Easter Weekend

Have you spent any time this week thinking ahead to Good Friday and Easter? If you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I hope you have. I think our weekend worship experiences are enhanced when we have spent time reading the Word of God and reflecting on our love for God and His choice to sacrifice His Son for us.

Each day I read a prayer from the book Everyday Prayers by Scotty Smith. Here I am sharing part of a prayer written about the time in between Good Friday and the resurrection which took place three days later. I pray this may inspire you as it has me. Perhaps it will change the way you view Friday and Saturday later this week.

“As the sun rose on Saturday, no one could have possibly understood that the most undeserved death imaginable would yield the greatest return calculable. As you were nailed to the cross, the written code – God‘s law, with all its regulations and requirements – was taken away from us, losing all its condemning power over us. As you drew your last breath, you were actually disarming the powers of darkness and triumphing over all authorities marshaled against the reign of God (Colossians 2:14–15).

No one yet grasped that your mortal punishment would bring our eternal peace, that your fatal wounding would secure our everlasting healing, and that your being crushed would lead to our being cherished by the thrice holy God (Isaiah 53). Though they had the Scriptures, they had no clue. …

The silence of Saturday would soon be shattered with the shouts of Sunday: “The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!”

Jesus, continue to astonish and nourish our hearts – my heart – with the whole Easter story and the full glory of who you are and everything you have done. I pray in your peerless name. Amen.

 “A Prayer About Resurrection Promise,” (Page 111), Everyday Prayers: 365 Days to a Gospel-Centered Faith by Scotty Smith