It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Comin’!
Do you know who knows the truth of those words more than most? The devil. He was there to gloat on that Friday when God’s Son died, but he also was humiliated on Sunday morning when God resurrected His Son and gave the devil a preview of his ultimate defeat. The devil knows he has already lost and that God’s righteous love has won, but he fights tooth and nail every day to rip apart what God is mending.
We all feel it in different ways. You feel it when you’re slandered or bullied. You know it when people are hateful and rude. We see it in the news and in our own online news feeds. It’s something we who are maturing in Jesus should be immune to, but aren’t.
You and I shouldn’t be pawns in the devil’s work, but sometimes our hardheadedness and misaligned priorities distract us. Sometimes being wounded makes us act in ways that don’t reflect us at our best. And at all times, when we are focused on our personal rightness instead of God’s righteousness, we look like we’re more devoted to living in the devil’s “Friday” than the Lord’s “Sunday.”
As we head into another weekend, let’s take some time today to pray for God’s peace, patience, and love to have a larger place in our hearts. And let’s take some time to read and meditate on the following words which the wise Apostle Paul wrote to a young minister named Timothy:
“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:22-26, ESV).
Part of my prayer this morning is that we’ll all let that Scripture soak in and make us people who live for Jesus while we prepare for “Sunday.”
— Patrick Barber