A Clean Heart

How hard it is to have a clean heart! In a world that fills our hearts with wants and needs with cookie cutter images, of perfection. Life is messy, it can be easy at times then in a blink of an eye everything can change.

So how do we cleanse our hearts? We turn to the Lord to Imitate His ways. Only He can create a new heart in us, filled with love and grace for the imperfections of our day to day. The lows and highs.

In Psalms 51:12 we read of the prayer, “A clean heart create for me, God; renew within me a steadfast spirit.” On this first day of lent, if you don’t know where to start, begin with this prayer. Pray it without ceasing throughout your day. Be intentional, set an alarm if you need to, make a note placing it where you can read it, be mindful of whom and what is around you. Slowly you will begin to see God in your day to day in those around you.

Lent is about giving up your pleasures that keep you from seeing Christ. Lent is about sacrificing yourself. From denying self of pleasures we think we cannot live without. For instance, time is a big challenge and yet it is not. I used to look at books for lent or anytime of the year for that matter and think I don’t have time to sit. I am busy, I have a list of things to do. But then I would sit and scroll through the news apps, Instagram account and or recipes on Pinterest for minutes at a time and collectively for 15 minutes or so. Binge watch tv on Netflix, until one day I caught myself and began to realize I could take those tempting minutes to see what the world is doing and pick up a book on Christ, Mary, Joseph, the Saints, the Catechism – the list goes on and on. The key is acknowledging what keeps us from truly Imitating Christ.

Will this be perfect everyday? NO, and that is where Christ comes in and teaches us the art of forgiveness in ourselves to look at neglectfulness and to get back up and try again until we can perfect the obedience in time with HIM. So my prayer for today is that though we are sinners, we will arise in Christ! That we will look at the next 40 days with open hearts and ask for him to cleanse us from ourselves. I pray we offer the right sacrifice in our lives that will make a difference in our hearts for God and for those who He has given to us to care for good, bad, or indifferent.