Wednesday, April 23rd

“So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.  Suddenly Jesus met them.  ‘Greetings,’ he said.  They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.  Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid.  Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’”    Matthew 28:8-10

Dear Jesus, The women had fear mixed with joy.  Those two emotions seem so mutually exclusive.  But I understand how they could both coexist in the hearts of your followers.  I love how you told them to not be afraid.  I hear you saying that to me.  I don’t need to be afraid when you show your control over my life and allow huge things to happen.  I don’t need to be afraid after very near misses.  I don’t have to be afraid when I can see trouble on the horizon.  I don’t have to be afraid ever because you are risen from the dead and you rule over all things.  Help me to hear your words whenever fear creeps into my heart so I learn not to be afraid even though I’m going through uncertain circumstances.  Amen.

Jesus holds tomorrow so don’t worry about what tomorrow holds. 

Tuesday, April 22nd

“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.  There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.  The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.  The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.  Come and see the place where he lay.  Then go quickly and tell his disciples: “He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee.  There you will see him.”  Now I have told you.’”  Matthew 28:1-7

Dear Jesus, Those women weren’t supposed to be there at the tomb.  You had told them that you wouldn’t be there to be found.  But even though they loved you deeply, they still couldn’t embrace the unthinkable, that you would rise from the dead.  At any moment in the story you and your angels could have given up on them.  They were slow to believe your words although not one syllable from your lips ever failed to come true.  I understand them because I doubt your word too when I don’t get to use my reason or my senses.  I find great comfort in the fact that the angel said, “Come and See the place where he lay.”  It tells me you are patient with my doubting heart too.  I cling to your resurrection and the grace that makes you coach me into believing the facts.  I get what they got, both the experience of seeing you alive after your death and the grace to process it as my greatest treasure too.  Thanks for loving me so patiently.  Amen.

God’s love waits for our hearts to catch up to his great blessings.

Monday, April 21st

Living Lord and risen Savior, accept my alleluias and increase my joy that comes from knowing that you have risen from the dead.  Comfort me with the assurance that my sins are forgiven and eternal life in heaven is sure.  Let the joy of the Easter message lead me to go and tell the good news of your resurrection to the people who don’t know the true meaning of Easter.  Let the light of my faith in you shine brightly as I face each day in the future and the day of my death on earth.  I ask this in your name, who rose for me.  Amen.

(taken from There’s A Prayer For That…)

Saturday, April 19th

“For you know you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.”  1 Peter 1:18-19

Lord Jesus, What a price you paid!  When God demanded blood for my failure to obey him you shed all your blood.  When God demanded payment for the sins of all people, dear Son of God, you gave your life.  You are truly God and fully man.  And you, dear God-man, you stepped into the scales of justice to make the greatest payment that has ever been paid.  The redemption price for me and for all the world was the holy, innocent and divine blood of Jesus!  What a price you paid for me dear Jesus!  Thank you.  Amen.

Friday, April 18th, Good Friday

“From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.”  Matthew 27:45

Dear Jesus, What an ominous display of your Father’s power over the rogue crowd who thought they had you!  What a telling revelation of his displeasure with the sin you took on yourself!  What an unforgettable message that you went through my hell in my place!  What light the darkness reveals!  How could I think about the three hours of darkness in the middle of the day around your cross without letting it change my inner contemplations?  You were forsaken by people and God because you remembered me and my great need for rescue.  I did this to myself and yet you did that to yourself to extricate me from the despair of hell.  I will live thankfully in the shadow of your cross that burst forth with light at the end of those three hours.  Amen.

The Son of Man and Son of God was rejected by both so I would be accepted.  This will fill my day with contemplation. 

Thursday, April 17th, Maundy Thursday

“So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.  Follow him.  Say to the owner of the house he enters, “The Teacher asks:  Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”  He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready.  Make preparations for us there.’  The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them.  So they prepared the Passover.”  Mark 14:13-16

Dear Lord Jesus, I’ve always wondered why you created such an austere way for the disciples to find a place for your last supper with your disciples.  But recently I read from a few commentators that said you most likely were keeping the place a secret so Judas couldn’t mess things up.  In addition, you wanted one last time to call him back to yourself in repentance.  So you kept him off kilter by not allowing him to know the place until you and your disciples walked in the door.  That explanation makes sense to me.  You were controlling everything for the greatest benefit of everyone involved.  How careful you were to make even the destiny of the betrayer your benevolent focus!  Your grace and love for each of us is overwhelming.  My heart is with you in the upper room that night.  I feel privileged to be able to read about what happened there and to connect it to every other time I take your Lord’s Supper.  Thank you for this sacred act that promises me time with you and my fellow believers in holy moments celebrating the grace we share that saves us forever.  Help me to always give your supper the respect you want it to have.  Amen.

