8 Steps To Reset Your Life During Lent
Lent is not just a single day of reflection. It is a 40-day journey of refinement.
Beginning on Ash Wednesday and leading up to Easter, this sacred season invites you to slow down, examine your heart, and gently release what no longer aligns with who you are becoming.
It is a time of fasting, repentance, humility, and renewal. A time to quiet the noise of the world and return to what truly matters. Lent is less about dramatic reinvention and more about intentional refinement. It is about surrendering what distracts you so you can draw closer to God.
If you want to move through this season with purpose rather than simply letting it pass by, here are ways to create a meaningful Lent reset routine that you can return to throughout these 40 days.
Begin With Gratitude
Lent is often associated with sacrifice, but it is equally a season of gratitude.
Start each day by acknowledging what you have already been given. Thank God for ordinary gifts such as breath in your lungs, shelter, relationships, and small moments of peace.
Gratitude softens the heart. A softened heart is ready to grow.
Create Daily Space For Prayer Or Quiet Reflection
You do not need an elaborate routine. You need consistency.
Set aside intentional time each day to sit in silence, pray, or reflect. Let this be a space where you are honest. Where you examine your motives. Where you release what feels heavy.
Lent is about returning. Returning to God. Returning to humility. Returning to stillness.
Replace Manifestation With Surrender
Instead of focusing on calling in what you want, Lent asks a different question. What are you willing to lay down?
Visualize placing your plans, ambitions, anxieties, and timelines into God’s hands. Imagine trusting the outcome rather than controlling it.
This season is not about forcing transformation. It is about allowing it.
Practice Intentional Fasting
Fasting during Lent is not only about food. It can be about anything that distracts or consumes you.
Social media. Sugar. Gossip. Overworking. Negative self-talk.
Ask yourself what, if removed, would create more room for clarity and connection.
Let your fast be purposeful, not performative. It should challenge you gently and draw your awareness back to God.
Engage In Self-Examination, Not Self-Criticism
Journaling can be especially powerful during Lent.
Reflect on questions like:
- Where am I holding onto pride?
- Where do I need to forgive?
- What habits are keeping me stuck?
- Where is God inviting me to grow?
Lent is not about shame. It is about refinement. Growth rooted in grace, not guilt.
Ground Yourself In Creation
Spend time in nature whenever possible.
Walk slowly. Notice small details. Observe how seasons change gradually rather than overnight.
Lent mirrors this rhythm. Transformation is quiet. Growth happens beneath the surface long before it blooms.
Seek Wisdom
Rather than seeking quick answers or external validation, turn toward Scripture, devotionals, or trusted spiritual guidance.
Open a passage slowly. Sit with it. Ask what it reveals about your heart.
Let wisdom shape your choices throughout the season, not impulse or ego.
Set Intentions For Lent
Set spiritual intentions for the entire season.
Ask yourself:
- Who do I want to become by Easter?
- What do I want to release?
- What virtue do I want to strengthen such as patience, discipline, compassion, or forgiveness?
Write these intentions down. Return to them often. Let them guide your actions over the next 40 days.
Lent is not about perfection. It is about progress. It is about walking steadily through wilderness moments and trusting that renewal waits on the other side.
By approaching Lent with intention rather than obligation, you transform it from a ritual into a relationship. A sacred stretch of time that gently reshapes your heart.
You do not need to overhaul your life in 40 days.
You simply need to be willing to soften, surrender, and stay present.
Easter will come. First, we prepare.