Thursday Prayer: Beginning Lent

Jesus, you spent forty days in wilderness being tested before ministry began. You faced temptation, hunger, isolation - and you overcame through dependence on your Father and his Word. These forty days ahead, I want to follow where you led.

Show me what needs to go - what comfort I've made into savior, what distraction keeps me from your presence, what security I'm trusting more than you. I don't want to just give up chocolate to check a religious box; I want genuine transformation. Strip away whatever hinders intimacy with you.

Teach me to defeat temptation the way you did - with Scripture, with trust, with submission to the Father's will even when it's hard. Let these forty days prepare me for Easter by making me honest about what made Easter necessary. Walk with me through this wilderness. Sustain me when I'm hungry. Protect me when I'm tempted. Lead me to resurrection through honest confrontation with what required it.