Lent is meant to be a time of repentance. That’s not a feeling of shame but an awareness that sin separates us from God and of what it cost Him to be reunited with us. “Shame has its place, but feeling shame over sin is not the same thing as repentance from sin” because “our tempter can take our obedience to God and turn it into a source of pride.”
Repentant sinners “seek […] cleansing from sin, but also freedom from shame.” True repentance leads” to a “180-degree change of […] direction” and requires “true brokenness,” but repentance starts with “regretful acknowledgment of sin with commitment to change.”
That is why conflating Lent with New Year’s resolutions is dangerous. This time of fasting should not add religious encouragement to a difficult goal: to lose weight, stop watching pornography, or to give money to charity. “Lent is […] an opportunity to contemplate what our Lord really did for us on the Cross.”
Resolutions focus on meeting self-set, self-motivated goals rather than goals established by God and may even rebel against His purposes. Resolutions reflect a desire for autonomy from God instead of recognizing that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthian 3:16, 6:19) and the work of the potter, to be regarded as precious (Isaiah 64:8).
Resolutions simply focus on the “self,” not Christ. Lent is an excellent time to give up one’s own resolutions and listen for God’s leading. Where God’s lead might be more difficult than any fast and Christians realize that they cannot do anything in their own strength either: only the grace of God is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9).
