Welcome to the 2023 season of Lent! In this period between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, we examine our lives and adjust our life’s walk to bring bring us closer to God. We consider the roadblocks in our spiritual lives and look for the Spirit’s leading to find new paths.
Use this booklet of Lenten Devotionals, written by “non-professional” members of a variety of churches, to help guide you through this special time of the year.
Daily Devotions for Lent 2023
The devotional is presented in PDF format. Instead of presenting the entire booklet in one file (and forcing you to scroll through the whole thing to find the current date’s article), the booklet is broken up into separate week-by-week files.
To read the article for any given date, scroll down to the desired month, and click on the button for the desired week. Except for week 1 (which begins with Ash Wednesday) and week “7” (which includes Easter Sunday), all the files begin with Sunday and run through Saturday of the indicated week.
Enjoy; and may God bless your devotional time!
February 2023
The Lenten season (and first devotional) starts out with Ash Wednesday February 22). Week 1 is this short “week” from Wednesday through Saturday. “Week 7” continues past Saturday 4/8 to include Easter Sunday…
Week 1 Ash Wed. through Saturday 2/25
Week 2 Sunday 2/26 through Saturday 3/4
March 2023
Week 3 Sunday 3/5 through Saturday 3/11
Week 4 Sunday 3/12 through Saturday 3/18
Week 5 Sunday 3/19 through Saturday 3/25
Week 6 Sunday 3/26 through Saturday 4/1
April 2022
“Week” 7 is Holy Week. It starts with Palm Sunday and continues through Easter Sunday… and the empty cross…
Week 7 Sunday 4/2 through Easter Sunday
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If you’re looking for a specific article or author, open the below box to view the list of articles. Shown in the list are the booklet page numbers, article title, and author. Click on the “Week number” to open the corresponding file…
Table of Contents
- 4 Give Up or Take On? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marge Suiter
- 5 Listening to God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michelle Levesque
- 6 Hymn of Promise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Connie Latham
- 7 Life is Full of Journeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beth Price
- 8 Forgiving and Forgiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pastor Gary Turk
- 9 Roller Coaster Ride With Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . Denise Molino
- 10 Seek and Find . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scott Martin
- 11 Are We Ready to Welcome Christ? . . . . . . . . . Dolores Kiger Daniels
- 12 My Prayer Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marsha Hahn
- 13 An Unseen Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kathryn Davison
- 14 Comfort in Suffering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pastor Dave Bailey, Sr.
- 15 Our Way Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pastor Christine Day
- 16 Listening in the Silence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mary Perrin Scott
- 17 God Will Make a Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sharon Constantine
- 18 Chosen: Aren’t We All? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kathy Chando
- 19 Giving Thanks for My Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . George H. Armstong
- 20 Abiding Produces Fruit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Linda Turk
- 21 Tasty and Delicious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kim Tortella
- 22 Matters of the Heart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pastor Kim Wecht
- 23 Spreading God’s Fragrance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anne Binseel
- 24 Forgiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tom Bennett
- 25 Two Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Larry Bakely
- 26 Broken Pieces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Grace Eldridge
- 27 Our Father of Mercy and Grace . . . . . . . . . . . Michael Patrick Murphy
- 28 Keep Going . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kayla Harrison
- 29 Greater Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pastor Sherry Zappola
- 30 Read the Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kayt Marra
- 31 Relying on Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lacy Haynicz
- 32 On Loving and Living in Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deb Mongiardo
- 33 Show and Tell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carol Atkinson
- 34 I Am a Jelly Donut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pastor Tim Conaway
- 35 Listen Before You Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Trudy Jenkins
- 36 Living Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pastor Steven Herman
- 37 True Adoration of our Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Char Gaylord
- 38 The God of Our Circumstances . . . . . . . . . . . . Diane Sizemore
- 39 Worthless? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fred Tomlin
- 40 Choices and Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diana McMillion
- 41 A Father’s Discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brenda Freitag
- 42 A Lesson in Humility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lee Duffield
- 43 Where Will You Shine? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pastor Glenn Conaway
- 44 The Power of Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sheryl Ricciardelli
- 45 Miracles in the Midst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diane Warren
- 46 Vengeance Is His, Not Mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ben Harre
- 47 Throw It Aside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MaryAnn Diorio
- 48 Simon of Cyrene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Del Mundorf
- 49 Seven Last Words
- 50 No Greater Love, Your Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . Al Zappola
- 51 Easter Is the Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Betty Little
- 52 The Empty Cross
Introduction…
We welcome you to 47 days of inspiration as you read the reflections of people just like you. They will remind you that Jesus deserves our praise, and how we can abide in Him in our journey of faith and life. Listening to God and loving God are themes you will read about. Perhaps you will learn from those who have battled difficulties and illnesses with the Lord at their side. Thank you to our dedicated writers, a few of whom are first-timers, and to you, our readers. May the peace of the Lord resonate in your hearts during the next six weeks, and may your faith be strengthened.
