Six Encouraging Resources To Prepare Your Heart For Lent

Six Encouraging Resources To Prepare Your Heart For Lent

Posted on by Michele Morin

Our son sawed lumber, hammered nails, and used a paintbrush dipped in Mediterranean Olive Green to create custom-made doors for our bathroom closet. There are any number of things a twenty-year-old guy could have done with his Saturday. He chose to give his away.

Loving and giving are inseparably linked in Scripture. In the Old Testament, we see God as Rescuer and Provider, even giving an identity to his wayward, prone-to-wander people.

Jesus built his entire ministry around love, and when he gathered in the Upper Room for the last time with his disciples, he was clear about two things:

  1. He was going to leave them physically, but physical separation did not mean spiritual separation.
  2.  They were to love one another with the same kind of love Jesus had demonstrated for them.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:34, 35

Shortly, he would provide the greatest possible illustration of that love, a self-giving that seeks the good of its object at any cost.

Confronted with this quality and degree of love for fellow sinners, a love that transcended natural affinity, geography, and even cultural differences, the world came to recognize that the disciples had “been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13)

There were any number of things Jesus could have done with his life here on Earth.
He chose to give it away. He chose the way of love.

There were any number of things Jesus could have done with his life here on Earth. He chose to give it away.

What Are You Doing for Lent?

Whatever you may have planned as your observance of Lent, I hope you will find grace to give up the huge magnifying glass we are prone to use for scrutinizing our appearance, our home, and our spiritual practices for flaws and failures.

Rather than experiencing Lent and the days leading up to Easter as a season of deprivation, what if we embraced it as an experience of love?

What if the love of God crowded out the unhelpful ruts you’ve dug and freed us to make room for God to do a new work in your heart? 

I’ve been preparing a list of Lenten resources to supplement and hopefully enhance your reading of Scripture as you dig deep into this season of heart preparation for a joyful celebration of Easter. Some of the books are brand new in 2024, and others have been around for a while, and I’m hoping you’ll find something here that challenges and encourages you.

Parents and grandparents, be sure to read all the way to the end because I’m sharing a picture book for Valentine’s Day, brand new from IVP Kids—because February 14 is also Ash Wednesday, and what a beautiful collision of holidays!

There were any number of things Jesus could have done with his life here on Earth. He chose to give it away. He chose the way of love.

Women Who Followed Jesus

New for 2024!

Women Who Followed Jesus is designed to accompany you through the story of Christ’s life leading up to his death and resurrection. Told in the unique voices of the women who journeyed with him, this forty-day devotional gives readers every reason to believe that Jesus appeared post-resurrection first to women because they, more than anyone else, understood his mission and the impact of the gospel.

Dandi Daley Mackall has applied her considerable skill as a storyteller to giving her readers the feeling that they are experiencing shared conversations “overheard” across the years. Familiar names and familiar stories are interspersed with vignettes from less familiar characters in the cast of Jesus’s earthly ministry.

The Women Who Followed Jesus were the women who witnessed the miracles, received grace, listened to his teaching, and found the path away from shame. During the forty days leading up to Easter, we are invited to live in company with them, to see what they saw, and to follow Jesus, too.

Eight women narrate the events we celebrate at #Easter. #WomenWhoFollowedJesus by Dandi Daley Mackall via @paracletepress

Season of Beauty

New for 2024!

The editors of Paraclete Press have gathered a collection of poetry, prose, and prayers designed to carry you with beauty through the days of Lent and Easter. Excerpts from classic works are an invitation to dive deeper, to carve out time for a slow pondering of God’s grace.

Reproductions of great works of Christian art support the reader’s contemplative work. Joy springs from every page as we are reminded that the pathway of Lent leads to Easter and resurrection in this Season of Beauty. In the words of Thomas Merton, “This is a day of mercy, and the just do not need a savior.”

“The promise of #Lent is that something will be born of the ruin… Lent is seeded with resurrection.” Gayle Boss from #SeasonofBeauty via @paracletepress

The Art of Lent

InterVarsity Press has created two beautifully illustrated little books from the creative heart of Sister Wendy Beckett (1930-2018), who, according to the Washington Post, “became a TV star by describing art with a mixture of glee, ecstasy, and wonder.” Now, through this posthumous project, she leads her readers on a journey through Lent. Short devotional passages shed light on the spirituality behind some of the greatest works in history—and some that are quite unknown but well worth knowing.

