Wholehearted
LETTER BY GRACE POUCH
The most famous part of the traditional wedding liturgy is the “I do” or “I will.”
These two little words of assent — to give one’s self and have another fully and exclusively — are a Yes that involves a significant No.
In older versions of the liturgy, another line comes just before the I will: “Forsaking all others, keep only unto [him or her].”
The love unique to marriage is consecrated for the spouse alone. And that means holding nothing back in reserve for some other commitment, some other lover.
True devotion requires exclusivity.
Now I know it’s Valentine’s Day, and I celebrate taking this opportunity to renew devotion to your own beloved if you have one. But human union is not my main point today.
We are all invited into the blessed covenant with Christ, forsaking all others, keeping only unto him.
The trust, the intimacy, the heart-to-heart communication between you and the Lord is sealed by your surrender —
of all untrust and misplaced hope,
of all distractions and disruptions to intimate connection,
of all other loves and longings that would pull us away from God.
Giving our yes to God without any strings attached is something we all struggle to do. God knows this. And there are practices — such as fasting — that can help move us in the direction of total surrender, total availability.
This week’s guest on the Life with God podcast, author and pastor Reward Sibanda, says, “One decisive yes in fasting is a definitive no to anything in our thoughts, attitudes, and appetites misaligned with Him.”
In a few weeks, we will enter the season of Lent, traditionally a time of giving up something or fasting. But the point isn’t punishment or pious showmanship. The point is devotion.
Let’s consider how we might place the whole self — body, mind, heart — fully and exclusively before Jesus as his beloved. Let’s pull away from distractions and sharpen our focus on his loving movement toward death for our sakes. And let’s abandon all that stands in the way of our wholehearted Yes to his resurrected Presence abiding with us now and forever.
Grace Pouch
Content Manager
Sign up for Renovaré Weekly
Thoughtfully introduced Christ-centered spiritual formation resources.
Thanks for subscribing! We'll send you a confirmation email.
LET’S DIVE IN...
CURATED BY GRACE POUCH
-
1.
Reward Sibanda joined Nathan on the Life With God podcast to share his insights on fasting as a God-designed process of total surrender.
-
2.
Read “Consecration,” an excerpt from Reward Sibanda’s new book, How to Fast.
-
3.
In this video, friends at Practicing the Way explain how Fasting is a way to offer our whole bodies and whole selves to God.
-
4.
Lilias Trotter writes about dropping anything that gets in the way of our devotion and obedience to Christ in the 1901 essay, “Focused.”
-
5.
Friends of Renovaré Alan Fadling and John Mark Comer discuss one of the greatest barriers to full-hearted intimacy with God — hurry. Listen to Unhurried Living’s episode on the “ruthless elimination of hurry.”
-
6.
Join us for the 4th and final book of this year’s Renovaré Book Club, Abandonment to Divine Providence. Reading begins next week.
Grace Pouch
Content Manager
WORTH QUOTING
“Turn full your soul’s vision to Jesus, and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him.”
– Lilias Trotter (source)
TO CONTEMPLATE
St Francis embracing the Cross
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione c.1655
(source)
The symbol of the cross is, of course, a reminder of Christ’s ultimate act of self-giving love. It also represents the pathway by which we grow more like Jesus by forsaking and putting to death the thoughts, attitudes, and appetites that hold us back from fully loving God and others with the love of Christ.
TO PONDER
As Lent approaches, consider taking a moment now to ask God to reveal in the coming weeks anything that might be helpful to lay aside to more fully receive the love of Jesus.