35. The Power of Love
Friday 29th March
(for more details see here)
Pause:
This time last year I wrote this prayer for holy week:
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This is Friday.
This is a holy moment.
Sit for a while in stillness.
Rest for a while in the silence.
Take a few moments to pause.
Breathe this in - He has loved you with His very last breath.
Breathe this in - He has shown you love's full extent.
Wonder at the sacrifice - the price He has paid.
Hear Him pray for you: "Father... forgive them."
Now hear Him pronounce your freedom: "It is finished!"
Receive the love - the full extent of His love.
Reflection:
It has been quite a journey. But now we are here, standing at the cross.
It has been quite a battle. But now it is over, we stand forgiven at the cross.
John tells that "He bowed His head and gave up His spirit..."
The Herod might be in control in the palace, Pilate might try to control the politics, the High Priests might control the people and the soldiers might control the streets - but this one verse tells me who is in complete control.
"He gave His spirit."
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep..."
JOHN 10.11
"No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.
This command I received from my Father.”
JOHN 10.18
On the cross the whole weight of a person is crushing down on their chest - their lungs - starving them of oxygen. The only way to force the lungs open enough for air is to try - in unimaginable pain - to lift your body by pushing up against the nail driven through your feet. The whole process could be agonizingly long... sometimes taking days. So if the Romans ever decided enough was enough - they would take a bat to the victims legs, forcing their body to drop fully and their rib cage to collapse in and crush their lungs.
They expected to have to do that this Friday... but they didn't have to when it came to Jesus.
He had already laid down His life. No-one took it from Him - as He promised, He laid it down of His own accord.
The cross of Christ doesn't reveal to us the power of Rome, or the power of Religion, but supremely - it is the power of love.
"Not one of His bones was broken..."
He wasn't murdered - He offered His life to God.
His life wasn't taken from Him - He
gave it up for you.
He is the perfect sacrifice - the Lamb of God without spot or blemish, aliment or injury.
He is the Power of Love.
Question for today:
-
As you stand and gaze at the One who laid down His life for you. Hear this prayer of the Apostle Paul:
"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people,
to grasp how wide
and long
and high
and deep
is the love of Christ,
and to know this love
that surpasses knowledge -
that you may be filled to the measure
of all the fullness of God."
EPHESIANS 3.17-19
Prayer:
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
ISAAC WATTS
I prayed this.
My prayer for today: (if you would like to, please feel free to add your own prayer here):