Easter Sunday prayer.
Gracious Father, how we praise you for your love, demonstrated so powerfully on the cross. ‘This is love, not that we have loved you, but that you loved us and sent your Son to be the atonement for our sin.’ Thank you for sending your beloved Son, who was despised, rejected, beaten, mocked and crucified. He sacrificed his innocent life, so that we might be freed from sin’s bondage.
But we also praise you that death did not have the last word. Thank you for raising Christ from the dead, and for preserving many eyewitness accounts of the resurrection, so that we can be sure that Jesus is no longer in a tomb in Jerusalem, but sitting at your right hand in heaven. Having perfectly satisfied every demand of your holy justice, He is the eternal King on your throne.
It is Christ who brought us out of guilt and into forgiveness, out of darkness into light, out of our rebellion into your love, out of death into life, out of this evil world into your glorious kingdom. We magnify him today!
Father, we share the joy of Mary Magdalene and the women at the empty tomb, the disciples and the crowds who saw, heard, and touched your resurrection body; the fishermen who ate breakfast with you on the beach; Paul on the road to Damascus. Every one of them fell at your feet and worshipped you as their Lord and their God, as we do too.
We worship with Job who, at the lowest point in his life, said,
“FOR I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES, AND THAT IN THE END HE WILL STAND UPON THE EARTH, AND AFTER MY SKIN HAS BEEN DESTROYED, YET IN MY FLESH I WILL SEE GOD. I MYSELF WILL SEE HIM WITH MY OWN EYES—I AND NOT ANOTHER. HOW MY HEART YEARNS WITHIN ME!”
Father, thank you that your beloved Son has defeated sin, Satan, and death. Thank you that the resurrection proved that you accepted Christ’s sacrifice, so that believers will not perish due to our sins. We praise and thank you that because Jesus was raised, all believers are given a new life, with power to defeat sin and live fruitful lives. We thank you for the sure hope that we too will be raised from the dead one day!
“Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.” (Ps 16:9-10)
Father, we long to love you with a love like yours, despite how cold our love often is. Melt our hearts with your grace, so that we can see and feel and convey to others the astonishing beauty of Christ our Saviour. Lord Jesus, take every part of our lives and make us more holy and useful to you. Fill our hearts with gratitude, and may our lives overflow with joy, so that all who see us may honour you as LORD AND KING too.
In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.