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 37: Approaching Easter: Eternal Prayers


Pause

“Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” - Psalm 61:1-2

Reflect

  • Bible: “When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. They sing a new song: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation’” - Revelation 5:8-9

  • Book: “It’s awesome to imagine that our unanswered prayers - all the frustrations, the tears, the dashed hopes - are being stored up by God in those golden bowls and may, eventually, become our most powerful contribution to the world. Let me say it again: our answered prayers may be the real ministry of our lives. As Tim Chester writes in The Message of Prayer: ‘Prayers we think of as directed to the present are in fact being stored up to be answered on the final day.’” (p. 208)

Ask

  • What lifts you up when your heart grows faint?

  • What is your understanding of the saints and the prayers of the saints?

  • Why does the slaughter of Jesus and the pouring out of His blood ransom us?

  • What might Jesus’ personal sacrifice suggest about our own personal responsibility in caring for the children of God?

  • How can our unanswered prayers become our most powerful contribution to the world?

  • Do you find comfort in knowing that your current pain may contribute to some other miracle at some other time for some other person? Why or why not?

  • Are prayers ever wasted? Explain.

  • Explain the purpose that drives your life’s ministry?

  • Do you agree or disagree with Tim Chester who writes: “Prayers we think of as directed to the present are in fact being stored up to be answered on the final day.” Explain why you agree or disagree.

Yield

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

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

The clouds be 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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