Are you following a Lenten ritual? Have you decided to give up something over these 40 days, or committed to specific practices during this time?
This diary you are reading is a part of my Lenten commitment to do more Bible study and meditation. But I am reminded by Psalm 51 today that what we choose to either do or not do during Lent is not the most important thing for our souls. It is the heart that we bring.
“Had you desired it, I would have offered sacrifice, but you take no delight in burnt offerings,” the psalmist writes. “The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
A “broken and contrite heart” does not mean staying in a state of sadness and self-flagellation. It does mean being in a state of recognition that we fall short of the love and grace that God calls us to walk in. We get angry at times when we should be showing compassion and care. We are indifferent when anger is in fact the correct response. We begin the day committed to living our lives as Jesus would, but by the end our actions don’t look at all like what Jesus would do.
There are exercises like fasting that do help us focus on nurturing our spirit rather than satisfying our physical cravings. But it is not the fasting alone that’s transformative. It’s how you resolve, through prayer and introspection, to be more like Jesus from the inside out. As the apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9, we are not saved by the things we do, or not do, but by the faith in which we walk. In that is true liberation.