DAILY PRAYER
Friday, January 01, 2021
Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. [Matthew 28:9]
Matthew interrupts the sadness of the story with a somewhat scary and somewhat comical scene. An angel comes to the tomb, with an appearance like lightning and causing an earthquake, and he rolls away the stone and sits on it.
The soldiers guarding the tomb are so terrified that they shake and fall down like they are dead. And the women? They are scared too. The women have come to the tomb to see it and grieve. But the angel tells them that the one who was in the tomb isn’t there.
And there’s no need to grieve anymore because Jesus has risen from the dead! In fact, he’s on his way to Galilee and wants his disciples to see him there.
So the women who have come to grieve hurry away “filled with joy.” And if their joy is already full, what happens next makes their joy overflow: Jesus meets them. The person they have come to see dead is standing in front of them alive!
Do you remember when you first met Jesus? He takes our sorrow and turns it into the greatest joy. If you haven’t met him yet, I hope you meet him soon—maybe even today. It is the greatest joy any of us has known.
A Prayer for Today
Dear Jesus, our eyes are sore from the violence, injustice, sickness, and death in this world. Help us to meet you today so that we may see the joy and hope only you can give. Amen.
Pages:Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284Next