The Lord’s Supper is supper with your Lord who is both the host and the meal. 

Wednesday, April 16th

“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission .  Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”  Hebrews 5:7-9

Dear Jesus, It’s Wednesday of Holy Week.  We don’t have anything recorded in the Gospel accounts about what you did on Wednesday of that last week just two days before you died for us.  We only know that on Thursday you came back into Jerusalem from Bethany.  I think you spent the day in prayer.  You had been contemplating the great sacrifice you were about to make for millennia.  You talked about it in detail as if it had already happened in Old Testament times.  (Isaiah 49, 50, 53, Psalm 2, 22, 69, 110, Zechariah 3).  You had been telling your disciples this was coming.  You even said this was your last trip to Jerusalem.  So, I think you spent the day wrestling with God in prayer.  Your verse in Hebrews describes how in your earthly life you had fervent prayers, cries and tears to your father who could save you from death.  You prayed not in defiant anger but in broken hearted obedience.  You perfected obedience by doing the unthinkable for the Father and for me.  You were fully engaged and fully aware of what it cost.  It took perfect faith that God the Father would accept the sacrifice for all humans and raise you from the dead.  Today as I spend Wednesday, help me to learn how to obey from the heart and how to suffer all the painful circumstances of my life with faith, hope and love.  Make me a man of God in all circumstances.  Amen.

Jesus was fully engaged his whole life right to the end so that we might have a reason to fully engage with him.

Tuesday, April 15th

“’Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.’  When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them.  They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.”  Matthew 21:44-45

Dear Jesus, You pulled out all the stops on Tuesday of Holy Week.  You preached pointed words in an effort to give the Jewish leaders what many others were receiving.  You wanted them in heaven with you but they would not admit to themselves their need for grace.  You called yourself the stone that they (the builders) had rejected.  And you said if they would not let you break their pride into pieces then you would crush them in judgment.  It’s judgment now while we can be forgiven or it’s judgment on the last day when it will be too late.  You don’t care what we have wasted when it comes to salvation.  You just want us to be honest and admit our need for you.  I know my sins.  I am broken by your law.  I need your grace.  Forgive me and heal my heart from guilt and shame.  Give me a pure heart that does not pride itself in anything.  But also give me a pure heart that believes it is truly forgiven.  Finally, help me reflect this humble but liberated posture to those with whom I live and move today.  Amen.

Nothing compares to a soul cleansed of self-made pride or guilt. 

Monday, April 14th

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Because in this great mercy he has given us new birth.”  1 Peter 1: 3

Dear Lord God, My baptism is such a gift to me.  It did for me and for my soul what nothing else could ever do for me.  It raised me from the depths of spiritual death and raised me up for a new life.  Instead of grave clothes and filthy rags, my baptism clothes me in Christ.  Most and best of all, my baptism brings me into your family so that now I get to call you, God, my dear Father in heaven.  Father, hear my prayer today.  Whatever this day brings, whatever hardship, trouble, or challenge or joy, lead me to praise you for this new birth that you’ve given me.  My baptism is one of your greatest gifts to me.  Lead me to praise you for this new birth whatever today brings.  Amen.

Saturday, April 12th

“For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteousness, that he might bring you to God.”  1 Peter 3:18

Lord Jesus, Such freedom and joy is mine.  You suffered for all my sins, all of them.  All of the sins of this week, all of the sins of my past, even for all the sins of my future.  You suffered for all of my sins just once.  And you did it all righteously and innocently.  You didn’t deserve a single lick that you got from your enemies.  You didn’t deserve a single stroke of the justice that your Father doled out to you.  And yet you suffered all of that for me.  You suffered all of that so that you might bring me to God.  You have opened the way for me into God’s presence so that I might see him, live with him, and come to him.  This next week, dearest Jesus, as I see you make your way into Jerusalem to suffer for all of our sins, help me to see what you’re doing.  You’re going into Jerusalem to take away my sins.  You’re going there to die for all of my sins.  You’re going there to bring me to God.  Lord Jesus, thank you for this your deepest passion.  It is my salvation.  It is my entry into God’s presence.  Amen.