What is Ash Wednesday???
The first day of Lent is always a Wednesday, called Ash Wednesday. This originated from the ancient times when people marked times of fasting, prayer, repentance, and remorse by placing ashes on their foreheads (2 Samuel 13:19, Esther 4:1-3, Job 42:6, Jeremiah 6:26). This scriptural custom entered the Church from Judaism. Receiving ashes on the forehead on Ash Wednesday symbolizes that the person is going to begin a period of sober reflection, self-examination, and spiritual redirection. Traditionally, the ashes for the Ash Wednesday service come from burning the palm fronds from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebration.
For more about Ash Wednesday, check out the following “Chuck Knows Church” video…
Where Did these Books Come From?
The articles in this booklet were written by members of 20 different churches located in NJ and across the country. The booklets were published in hardcopy form and distributed within the participating churches.
The articles were written by members of the following churches:
(“UMC” stands for United Methodist Church):
- Aldine UMC (Aldine, NJ)
- Belin Memorial UMC (Murrells Inlet, SC)
- Bethlehem Lutheran Church (Delmar, NY)
- Calvary Chapel Alpharetta (Alpharetta, GA)
- Calvary Chapel Gloucester County (Blackwood, NJ)
- Church of the Risen King (Pennsauken, NJ)
- Crossbridge Community Church (Swedesboro, NJ)
- Evangelical UMC (Clarksboro, NJ)
- First United Methodist Church (Glassboro, NJ)
- Lakewood Chapel (Mays Landing, NJ)
- Living Hope Worship Center (Swedesboro, NJ)
- North Raleigh UMC (North Raleigh, NC)
- Pitman UMC (Pitman NJ)
- Richwood UMC (Richwood, NJ)
- Shehawkin United Methodist Church (Starrucca, PA)
- St. John’s United Methodist Church (Turnersville, NJ)
- St. Paul’s United Methodist Church (Paulsboro, NJ)
- Trinity United Methodist Church (Mullica Hill, NJ)
- United Methodist Communities (Pitman, NJ)
- Zion United Methodist Church (Clarksboro, NJ )
If you have any questions about these booklets (or if you would like to write for a future devotional booklet), contact Zion United Methodist Church (856-423-2000). You may also post a message in the “Leave a Comment” form that’s at the end of this article (your email address won’t be published).
How can I get a Printed Booklet?
It’s convenient to be able to view the devotionals electronically, but if pinching, zooming, and scrolling aren’t for you, printed booklets are available. The printed booklets contain the same material that’s presented on this website page, and they’ve been distributed to most of the above churches. If you would prefer to have the printed version and your church doesn’t have any copies available, please contact:
Zion United Methodist Church
242 Kings Highway, Clarksboro, NJ 08020
856-423-2000
What’s Next?
Devotionals like these are great ways to learn how to apply the Bible to your life. The personal stories are inspiring and help you to grow. But even after Easter, you’ll still need to be constantly reading and studying the Bible. At Pitman UMC, we offer the following opportunities (and your own church likely offers similar ones if you’re not from Pitman UMC). Use the below buttons to learn more:
Share Your Stories…
If you’ve found these devotionals to be useful, tweet the link or share this article with your Facebook Friends. Use the below buttons to share on any social media.
As you read these devotionals, you are opening yourself up to hearing from the Holy Spirit. If something in an article hits you, please share it and let us know how God has spoken to you. Post a comment in the form at the end of this article (your email address won’t be published).
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For other daily devotionals , visit our Devotionals Page:
Daily Devotionals
