Holy Week Devotional - Friday

Holy Week Devotional Guide – Good Friday 4-10-20

Good Friday obviously is one of the most significant days set aside for us to remember what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross that day. It is a serious time of reflection and meditation on the suffering and sacrifice of laying down His life for us. I hope this devotional guide will be helpful in your reflection as we head into the weekend and anticipate our celebration of Jesus's resurrection on Easter Sunday! May the Lord bless you in your time with Him!

Quiet yourself and ask the Lord to help you approach this time with the right frame of mind and heart.

O Lord, please help me remember what You did with godly sorrow and humble gratitude. Wash me and fill me with Your love. Amen.

Today’s Gospel Reading - John 19:1-6a, 16-18a, 28-30

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face. Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”...Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him… Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Personal Reflection

What affects me most as I read this? Do my attitudes, actions and reactions reflect Jesus as I deal with difficulty or suffering? What still needs to be crucified with Christ in my life? Am I living victoriously over sin and the world through Christ’s “finished” work?

Prayer of Response

Lord, please help soften any hardness of heart in me toward Your sacrifice. Please save me from any sin as well as any proud or zealous religious opinions, beliefs, or attitudes that would cause such hardness toward You or those for whom You died. Instead, grant me the grace and faith to walk with You to the cross and die thereupon to myself and this world and discover the life that alone comes from above. In Your name, Amen.

Present your requests to God for yourself, your family, and others He lays on your heart.

Pray for your fellow brothers and sisters and members of our church to have a faith and live lives that reflect Jesus’s humble sacrifice on the cross.

“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Gal. 6:14)