Ash Wednesday :: Letting Go

“Rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the LORD your God.”

Joel 2:13

There was nothing Jesus was more attached to than his Father. Jesus himself said, “the Father and I are one.” What a beautiful picture. This is God’s vision for each of our lives, a deep internal reality that there is nothing that stands between God and us. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. We can easily become blind to the things that we have subtly attached meaning and significance to outside of Christ. There are times when we simply fail to see how our children or our goals for them and ourselves have somehow become the most important thing in our lives, receiving the bulk of our time, money and resources. Lent is a season of letting go. It’s about growing in spiritual awareness. An awareness that exposes the existence of our temporal attachments and draws us closer to the passionate love of Christ.

Prayer:

God I am here today to meet with you.
It is my desire, that over the next forty days,
I will grow closer to you than ever before.
I want to know the depths of Your heart.
I want to become fashioned into
the image of Your Beloved Son.

God, I confess, I often allow myself to
become occupied with so many things that
distract me from you: busyness, relationships,
inner struggles and insecurities, etc.
God, I want to want You more then everything else in this world.
So, I set aside the next forty days
to grow closer to You…to be more like You.

Help me to remove anything in my life
that is displeasing to You…
everything that
remains as a barrier prevents me
from following You more fully.

Reflection: Ask God to reveal to you any thing (possession), mindset, attitude, or behavior that has become a barrier between you and Him. Take an attachment inventory. Walk through your home or office, and in your mind give all you have to God. Tell Him you could live without the things you see. What is this time of prayer like for you?