What Does Lent Mean for Christians? 3 Lenten Practices to Embody Your Faith

What is Lent and what does it mean for Christians? Lent is a sacred season in the Christian faith that invites believers into reflection, repentance, and spiritual renewal as they prepare for Easter. 

Even if you do not attend a liturgical church, engaging with the sacred seasons of the Christian year offers a rich, time-tested way to draw more deeply from the story of Scripture and the life of Christ. 

In this blog, we will explore what the Lenten season is, how Christians have historically observed Lent, and what Lent means in the Bible through key Scripture passages. We will also share three meaningful Lenten practices to help you enter more deeply into the story of Jesus and embody your faith during Holy Week.

What is Lent Season?

Lent is one of the many seasons in the Christian calendar. Together, these seasons make up the liturgical year, a rhythm that helps Christians remember the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time all invite believers to live their faith along with the story of the Gospel.

Lent in particular is a season for reflection, repentance, and spiritual renewal as we prepare for Easter. Rooted in Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, Lent invites us to explore practices that help deepen faith and bring about real personal and spiritual growth.

How to Observe the Lenten Season

Throughout the history of the Church, Lent has been observed in a variety of ways. Early Christians practiced fasting and extended prayer as preparation for baptism and Easter. Over time, traditions developed that emphasized three core practices: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

Some Christians fast from specific foods or habits, others take on intentional practices such as daily Scripture reading, silence, or acts of service. Still others engage Lent through worship, journaling, or creative expression.

In recent years, many Christians have rediscovered the power of meditation and embodiment practices during Lent. By slowing the breath, quieting the mind, and paying attention to the body, we can enter more fully into the story of Scripture. 

Practices such as Christ-centered yoga, walking meditations, breath prayers, or guided reflection help faith move from an abstract idea into a lived experience. During Lent, faith becomes not just something we think about, but something we feel, carry, and inhabit as we journey with Christ toward the cross and resurrection.

What Does Lent Mean in the Bible? 

While the word Lent does not appear directly in the Bible, the themes of the season are deeply rooted in Scripture. Lent reflects the biblical calls to repentance, humility, and returning to God with the whole heart. 

In the Gospels, Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness form the spiritual foundation of Lent. During this time, He fasted, prayed, and faced temptation, showing a path of surrender, trust, and dependence on God. Through this period of testing, Christ was spiritually strengthened and ready to begin His earthly ministry.

Throughout Scripture, seasons of waiting, testing, and repentance often come before renewal and new life, mirroring the Lenten journey from ashes to resurrection. 

Lent invites followers of Christ to enter their own “wilderness” alongside Jesus, reflecting on personal struggles, temptations, and places of spiritual dryness. It asks us to slow down, draw inward, and reflect through spiritual practices which are not meant as empty rituals but as ways to sharpen spiritual awareness and reorient our hearts toward God and His Kingdom. 

Simply put, Lent gives believers the opportunity to go deeper with God and reminds us that transformation often begins in the wilderness, where our dependence is shaped and formed as we learn to lean fully on Him.

3 Lenten Practices to Embody Your Faith

Lent offers a unique opportunity to experiment with practices that draw you closer to God. In addition to fasting and almsgiving through acts of radical generosity, we can engage in spiritual disciplines that help embody the story of Scripture during this sacred season. 

Here are three meaningful Lenten practices to help you embody the story of Scripture and enter more fully into the journey with Jesus during Lent:

Contemplative prayer and meditation

Contemplative prayer and meditation provide space to slow down, listen, and enter the story of Scripture. Practices like Lectio Divina, guided meditations, or simply sitting in silence with God help center the mind and open the heart. These practices encourage thoughtful reflection on Scripture, helping you notice patterns in your life, areas in need of growth, and the ways God is already at work. By carving out intentional moments of stillness, you cultivate a heightened awareness of God’s presence throughout the day and create room for your faith to move beyond ideas into lived experience.

Christ-centered yoga for Lent

Yoga can be a powerful Christian spiritual discipline, helping us cultivate observation, self-awareness, and mindfulness. By listening to our breath and body on the mat, we learn to watch our thoughts without judgment and “hold each thought captive to Christ,” mirroring the spiritual disciplines of Lent.

It also invites honest self-reflection, as we acknowledge our human and spiritual vulnerabilities, notice patterns of sin, and open our hearts to God’s transforming grace. During Lent, stepping onto the yoga mat can become an act of examining our hearts, grieving our sin, and letting go of anything that blocks our experience of God. We face our brokenness with a “bright sadness” while looking forward to the One who comes to release us from sin.

Breath Prayers

A breath prayer is a simple, meditative way to turn Scripture into a personal rhythm of prayer. It pairs a short phrase with your breath—breathing in with one part of the prayer and breathing out with the other. For example, using Psalm 51:10:

• Breathe in: “Create in me a clean heart”
• Breathe out: “Renew a right spirit within me”

Repeating this quietly throughout the day can center your mind, calm your spirit, and draw you into the themes of repentance, renewal, and dependence on God that define Lent. Breath prayers are especially meaningful during this season because they encourage reflection, a gentle return to God, and a deeper connection with Scripture.

Bible Verses About Lent

Breath prayers are an easy way to immerse yourself in Scripture during Lent. They can be created from many Scripture passages that reflect the themes of Lent: repentance, humility, renewal, and dependence on God. 

Here are some other Bible Verses about Lent that you can turn into breath prayers:

• Joel 2:12–13 – “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning… for he is gracious and compassionate.”
• Matthew 4:1–2 – “Then 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.”
• Romans 12:1–2 – “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
• Isaiah 58:6 – “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice…?”

Join Our Online Sanctuary for Lenten Meditations and Practices 

You don’t have to walk the Lenten journey alone. Our online sanctuary, The Yoga Abbey, offers a Lenten pilgrimage with forty days of guided practices designed to help you slow down, breathe deeply, and enter the story of Scripture with your whole self: mind, body, and spirit.

Through weekly reflections and embodied prayer practices, we create sacred space for stillness, honesty, and renewal. Wherever you are on your faith journey, you are welcome to join us as we move together through Lent toward hope, healing, and resurrection.