Although I don’t recall seeing the term in either book, The Art of Lent: A Painting a Day from Ash Wednesday to Easter and The Art of Holy Week and Easter: Meditations on the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus are an invitation into the practice of Visio Divina (sacred seeing), a slow and prayerful pondering of visual images (paintings, photographs, sculpture, etc.), noticing the details that catch our attention and draw us into conversation and communion with God. Under Sister Wendy’s tutelage, each painting becomes a shaft of light, illuminating some spiritual truth suggested by the artist’s work or life.

She begins Ash Wednesday with the reassuring truth from Romans 8—even my need for repentance from continual transgressions can never separate me from the love of Christ. This is a powerful lesson on its own but set against the image of The Great Wave by Katsushika Hokusai, it’s clear that however fragile my righteousness compares with the unpredictable risk of just-plain-living, God will not allow my frail vessel to capsize.

As a Lenten practice, a painting a day from Ash Wednesday to Easter (The Art of Lent) provides a daily pause over spiritual truth and some very surprising works of art. The more intensely focused The Art of Holy Week and Easter picks up at the Triumphal Entry in Part One. Parts Two and Three portray violence and betrayal as Christ is “bruised for our iniquity,” but Part Four illustrates and narrates resurrection reassurance, all through traditional paintings that correlate with the specific event.

I was pleased to note that the story wasn’t cut abruptly with the empty tomb but continued on to the Ascension, illustrated by the disciples crowding together and craning upwards, a watchfulness fueled by love. Certainly, time spent in meditation over the life and sacrifice of Christ provides a solid emotional link with our Savior and a reminder of our own waiting posture and the work he has left for us to accomplish until he comes.

As a Lenten practice, a painting a day from Ash Wednesday to Easter and time spent in meditation over the life and sacrifice of Christ, provide a solid emotional link with Jesus. #theartoflent #sisterwendybeckett @ivpress #visiodivina

40 Days of Lent

Plugging into the details of Jesus’s poured-out life always heightens my celebration on Resurrection Day, and Susan Chamberlain Shipe has provided the road map for the journey. 40 Days of Lent weaves the Jesus story together with insights gleaned from Shipe’s following life. Because Scripture has been embedded within each day’s reading, it’s easy to follow the dots between action and application, and because Susan is a student of the Word, she has done a lot of the leg work for her readers, including both historical and geographical details to fill in the gap where the text is terse.

One story, one main idea, and then words of application followed by probing questions take the faithful reader through the people, places, and events on Jesus’ road to the cross. Like life itself, the “Lenten road is hard” (19), but it is also an opportunity for redemptive self-evaluation and a gentle push toward considering the next good choices we need to make in our lives.

Like life itself, the “Lenten road is hard,” but it is also an opportunity for redemptive self-evaluation and a gentle push toward considering the next good choices we need to make in our lives. @SusanShipe7

A Lenten Devotional

In Uncovering the Love of Jesus, Asheritah Ciuciu brings the observance of Lent into everyday life with daily devotions and suggestions for fun family activities and celebrations. The love Jesus put on display was characterized by sacrifice, the embodiment of a selfless my-life-for-yours. Viewed through this lens, Lent becomes a participation in sacrificial love.

The question, “What should I give up for Lent?” is no longer an “equation of earning; it’s a response of gratefuless.” (15) We  don’t give up chocolate or Netflix or social media to earn more of God’s love or favor. God’s love is already given in full measure. What if, instead,  we all entered into our Lenten celebration with the question, “Who is God calling me to love?”

A New Picture Book from IVP KIDS!

Do you ever wonder what all the flowers, candy, and cards are about? And what does it have to do with a guy who was born in the 200s AD? Ned Bustard has connected the dots with delightful illustrations and lyrical, rhymed couplets in Saint Valentine the Kindhearted.

