Love Like Jesus: 7 Day Easter DevotionalSample

If I live to be a hundred, I’ll never get over the beauty of that history-changing declaration. 

Jesus Christ has risen! 

He has risen, indeed. 

And this is the best news of all because, despite our mortal enemy’s best attempt, Jesus’ cross was not a place of defeat but of victory—the triumph of love over sin and death! I hope that news never gets old for you. I hope these last few days reflecting on the life and love of Jesus have changed something in you when you say those words. I hope you’ve found yourself in these familiar Bible stories, the recipient of Jesus’ extravagant, never-stopping, never-giving-up love. 

I hope you’ve grown to know Jesus as a person and as God and to love Him more than ever before. I hope you’ve experienced His love filling you up and spilling over into the most surprising relationships. I hope you’ve found space to grieve and mourn and lament . . . and also to hope and celebrate and rejoice, all because of Jesus. 

This is the beauty of Lent: its cadence allows space for the whole spectrum of human emotion, its narrative arc leading us through desolation to the triumphant conclusion of Jesus’ resurrection that is just the beginning. But every year I’m surprised by how quickly it’s all over.  Especially after weeks of waiting, watching, and preparing throughout Lent, Resurrection Sunday comes with all its joyous celebration, and before we know it, Monday’s here and we’re back to our regular routines.

But I realized something the year I wrote this devotional:  it doesn’t have to be this way.  In fact, believers throughout history have continued celebrating Jesus’ resurrection during the fifty days leading up to Pentecost, and we can too. Because as we continue to remind ourselves of the reality of Jesus’ resurrection, we begin to live the lives of the resurrected.

Continue to remind yourself of the deep, deep love of Jesus, and continue to ask for His love to pour out into the lives of others. Don’t let the celebration end, friend. Jesus has risen! And because He lives, we can face tomorrow, and the day after that, with hope. 

Challenge: Read the gospel accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection over and over again. Don’t let this story get old. Read it in different translations. Read it out loud and listen to it read. Read a historical novel version. Act it out or draw it out.

 

Download a Lenten Family Activity Guide with over 30 creative ways to fast, pray, and give with your family this year at www.uncoveringthelove.com