7 Weekly Prayers For Lent

Looking to connect with God more richly this Lenten season? Use these real, raw, authentic weekly prayers for Lent to pour out your heart.

Even though the word “Lent” isn’t specifically mentioned in the Bible, this season leading up to Easter is such a beautiful time to draw nearer to God through fasting and praying.

There is a devastating beauty to the Lenten season.

There are seven prayers for Lent listed below to lead you from Ash Wednesday (the day that marks the start of the Lenten season) up to Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter).

Read one prayer each week and lean deeper into your relationship with God as you journey with Him from Ash Wednesday to Holy Week and His death on the cross.

Lent is not just a religious ritual. It is a time to strengthen your connection to the Lord, remembering how great His sacrifice was for you and how important that is in your day-to-day life.

Whether you are fasting, giving something up (I gave up worrying for Lent one year!), or just drawing nearer to the Lord in this season, enjoy these prayers.

Prayers For Lent

Purple fabric draped over cross for Lent

An Ash Wednesday Prayer

Lord,

Lent starts today and I want this to mark the start of a season of deepening my relationship with You as I journey with You to the cross.

I know how the story ends, but draw me nearer to help me to see all of the steps leading up to Easter, so that I may take in each step to help me realize more fully my need for redemption – my need for You.

On this Ash Wednesday, help me to meditate on Genesis 3:19, “…for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

May the ashes on my forehead be a sign of my repentance, reminding me of where I came from and where I am going. This life is not everything. You are everything and nothing in this world will satisfy that craving inside of me for wholeness. My soul pants for You.

I am nowhere near perfect, no matter how hard I try to be, and I need You more than I realize. So, as uncomfortable as it is, I will sit here a moment in my need, seeing the darkness in myself and in the world around me, and feeling how desperately we need Your light.

You are my Savior, my rock, and my salvation. As I fast and pray this Lent, increase my awareness of those suffering around me and show me any needs that I can step up and meet. And increase my awareness of Your presence as I go about my days.

Help me to see more glimpses of Your eternal perspective to shake me out of the small world I’ve been living in. Help me to live more purposefully and love more deeply, knowing it is all for You.

Amen.

Week 1 – A Prayer Of Repentance & Mercy

God, in this first week of Lent, please open my eyes to how much I need You. This is the uncomfortable part for me, looking my weaknesses and sins and shortcomings in the face, but I know it’s such an important part of my faith. I need You, my Savior. I needed You to die on the cross for me because I fall short.

Show me my need this week for you. You are not a God who heaps shame on my shoulders or holds my past mistakes against me. Staying stuck in my mess is not the point. The point is for me to more fully realize my need for You so that I can more fully appreciate the sacrifice You made for me.

Uncover any areas in my life that are distracting me from Your glory. Am I running to anything in this world (like food, social media, TV, etc) when I should be running to You? What am I relying on to bring me joy in my life right now?

Open my eyes, Lord. Show me anything I’ve consciously or unconsciously swept under the rug. Help me to confront them, knowing I have Your strength, Your grace, and Your forgiveness to deal with whatever I need to deal with.

I love You and I desperately need You.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen.

Week 2 – A Prayer Of Silence & Fasting

Heavenly Father, help be to be still before You this week. I’m not good at being silent before You. Help me to calm my racing thoughts, quiet my body and my mind, and come before You in silence, offering You my whole self.

I want to hear Your voice so that I can walk in Your ways for me. I want to be still and experience the wonder of who You are and what You have done in my life. I want to experience the rest that only You can provide as I sink deeper into Your presence.

And I offer myself as a living sacrifice to You this week. In Your Word, You call us to fast and I want to follow that calling. I don’t want it to simply be an empty required act. I want it to be a way for me to lay down the pleasures of this earth to take up the pleasures of heaven.

I want to shake myself out of this world and remind myself of Your eternal perspective. In my fasting, help me to hear Your voice more clearly and draw me nearer to You as I strip myself of the things of this world.

You sacrificed everything for me and fasting is a small way for me to more fully realize all that You have done for me and rely on You as my Jehovah-Jireh, my God who provides. You are my rock. You are my strength. You are my everything.

In Your Son‘s Name, I pray.

Amen

Click here for more Bible verses on fasting.

