Relinquish the false self only saved to its self.

The false self can only cobble together secondary things.

Each of us has a beautiful true self inside of us. 

It is God's gift to us. But many of us can hardly take this in. 

Somewhere life taught us that our true self wasn't welcome or safe nor wanted. 

The false self strives to cobble together an identity from secondary things; reputation, success, status, family, jobs, health. 

But an identity based on these things is rooted in idols and idols can be lost!

Things can be here today and gone tomorrow provide a precarious mooring for the soul. 

Out truest identity can never be something we accomplish, earn or prove on our own, it is a gift we receive from Jesus. 

It is not something we earn through performance; it is what we are given. Scripture tells us that we are 

*Chosen (John 15:16)

*Beloved children of God (1 John 3:1)

*Friends of Jesus (John 15:15)

*The temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16)

*God's work of art (Ephesians 2:10)

*Fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)

This is our truest self, we are not defective failures, we are treasured by the Lord of the universe and this is why we can feel good about ourselves. 

The R disciplines of "Relinquishment" detach us from the idols that vie our attention, and attach us to our true identity in Christ. 

When we recognize and name the idols that consume our energy, time, and hearts, we can ask God for the grace to "Let Go," relinquishing our dependence on these things. 

Through practices of relinquishment we detach from striving and unmask the false self with its pretense, agendas and grandiosity.

In the presence of Christ we lay down the weight of having to manage an image. 

Francis de Sales writes in his Treatise on the love of God, "No one can perfectly love God unless he gives up his affection for perishable things ..... Our free will is never so free as when it is a slave to God's will, just as it is never so servile and when it serves our own will".

Detachment from the false self and idols of our heart can be a painful process. But God's spirit of Truth longs to help each of us detach from the lies that shape us. 

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth of our belovedness and our "Christ-in-me identity."

An identity rooted in Christ has a restful center, surrendering to and maturing in this Christ-in-me identity is helped along by the R disciples. 

Reference Share: Spiritual Disciplines Handbook - Practices That Transform Us.