February 26
How to Prepare Ahead for Easter by Desiring God
“Consider the coming weeks as an opportunity to maximize your Easter gladness. You don’t need to call it ‘Lent.’ You don’t even need to fast over and above your normal practice. You just need to devote yourself to a forty-day soul feast.
If we want to make the most of this annual opportunity, we’ll do more than just give something up. We’ll silence ourselves before the Sovereign who became a servant. We’ll fasten our eyes upon him as he teaches and heals and smiles and weeps — the only upright man in a world of cracked and curved impostors. We’ll stand in awe as we hear him plead in Gethsemane. We’ll marvel as he moves from the garden to the cross, silent as a sheep going to the slaughter. We’ll adore him as he lets the nails pierce his sinless skin until it is finished.
And then, we’ll put our ears to the ground and listen for the tremors of his rising.
If we do, we might just find ourselves erupting with a deeper joy as we join the universal shout: ‘He is risen!’”
This Is Our God by Phil Wickham
Remember those walls that we called sin and shame?
They were like prisons that we couldn't escape
But He came, and He died, and He rose
Those walls are rubble now
Remember those giants we called death and grave?
They were like mountains that stood in our way
But He came, and He died, and He rose
Those giants are dead now
This is our God
This is who He is, He loves us
This is our God
This is what He does, He saves us
He bore the cross, beat the grave
Let Heaven and Earth proclaim
This is our God, King Jesus