Week 3 – A Prayer Of Reconciliation

Father, thank You for being so patient with me. I am so blessed and undeserving to be a child of the King. Paul said it best in 1 Timothy 1:15 when he said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”

I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around such a great love that could be offered freely to sinners like myself. Every time I wander from You and start serving and living for myself, chasing things that feel important but have no eternal significance at all, You patiently wait for me to return to my First Love.

I want to return to You again right now, leaving behind anything that would pull me away from You. “Once again, I look upon the cross where You died. I’m humbled by Your mercy and I’m broken inside. Once again, I thank You. Once again I pour out my life.” (Once Again by Matt Redman)

Thank You, Lord, for taking me back and forgiving me time and time again. I’m determined to love You better, not because it’s some requirement of being a Christian but because I love You so deeply that I never want to stray from Your presence.

I love You and am so grateful for Your gift of salvation in Jesus’ sacrifice for me.

In His precious name, I pray,

Amen.

Week 4 – A Prayer Of Humility

Lord God, I am so thankful for your omniscience. You are all-knowing, seeing every part of me and loving me anyway.

Please, help me to humble my heart before You. Help me to remove every mask I have, trying to cover my weaknesses and seem like I have it all together. You already know where I fall short and you’ve proven to me time and time again that You love me no matter how broken I am.

Help me to move toward You, not away from You, when I am feeling discouraged and hopelessly broken. It is only in You that I will find wholeness, only in You that I will find strength.

Teach me to align my definition of humility with Yours. Humility does not mean beating myself up and carrying shame. The humility You describe in Your Word is rooted in a fear of the Lord – having so much faith in You that we depend on You, not our own understanding.

It’s a humility that drives us deeper into Your presence, not hiding our flaws away from You and others.

Draw me deeper into Your presence, fully aware of my sins, my weaknesses, my flaws, and use that awareness to fuel my desire for You.

I love You, Lord. In Jesus’ Name I pray,

Amen.

Week 5 – A Prayer Of Preparation

Lord, thank You for the gentle assurance You continue to offer me to come to You in my brokenness.

It’s still hard for me to grasp how, even in my sin, You still continue to draw me near to You. You are so patient with me when I run to everything else in my life for comfort and validation when you are right there, constantly reminding me of my worth to You in Your still, small voice.

Prepare my heart, Lord. Lent is already coming to a close soon and next week is Holy Week. As we get closer to Easter, help me to prepare my heart to walk through the toughest times of Your life with You to remember how great Your sacrifice was for me.

Thank You for sending Jesus here as a man who can relate to every struggle and temptation I face in my life. Help me to always remember that I have a Savior who loved me so much that He took all of the blame when He was entirely blameless.

In Your Son’s precious name,

Amen.

Week 6 – A Holy Week Prayer (the last week of Lent)

Heavenly Father, Easter is right around the corner, but this Holy Week, I don’t want to miss the message of the cross.

I hate the thought of anyone else having to bear the consequences of my failures, especially the Son of God. I want to look the other way and focus on the joy that I know is coming next Sunday, but I don’t want to skip this most important step.

I want to journey with You to the cross this week, bringing my weakness, my imperfections, and my sin o more deeply understand Your mercy and forgiveness. My heart breaks as I reflect on what this week looked like for you, Jesus,

as You humbly washed feet at the Last Supper,
as Your heart broke when Your friends betrayed You,
as You grieved when your disciples slept in Your hour of need praying in Gethsemane,
as You were left all alone to be sent to death on the cross for crimes You didn’t commit.

These dark hours of Your life aren’t something I reflect on often. It doesn’t make sense to me that death could bring life.

But each time I remember what You went through to save me, even in the midst of my sin, it intensifies my knowledge of my need for Your grace.

Give me strength to cling to You through every valley I walk through in life, even when it doesn’t make sense, just as Jesus clung to You.

Thank You for making the ultimate sacrifice for me, saving my life, my soul, my heart. I am as undeserving as ever, which also makes me more grateful than ever for this incredible act of love.

Help me remember the cost You paid for the freedom I get to walk in daily. Thank You for the gift of eternal life You offer with Your final heavy words, “it is finished.”

I love You, Jesus. Thank You for dying so that I could live.

In Your precious name, I pray.

Amen.