Jesus and the devil have a contest of wills in the desert (Luke 4:1-13). At one point, “the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority.'” (4:5-6, NRSV)<\/p>\n

… the devil said to Jesus, “All of this can be all about you.”<\/p>\n

In your prayer-writing today, wrestle with God against the temptation to see life as “all about you.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out my tendency to waste time.<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out my doubts and regrets.<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out fretting over my figure.<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out the dirty dishes on the counter.<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out the successes I had this week.<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out my ambitions.<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out tunnel-vision of a busy day.<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out a selfish definition of “busy”<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out time spent talking when I should have been listening.<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out the stuff that fills my cupboards.<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out goals and dreams.<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out tomorrow’s to-do list.<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out what I want people to think of me.<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out me.<\/p>\n

Breathe in God.
\nBreathe out me.<\/p>\n

Gradually,\u00a0 may I be filled with what you desire.\u00a0 May I decrease as you increase.
\nBreathe in God.
\nBreathe out me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus and the devil have a contest of wills in the desert (Luke 4:1-13). At one point, “the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority.’” (4:5-6, NRSV) … the…<\/span><\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[84,567,593,766,1027,1107],"class_list":["post-2217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lent","tag-authentic","tag-kenosis","tag-lent","tag-prayers","tag-true-self","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/lent.jpg?fit=1032%2C774&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7cYpi-zL","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}