APPROACHING EASTER

When Every Prayer Is Answered


And then finally, on Easter Sunday, God broke the silence. He awoke. He spoke. And for those of us who find ourselves walking reluctantly in Jesus’ footsteps from Gethsemane and Gogotha to the garden tomb, Easter Sunday gives great cause to hope. That one ultimate miracle - the resurrection of the Son of God from the dead - assures us that every buried dream and dashed desire will ultimately be absorbed and resurrected into a reality far greater than anything we can currently imagine.


Day 35: Approaching Easter


Pause

“Lord, You are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to You. May my prayer come before You; turn Your ear to my cry. I am overwhelmed with troubles.” - Psalm 88:1-3

Reflect

  • Bible: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” - John 12:23-25

  • Book: “When Sammy and I were facing the stark possibility that she would die at the age of 30, I was dismayed to discover that … my imagination was bereft of any imagery or vocabulary that could grant genuine comfort and joy at the prospect of resurrection from the grave … The contemporary Western church at large seems to me to have little belief in the afterlife. We are so temporal and comfortable. We can perpetuate the delusions of our own immortality for longer than any previous generation, but ultimately, unless our death comes instantaneously in early life, we must think about such things. We will be the poorer if we do not. And so I have begun a solemn pilgrimage that some might deem a little morose. My aim? To get excited about spending eternity with Jesus." - (p. 211)

Ask

  • Are you overwhelmed with troubles?

  • Who or what do you turn to in the midst of your troubles?

  • In what way are we like a kernel of wheat?

  • Why will those who love their life lose it while those who hate their life keep it?

  • What imagery or vocabulary brings you comfort and joy?

  • Explain your understanding of the afterlife.

  • Would you describe yourself as focused on temporal things or eternal things? Why?

  • Would you describe your life as comfortable or uncomfortable? Why?

  • Why might it be healthy to think about death?

  • What excites you most about spending eternity with Jesus?

Yield

The hymn, “It is Well with My Soul,” by Horatio Spafford:

“And Lord haste the day, when the faint shall be sight,

The clouds being rolled back as a scroll;

The Trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,

Even so, it is well with my soul.”

Amen.



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