g., Mark 8:31-33; 9:30-32; 10:32-34), and the three passages in the Gospel of John where Jesus speaks of Himself as being “lifted up,” an obvious metaphor of His death on the Cross (John 3:14; 8:28; 12:32).

In this season I often think of the closing lines from Albert Schweitzer’s The Quest for the Historical Jesus, "He comes to us as one unknown, without a name, as of old by the lakeside, he came to those men who knew him not. He speaks to us the same words, "Follow thou me!", and sets us to the tasks which he has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey him, whether they be wise or simple, he will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in his fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience who he is."