Cleaning Day

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me."

Psalm 51:10

Jesus, my Alpha and Omega, my beginning and my end, I come to you with all my dirty linen today Ash Wednesday. Wash me and cleanse me of every impurity including my thoughts, words and deeds.

Create in me a new attitude, new perspective, new dream, new spirit, new strategic plan and a clean heart. You are the God of all things new.

Help me to bury the dead- dead ideas, dead relationships and dead issues. Help me to lift my eyes during this Lenten season to see where newness is needed in my life. As you cause me to see it, help me to embrace the new. In Jesus Name, Amen

VMM

ASH WEDNESDAY

Grace and Peace!

We start together on a marvelous journey today. While we are already on a journey to God every day of our lives, the journey becomes even more intimate now. We loose our grip on the world and its priorities through fasting and we cling more closely to Christ in prayer. This is a powerful, life-changing combination.

Be sure to let your desires for the food you are abstaining from become a call to prayer and never a distraction. Do not become obsessive about the diet portion of the fast or you will find yourself less attentive to God.

Our goal is God. Our hope is God. Our joy is God. We pursue God in prayer. The fast wrestles away from us our dependence on the things of the world which regularly disappoint us, often frustrate us and sometimes devastate us.

Fasting removes crutches and exposes weaknesses. When these are exposed, we ask God to be our strength in those areas.

This Lenten season is a period of refinement. We are not allowing life to roll on come what may. We are living consciously and intentionally in the Presence of Almighty God. Words and actions are deliberate and intentional. Nothing is done idly but we remain present in every moment fully aware of the Presence of God at all times.

There is no reason to be the same when this period of fasting and prayer is over. God desires for us to be in good health and to prosper as our souls prosper. All that is needed for us is to feed ourselves with powerful spiritual food in prayer, worship, praise, service and fellowship.

If you become grumpy, cranky during the fast, do not blame the lack of what you would regularly eat. Probe deeper. Deal with the real seat of the emotion the food has been covering up. Ask God to reveal the problem and to heal you in that area.

Healing is available to you. Believe it and Receive it.

Deliverance is available to you.

Abundant living...

Joy...

Peace...

Love....

All available. Open yourself and RAISE YOUR EXPECTATIONS!

God has been waiting for you to enter into this very moment. Your life is going to be awesome. God is going to make it so!

Rev. Roderick Belin

www.ibelin.me