holy saturday 2024

Opening Prayer: O God, this day—Holy Saturday—is a day of waiting and resting.  It goes against everything within us, given all that has taken place over the last twenty-four hours, but it is what you ask us to do.  For it is what you, yourself, are doing.  Help us to enter into the Sabbath rest of Holy Saturday and wait patiently for Sunday to come.

Read: Luke 23:50-56

Reflect: The silence must’ve been deafening as they sat idly by.  Their world had stopped spinning; nothing could be done.  A forced solitude had taken hold of them, meant to accomplish eternal purposes.  Space needed to be made; space to reflect, space to grieve, and space to hope.  That’s what this day is all about.

There is a certain powerlessness to Holy Saturday that is really good for us.  We can’t produce, manufacture, or control resurrection; we can’t hasten it or hurry it along.  All we can do is wait.

Ask God to help you to stop.  Ask him to help you stop doing and to start being.  Ask him to help you to stop talking and to start listening.  Ask him to help you to stop initiating and to start waiting.

Pray

Closing Prayer: O Lord, there is still some emptying that needs to be done.  Give us the patience, the courage, the strength, and the trust to make room for that to happen.  Help us to learn how to wait for you during this holy day of waiting and resting.  Sunday will come soon enough, but there is still something you want to do in us first.  Prepare our hearts, Lord Jesus, for your resurrection.

i am weak

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive me when I live as if your grace alone is not sufficient for me.  Forgive me when I try to get from others what only you can give.  Forgive me when I act like I’m strong when I’m really weak.  Forgive me when I act like I’ve got it all together when I’m really just a mess inside.  Help me to embrace my weaknesses rather than hiding them, for only then will I see your power and experience the sufficiency of your grace. 

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Journal: Is God’s grace alone enough for you?  Is it really?  Then why do you try and hide your weaknesses instead of embracing them?

Reflection:

i am weak

if God’s power

is best displayed

in weakness

then why do we

go to such lengths

to hide ours

from each other

doesn’t that keep

us from being able 

to see him work

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me the strength and the courage and the grace to live as if your grace was sufficient for me.

a pure heart

Opening Prayer: “Create in me a pure heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”  For unless you cleanse me, I will never be clean; unless you wash me, I will never be pure.

Read: Psalm 51:1-10

Reflect: In the life of the Spirit, we see through the eyes of the heart.  Therefore, if our hearts are not pure and clean, our seeing is twisted and distorted.  The mess within us skews our vision and keeps us from seeing things—our world, ourselves, and our God—as they really are.

That’s why the words of this ancient prayer are so important: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  It’s also why Jesus tells us: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Mt. 5:8) For only when our hearts are pure, will our eyes be clear enough to see him accurately.

Thus, a daily purifying is necessary.  “Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.”  Each day we must confess and repent.  Each day we must turn from our sinful, broken, and self-consumed ways of being and seeing, and ask God, once again, to create in us a pure heart.  He is the only one who can do that.  We can’t clean it up ourselves.  God is the only one who can rid us of all that distorts, hinders, and deforms us, so that we can be made clean, whole, and new.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Cleanse me with hyssop, O God, and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.”