Friday, April 11th

“Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefined and unfailing, kept in heaven for you.”  1 Peter 1: 3-4

Dear Lord God, So much of my life is spent chasing after the wind and I don’t even know it.  I chase a meal and just a few hours later I need another one.  I chase a paycheck and in just a moment every dollar is spoken for.  I chase treasures and they decay.  I put something aside and someone ruins it or steals it.  It is a chasing after the wind.  I try to hold these treasures, and in a moment, for one reason or another, they’re gone.  But God, the treasure that you’ve given me in your Son and the inheritance stored up for me in heaven isn’t like that.  It isn’t a chasing after the wind.  In fact, it’s not even a chasing!  You’ve already given it to me.  You've already promised it to me as a free gift.  Heaven and its inheritance are already stored up and kept for me by your might and power.  Lord God, help me to treasure your heavenly gifts most of all.  They are the one and only thing that will not perish and will never slip through my fingers.  Grant me faith to hold tightly to these treasures and to let go of every earthly treasure.  Amen.

Thursday, April 10th

“By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.  By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.”  Hebrews 11:7

Dear Jesus, I know that you cherish our faith as we look back to your cross.  But here, you remind me that you also love it when we trust your word over our experience, especially when your word promises a new day when your righteousness will reign.  Noah had that faith.  If you said it, he believed it.  He had never seen rain and yet he believed you were going to flood the world to keep evil from totally overcoming his family and all human kind.  I trust your word that you will do it again in the final judgment.  I have never seen you deluge the entire planet but you promise that with fire you will end all earthly everything and usher in your heaven for your children.  I believe that!  I wait for that!  It both comforts and scares me at the same time.  Keep me close to your word and never let me harden my heart.  Help me stay ready for the beginning of eternity.  Amen.

The word of God and the Eastern horizon reminds us that a new Day is just over the edge of creation.  

Wdnesday, April 9th

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.”  Psalm 19:1-2

Dear Heavenly Father, Every morning and evening I see your glory in the skies.  You are the master artist of the universe.  The colors and contrasts are breathtaking.  They remind me of your majesty and your creativity.  So many people are busy in their homes and businesses when your beautiful paintings appear in the heavens.  But still you paint them, again and again.  They show that you are the creative force behind everything in nature, including me.  What I see each day is only a microscopic portion of all you produce that day.  O Author of life, accept my puny praise for your powerful and masterful handiwork.  And accept my thanks that you have grace for sinners like me who take up space in your masterpiece.  Amen.

God paints a new work every day and we have the privilege of living inside it. 

Tuesday, April 8th

“You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”  1 Peter 1:5

Lord God, Thank you for guarding me with your great power.  The assaults of the Devil against my soul are far beyond my ability to resist.  If you left me alone for a moment, I would fall.  The attacks of my own nature against me are more than I can handle.  The thoughts of my own mind lead me to think that you have abandoned me, that you are against me and not for me.  Don’t leave me alone, Lord, or I won’t make it.  Don’t abandon me, Lord, or I’ll stumble and fall.  You have ascended to your throne Jesus and you sit there ruling all things in my life for my good.  Deliver me from evil.  Shield and guard me by your mighty power that I might be safe in the grasp of your love.  Keep me safe from all the attempts on my life and soul.  With you, I am safe.  Under your care, I am protected.  With your guarding I will make it safely to the end of faith’s race.  Thank you for guarding me with your power.  Amen.

Monday, April 7

“But our citizenship is in heaven.  And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Philippians 3:20

Dear Jesus, Every time things don’t go my way, every time I am mistreated or ignored, every time my car breaks down, every time I get ill, every time I fail at something important, every time I suffer loss of a dear loved one,-I think, “This is not my home.”  My home is with you where you will wipe every tear from my eyes.  That is; the fear of regret, of sorrow, of disappointment, of pain, of anger and of frustration.  My country is in heaven.  Thank you for giving me the hope of eternal life with you, where difficulty will be a foreign language.  Amen. 

