Praying To Remove Unnecessary Masks

Tomorrow night many children put on costumes and go door-to-door “trick-or-treating.”  Some of them wear masks to complete their costume.  Some adults also dress in costumes and may attend parties where a mask is used to disguise who they really are.  Everyone wants to have a good time as they pretend to be someone they are not for a few hours.

During the covid pandemic we’ve all been wearing masks for much longer than most of us would prefer.

Truth is, many of us don’t just don masks at Hallowe’en or for health reasons such as protection during the pandemic.  Sometimes we wear masks over our personality and to cover certain emotions.  We can wear them for so long that we forget who we really are.   A mask, of course, covers the truth of who we are with a lie.  When we live behind a mask we are denying our true self and rejecting the person God created us to be.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. Psalm 139:13-14

God created us in love with a purpose for our lives.  God invites us to let our unique personality complement each of our relationships.  This is what life with God in recovery is all about, becoming the person God created us to be and following the plan He has for our lives. 

When we dare to take off the mask and let our true self be known, we often experience freedom from the burden our false persona burdened us with.  The question for each of us is, do we want to tell the truth, remove the mask, and find out who we truly are, or do we want to continue telling lies and hiding behind the mask of a false persona?

What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense.  Tell your neighbor the truth.  In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all.  When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself. Ephesians 4:25

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, we want to commit to letting go of everything that hinders us from being the persons You created us to be.  Our unique set of gifts and talents and personality is something You loving put together for a loving purpose.  So would You help us to embrace the beauty of Your creative purposes, seek Your help in understanding how to live fully as the persons You’ve created us to be, and follow the plan for our lives that You always had in mind.  Help us to live that truth in every circumstance and leave the outcome with You.  Amen