St. Valentine’s life was devoted to love in very practical and often gritty ways, for he lived in the Roman Empire during a time of persecution and, ultimately, was martyred for his faith.

The author’s notes reveal the secret to the color-coded hearts throughout the book, and parents and grandparents—you are going to want to read this one to all your littles because the teaching on love is both winsome and biblical. And here’s what we all need to do: “Over all these [other] virtues, put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Colossians 3:14).

Ever wonder what all the flowers, candy, and cards are about? @nedbustard has connected the dots with delightful illustrations and lyrical, rhymed couplets in Saint Valentine the Kindhearted via @ivpress

Holding You in the Light,

Looking for a New Bible Study Plan?

I just created a 13-day plan on the book of Hebrews—one lesson for each chapter.
It’s available for free at YouVersion. Simply CLICK HERE to get started!

Free Encouragement in Your Inbox!

On the third Thursday of every month, I send a newsletter with biblical encouragement straight to my subscribers’ email inboxes. Frequently, I share free resources, and the newsletter is where everything lands first. I’m committed to the truth that women can become confident followers of God and students of his Word, and I want to help you along that path.

To add this free resource to your pursuit of biblical literacy, simply CLICK HERE. There, on Substack’s website, you’ll find a prompt that looks just like this image for Living Our Days with Michele Morin. Over on that site, simply enter your email and then click on the purple “SUBSCRIBE” button.

You’ll receive a welcome letter to confirm your subscription and monthly encouragement in your email inbox.

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees. If you should decide to purchase any of the books or products I’ve shared, simply click on the image, and you’ll be taken directly to the seller. If you decide to buy, I’ll receive a few pennies at no extra cost to you.

Many thanks to Paraclete Press, Moody Publishing, and IV Press for providing copies of these books to facilitate my reviews, which, of course, are offered freely and with honesty.

Published by Michele Morin

Michele Morin is a Bible teacher, writer, reader, and gardener committed to the truth that women can become confident Christ-followers and students of God's Word. She has been married to an unreasonably patient husband for thirty-plus years, and together they have four sons, four daughters-in-love, and six adorable grandchildren. Michele loves hot tea and well-crafted sentences, poems that stop her in her tracks, and days at the ocean with the whole family. She laments biblical illiteracy and advocates for the prudent use of “little minutes.” She blogs at Living Our Days, and you can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

27 thoughts on “Six Encouraging Resources To Prepare Your Heart For Lent”

  1. ‘Loving and giving are inseparably linked in Scripture.’ Thanks for reminding us that these aren’t some optional ideas to unpack mid-February but should be part and parcel of our daily walk with Him … and each other.

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  3. Thanks for the suggestions! I’m not familiar with any of these authors except Susan, but I’ve noted a couple to look into further. I don’t usually give up anything for Lent, but I do like to read something that prepares my heart for the observance of Christ’s death and resurrection.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Michele: In Sundy school class, we are going to study a devotional book that our teacher found and ordered. My personal study is a book called “Finding Soul Rest” And a small booklet from Daily Bread.

    I will be on call to make hospital visits while our pastor is incapacitated. They are not sure but they think he may need surgery to get the blood clot out of his brain. Please continue to pray for him and his family.

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  8. Beautiful, Michele. Amen to this, “There were any number of things Jesus could have done with his life here on Earth. He chose to give it away. He chose the way of love.” For lent and even daily, your post reminded me of this famous quote by Jim Elliot, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

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  9. Season of Beauty sounds intriguing, with its mission of “a slow pondering of God’s grace.” Thank you again, Michele, for such worthy recommendations for our Lenten contemplations.

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  11. The art books sound fascinating, Michele. And I love that the story continued until the Ascension. One thing that struck me about the cathedrals we visited in Spain was that there was never any art depicting anything past the Crucifixion. It was jarring, to say the least.

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    1. That’s one of my hobby horses. If we fail to teach resurrection and ascension we miss out on Christ’s victory and his ministry of intercession for us. Such encouraging truth that we NEED!

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  12. Michele, these look like a great list of resources. I have never been in a church that focused much on lent. But in recent years I’ve come to see the value so I’d like to check a couple of these out.

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