Do You Need to Refocus?

Well we are part way through the LENTEN season and my son was asking his children how they were going with their “giving up“ of a food or activity to help us deepen our relationship with God. We focus on extra prayers, fasting from food and certain activities and by giving to the poor.

His 7-year-old son, Emmett, said it was going well but he was still deciding the best option. There were 3 things he was contemplating to do……

1. Giving up homework
2. Giving up packing his school bag and
3. Giving up not wearing a shirt at home.

Oh, with a smile on her face, one of his Aunt’s suggested that sometimes we choose to take something extra on as a sacrifice like….

1. Taking on extra homework
2. Packing everyone’s school bag
3. Wearing two shirts at home instead of one.

We all laughed at those suggestions.

But the message was clear. The offering we offer up to the Lord, out of love and desiring to deepen our relationship with Him, should be a sacrifice. It makes us think less about ourselves and focus more on God, and on loving others.

This made me reflect upon how I was going. I still had a few weeks where I could really do something extra like taking something on…. Or denying myself something so as to offer it up to the Lord.

The Lord offered himself completely up for us on the Cross, so that we would have the opportunity once again to eternal life.

Could I not offer up to Him things, issues, my ego, my pride, my selfishness so as to ask for Grace to understand more the sacrifice He made? Could I deny myself something, some pleasure and offer this up to My Savior?

I reminded myself – it’s not too late to start, to do it better than previous years. To put my whole heart into it. My whole self. Jesus asks this of us – be HOT, not lukewarm. So, I refocus and look at my goals and start afresh from now. Do you need to do the same?

May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’

Love

Rosemary

Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Be honest, how is your lent going? Do you need to refocus?

In these last few weeks what will you do to give God more of your heart?