Heaven is our home.  Earth is our journey there. 

Saturday, April 5th

“You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith-more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire-may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  1 Peter 1:6-7

Lord God, It is so hard to see the good in pain.  It is so hard to understand how I can praise you for pain.  It is so difficult to grasp how hurting is beneficial.  I can see it in other things.  I can see it in the extreme pressure that turns coal into diamonds.  I can see it when gold is smelted in the furnace.  But when I’m the one in the smelting furnace being refined by you it is much harder to sing.  It’s hard to sing when you’re hurting!  Lord God, help me to see-even when I don’t fully understand what you’re doing, even when I don’t know what good you intend to give-that you are doing good things for me and my salvation.  Help me to trust your Father’s heart and your all-knowing, wise plan for me.  Help to find a simple joy in my trials, my pain, and my hardships because it means you love me.  Help me to praise you for the pain because it means that you’re smelting me, disciplining me for my good and for my eternity.  Father, I know you love me.  Help me to praise you for your Father’s care, even when it hurts.  Amen.

Friday, April 4th

“You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”  1 Peter 1:5

Lord Jesus, I can’t wait.  I’m sitting here in faith waiting for you to pull back the veil, to tear apart the heavens again.  I’m waiting for you to tear the heavens apart and to sound the final trumpet when you will come in glory with your angels to bring me home at last.  I’m waiting here, on the edge of my seat, waiting with hope-filled expectation for you to come and create the new heavens and the new earth, my eternal home.  I’m waiting for creation to be restored to paradise instead of this desolate wilderness that it is now.  I can’t wait for you to do this.  Lord Jesus, keep me in the faith until that day.  Keep me from losing hope in this salvation that is about to happen.  Keep me from growing discouraged and hopeless in these last days.  Fill my heart with longing, yearning and excitement as I wait for you to reveal and to give me eternal salvation from the suffering of this earth.  Fill my heart with exceeding joy as I wait for my faith to be turned to sight.  Amen. 

Thursday, April 3rd

“You rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”  1 Peter 1:8-9

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, When you came to this earth you were concerned with one thing.  When you lived on this earth, you wanted one thing.  When you walked to the cross and put your shoulder to it, you did it with one purpose in mind.  All that you did, you did it for me.  You saw my soul and my life hanging in the balance and you gave up yours for mine.  You saw my face and the sin of mine that would have damned me to hell, and you suffered hell for me.  Fill me with a boundless joy to know that everything you did during your life and everything you’re doing during my life is so that you can save me.  I also pray, Lord Jesus, do whatever it takes so that I might spend an eternity with you in heaven.  Save me, Lord Jesus, for I am yours, redeemed by your blood.  Amen.

Wednesday, April 2nd

“But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.”  2 Thessalonians 3:3

Dear Heavenly Father, Sometimes I feel like I am out there alone to face the devil's schemes and temptations.  But your word assures me that I'm wrong.  You are faithful to protect me from him.  If you let me struggle you have salutary reasons.  I accept that by faith even though it seems differently.  Be with me today and help me see his attacks before they come and give me a good Scripture to cling to guide my weak little heart.  Keep me from being a tempter to anyone else too.  Make me strong and quick to do what you would have me do in love.  Amen.

God loves to help us get in the ring to defeat his biggest enemy.

Tuesday, April 1st

“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance.”  1 Peter 1:14

Dear Lord God, As I live my life in this world it is so easy to get caught up in the way that the world lives.  It is so much easier to go with the stream than to swim against it.  The world says that sinful behaviors are acceptable and I quickly fall into thinking that they are.  My community says that sinful ways of thinking are normal and I start to think that way.  The world lures me and wants to press me into their way of thinking, their way of feeling, and their way of living.  My own sinful flesh wants to conform me and press me into its way of thinking.  Everything is against me.  It is so easy to sit back and not fight.  It is so easy to go with the flow.  Lord God, you redeemed me from this life.  You called me to be yours.  You made me to stand out in this world, simply because I am your child and your heir.  Help me to fight against all that would conform me.  Rather, Lord God, transform me daily to have your thoughts, your feelings, and to live your way.  Daily, Lord Jesus, transform me into your likeness.  Amen.