Holy Week Devotional - Monday
Holy Week Devotional Guide – Monday 4-6-20
Holy Week is focused on the final week of Jesus’s life on earth and what it means for our faith and lives.
Quiet yourself to focus on Him. Ask for His presence and help in prayer. Praise Him for who He is and what He’s done for you. Confess your sins and ask for forgiveness and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
Now ask the Lord to speak to you through His Word. Read the passage slowly with a receptive heart. Then ponder the questions provided that may help draw meaning from what God is saying to you.
Today’s Gospel Reading - John 12:1-11
Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him, many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.
Personal Reflection
I am invited to the banquet of the Lord’s presence to share in His resurrection life as did Lazarus. What may be lacking in my experience of His life-giving presence? Does the Lord’s presence reveal a heart full of personal interests or a desire to fill my life and surroundings with the “fragrance” of loving and worshiping Him? What or how will I, like Mary, sacrifice to glorify Jesus in my life?
A Prayer of Response
O Lord, as Mary began preparing You for Your burial through her extravagant expression of love, help me now to express my extravagant desire for your resurrection life. I need and desire more of Your real presence. Help me be more like Lazarus and Mary, captivated by your glory and love, and less like Judas, filled with greed and self-interests. Please renew me within as I begin the journey this week toward the cross of my own death to self and being raised to new life. In Your name, Amen.
Present your requests to God for yourself, your family, and others God lays on your heart.
Pray for your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ joining you in these times of prayer, for the Lord to do a work of renewal to experience His presence in them as well.
Pray for our church, that the Lord would do a work of renewal in each member and person affiliated with our church, that it would result in a growing corporate revival of God’s people in the Holy Spirit.
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage our hearts and strengthen us in every good deed and word.