Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind
that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect.
~Romans 12:2
Lent is a time of awakening to God’s good and perfect will for our lives and a time of responding by allowing the Spirit to renew what is not acceptable in our hearts and minds. The following has been my prayer as I begin this year’s 40 day journey.
Lenten Psalm of Awakening
Come O Life-giving Creator,
and rattle the door latch
of my slumbering heart.
Awaken me as you breathe upon
a winter-wrapped earth,
gently calling to the life virgin Spring.
Awaken in these fortified days
of Lenten prayer and discipline
my youthful dream of holiness.
Call me forth from the prison camp’s my numerous past defeats
and my narrow patterns of being
to make my ordinary life extra-ordinarily alive,
through the passion of my love.
Show to me during these Lenten days
how to take the daily things of life
and by submerging them in the sacred,
to infuse them with a great love
for you, O God, and for others.
Guide me to perform simple acts of love and prayer,
the real works of reform and renewal
of this overture to the spring of the spirit.
O Father of Jesus,
help me not to wast these precious Lenten days
or my soul’s spiritual springtime.
~Edward Hays
Come Learn Rest Ministries 