Genesis 17, 3 – 9
Psalm 105: -5, 6-7, 8-9
John 8, 51 -59
  Jesus wants to set us free, but do we want to be set free?  On an intellectual level this should be an easy question to answer.  Of course, we want our freedom!  Who wouldn’t?  But on a practical level this question is harder to answer.  Practically speaking, many people are very comfortable living in sin.  Sin can make us “feel” good in the moment, even though the long-term effects are that it strips our freedom and joy.  But so often that momentary “satisfaction” is enough for many people to keep coming back.
Do we want to be free so as to live as a sons and daughters of God?  If we answer “Yes” then let us be prepared for this to be painful, but in a delightful way.  Overcoming sin requires purification.  The process of “letting go” of sin requires true sacrifice and commitment.  It requires us to turn to the Lord in absolute trust and abandonment. This hurts, at least on the level of our fallen human nature.  But it’s like a surgery that has the goal of removing some infection.  The surgery itself may hurt, but it’s the only way to be freed of the malady we have.  The Son is the Divine Surgeon and the way He sets us free is through His own suffering and death.  His death destroyed the disease of sin, and our willing acceptance of the remedy of His death means we must let Him destroy the disease of sin within us through His death.
Lent is a time, more than any other, in which we must honestly focus on our sins for the reason of identifying those things that keep us bound, so that we can invite the Divine Physician to enter our wounds and heal us. The Lord wants us to be free!  Let us desire it ourselves and enter the process of purification so that we will be relieved of our heavy burdens.
May God free our hearts from discouragement!
 
Abba Meskel