Approaching Easter (Chapter 13) (Monday in Holy Week)

PAUSE
As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly to recenter my scattered senses upon the presence of God.

(pause)
I pray Psalm 88: 1-3, repeating the words slowly, several times:
“Lord, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you. May my prayer come before you; tum your ear to my cry. I am overwhelmed with troubles.”

REFLECT
Bible: In the final days before His death, Jesus speaks again and again about eternal life. Over the next three days, we are going to do the same, starting with a reading from John 12: 23-25:

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.

Book passage: When Sammy and I were facing the stark possibility that she would die at the age of thirty, 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
Ask myself: Take a little time now to let your imagination run wild, visualizing the new earth in which “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

Ask the Lord: You alone, Lord, know the number of my days. May my life and even my death bring glory to You, both now in this world and also in the life to come.

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 descent, Even so, it is well with my soul.
Amen