As Jesus approached Jerusalem, he wept over it lamenting, “If you’d had only known today what (Who) would bring you peace. It’s now hidden from your eyes.” Luke 19:41-42
Lord Jesus, long before the Day you will wipe our tears away, you wept many of your own. Not just outside the tomb of your friend Lazarus, but also over the City of Peace (Jerusalem)—a stranger to true peace. If you hadn’t opened the eyes of our hearts, we too would remain locked in the destructive cycle of looking for peace in broken cisterns, dead ends, mere mortals, and lifeless idols.
Jesus, thank you for showing us the depth of our need and the riches of your grace. We didn’t need a new start, we needed a new heart. We didn’t need a bit more of “do more try harder,” we need the gift of your perfect righteousness. Only you can heal our brokenness, tame our fears, and meet our longings. Hallelujah, Easter is a celebration of you doing for us what we could have never done for ourselves.
We long for the Day when we’ll never again even be tempted to look for peace, life, and joy anywhere else but in you, Jesus. When we drift into illusion of you not being enough, cut by 90% the time it takes for us to return to Gospel-sanity.
We also crave the Day when your peace and glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. We are weary of war in all its forms. Until that Day, we trust you to be our contentment and satisfaction, our treasure and our inheritance. So Very Amen.