Instructions for the next 21 days: Each day during the meal/hours you have devoted to fasting, take time to read scripture. Let the Word of God become your food while we deny our hunger for our earthly filling. Reflect on the passage and respond to His Word through prayer. Throughout the day, memorize, keep a journal, or think of the scriptures and your reflection upon them so that it may challenge you, strengthen you, and lead you into a deeper relationship with the Lord.
Today’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 51
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
[ Psalm 51:10 ]
Many of us struggle with matters of the heart that both consume us of our energy and desires for earthly pleasures. Whether it is success, fortune, or even recognition, some of us may be struggling with feeling lost in our identity and especially in our spiritual journeys. The root of every struggle and conflict comes from the sin of idolatry. Though we may not be bowing down to baal and asherah as in the Old Testament, the source of idolatry is in every essence internal as much as it is external. Idolatry is everything and anything that we desire more than God, and our search for absolution outside of Him. Sin is rooted in the idolatry of one’s desires over what the Lord has created us to be. Our most stressful, miserable, and darkest circumstances are rooted in the desire for one’s own wants versus our need to cling to the Lord. But why do we desire earthly things and try to hard to appease our fleshly feelings? It is a matter of a broken heart and mind. Whether it was from a broken relationship, a resentful past, or a response to a recent pain.
The first step to spiritual renewal is confession and repentance. Verse 17 says: “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” The Lord wants to hear your innermost pains and struggles. He wants to work on you and love you from the inside out, and replace it all with the everlasting joy of receiving his Grace. Being born again in Jesus Christ is a constant journey of washing out the hurt, pain, and baggage with the cleansing power of Christ’s love. Our renewal begins when we begin call out against our sins and struggles, and allowing God to create a new healed heart within us.
Take time today to repent and recognize what you desire more than God. Be honest before God in your prayers and reflections and show him the reasons why you feel so attached to those idols so that the Lord may show you in return how much greater his love is for you. May you be overwhelmed by His Love and Grace today.
“God aims first to renew man’s darkened spirit by imparting life to it, because it is this spirit which God originally designed to receive His life and to commune with Him. God’s intent after that is to work out from the spirit to permeate man’s soul and body.”
T H E O P H I L U S 
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