We’re all facing an experience of grief, loss of control and forced change. It’s like we are fasting but we didn’t choose to. Having some of our freedoms removed and living in more confined spaces is undeniably challenging and often surfaces emotions we could previously quieten and perhaps even bury with comforts.
All of this means it’s a time we need to guard our hearts. These spiritual practices are five ideas to help us keep soft-hearted and emotionally healthy.
You may like to choose a moment of every day where you will reflect on whether you’ve been hurt by someone — something they said or didn’t say, did or didn’t do — and ask the Holy Spirit to enable you to forgive them. You might actually pray out loud: “Father, I forgive (x) for (y) and ask that You would soften my heart towards them again.”
GRATITUDE
Select a gratitude practice to cultivate an attitude of thanksgiving and gratefulness in your heart. It could be something like thanking God for a list of ten things before you get out of bed in the morning. Or maybe it’s writing down three things at the end of the day that your are grateful for that day. Giving the space to gratitude can keep our hearts soft.
So much hard-heartedness can build up because we’ve hurt others but are too proud or driven by self-sufficiency to confess and fall on the grace of God. Confessing our sins to God and to others we trust, like our Pattern group, and asking for forgiveness can be one of the most releasing things we can do. You might either like to try and create a rhythm of doing this as a Pattern group or on your own before God by saying or writing out something like, “I’m sorry (person/God) for (an attitude or action) — I’ve realised that it wasn’t healthy. Will you forgive me?”
Whether on paper or on a digital note-taking app, it can be incredibly freeing to write out and reflect on the day past or the day ahead. Taking the time to write out some of the things that happened that day, how they made you feel or react and noting down anything God might be saying to you in the midst of it or how you saw Him at work is a helpful way to know and inhabit our stories before Him.
Silence and solitude are perhaps two of the best ways we can become aware of our inner world and therefore allow God into it and bring healing. We are normally moving at such a pace, with so many distractions to even notice what’s going on in our hearts, minds and souls. Silence quietens everything else down and allows things to come to the surface. Why not start small by committing to 5 minutes of silence and solitude at the beginning of the day, maybe after you’ve done BREAD.
Find out all about these heart practices and more that help us be with Jesus as He softens our hearts here.
