6 Ways to Keep Yourself Accountable Throughout Lent

Keeping ourselves on track during Lent will involve the spiritual practice of praying daily. By going to the Lord in prayer each day, we will be more motivated to stay the course. When we pray to Him, we need to be honest with our feelings and share our struggles with Him. Jesus cares about our struggles, and He will help us to be strong. As Isaiah 51:3 says, “Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way.”

While it might not be possible for us to have the strength to keep going on our own, God will give us the strength that we need to keep going. The only way we will be able to connect with Him is to pray to Him. After we go to Him in prayer each day throughout Lent, we will feel blessed and have the capacity to keep going forward. Yes, some of the forty days will be filled with difficulties, but some of the days will be filled with inexpressible joy. 

As mentioned, Lent requires the discipline of giving up something to draw closer to God. Once we hold ourselves accountable throughout Lent to pray daily and continue with the task at hand, we are more likely to continue the practices. This will be a blessing for the present as well as for the future.

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Something that really helps to keep me accountable during Lent is journaling. Journaling each day helps keep my mind focused. Rather than giving up or forgetting the reason I started the forty days of drawing closer to God, I’m able to journal my thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Sometimes, I write down prayers and other times I bullet journal a few of the struggles I’m having. 

For example, when I’m struggling to stay off social media, I jot down 5-10 things that social media has taken away from me. Then I write down 5-10 ways my relationship with Jesus has grown since giving up social media for Lent. By doing this each day throughout Lent, I was able to keep pushing on when it was hard. And to be honest, once you give up something for about two weeks, you don’t really think about it that much. Instead, you start thinking about how much time you wasted on social media, watching TV, or whatever might be your “poison.”

Talk with the Lord as you journal, and ask Him what you can do to stay strong. Sometimes, a few ideas will come into your head, and then you will be able to journal a game plan to keep yourself accountable. Whenever the forty days get hard again, you can return to this game plan, talk with the Lord in prayer, and keep pushing forward.

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Sometimes, remembering the “why” behind your Lent fast can go a long way when you struggle to stay accountable. Participating in Lent should be to deepen your walk with the Lord. If the reason is to lose weight, save money, or something else self-focused, staying the course will be much harder. However, if your reason is rooted in growing in the Lord and fostering your relationship with Him, it will succeed because He is with you. 

Whenever we strive to grow in the Lord, we can be assured that He will help us (Philippians 4:19). He will never go back on His promises, nor will He prevent us from growing in Him. Instead, He will continue to equip us with everything we need to stay accountable. The main goal of Lent is to strengthen our relationship with Him; there is no reason to believe that the Lord would not bless these endeavors. If you find yourself constantly hitting roadblocks, you need to reassess your reason for starting Lent and see if your motivations are rooted in the Lord.

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While sometimes we struggle because our focus is not truly on the Lord, other times we struggle because it is just hard. When you have hit this proverbial wall, you need to open up to a friend and ask them to be your accountability partner. The key is to choose someone who will indeed hold you accountable. Therefore, don’t pick someone super easygoing or who will cave in at the first sign of difficulty. Choose someone who will help you push forward and pray for you when you grow weak. Even though many people might feel that asking for help is not ideal, reaching out for support from others is part of God’s design for community. 

My sister has been an accountability partner on multiple occasions, and she has helped me to stay the course even when there was nothing but fear and pain. Sometimes, the only way out is through, and we must accept it. Lent can be a struggle, but if we cannot stay firm for forty days, how will we stay strong for years or decades? The Lord desires our utmost devotion, and we need to see Lent as a training period to exercise our Christian walk.

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There will be periods of wanting to quit, but we must fight this compulsion. We don’t need to leave, because then all of our progress is gone. Rather than quitting, we need to take a breather. This means we must reset our minds and return our hearts to the Lord. For example, if we gave up watching television for Lent to have more time with the Lord, then we need to give ourselves a breather in the sense that we need to sit in our room, close our eyes, and take deep breaths. 

Taking a breather is not an excuse to cheat. Instead, it involves switching up a few things to align our hearts with our goals. Yet again, talking with the Lord in prayer will help immensely. As you breathe in and out, speak with the Lord or just talk with Him in your head. Once you have taken time to breathe, close your eyes, and distance yourself from the struggle, it can help keep you accountable.

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Lastly, it is essential to discuss the aspect of making Lent fun rather than daunting. If we only focus on what we can’t have for the next forty days, then we will begin to hyper-fixate on this very thing, and the temptation will be strong. However, if we spend the next forty days focused on growth and change, then it will be more fun and productive. We won’t see them as days to get through begrudgingly but rather as days to take hold of and grow through. 

Nobody likes pain, but sometimes growth involves pain. Similar to growing pains as teens, we have to have growing pains in our walk with the Lord. Giving up something for forty days might seem hard, but it is nothing compared to what we are gaining in the Lord. The things that we once considered the top priority of our lives will soon be placed on the back burner. We will soon see the task of growing in our relationship with the Lord as something that is fun and fulfilling rather than a chore to be done.

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