Daily Devotional

I invited Jesus Christ into my heart when I was six years old, so I have lived for Him most of my life. Because of that, I have celebrated a lot of Easters. Year-after-year, as we came up to Easter weekend, I’d hear the story about Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection. And after all these years, I have to be careful not to take it for granted. I can lose the excitement. I can become less appreciative. I can even get bored hearing the story one more time. 

Well, there’s an old hymn called “I Love to Tell the Story”. It goes like this…

“I love to tell the story of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story because I know it’s true.
It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.

Chorus:
I love to tell the story!
‘Twill be my theme in glory’
To tell the old, old story
Of Jesus and His love.

The story of Jesus is something that should never become boring. We should love to hear the story of Jesus and His love.

So how should I respond to Easter?

Romans 6:10-11 says, For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Easter is not an end, it’s a beginning. In fact, it is a revolution. The empty tomb is proof that Jesus Christ conquered sin and death. But it also means that the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead now dwells in us (Romans 8:11). So we should think of ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God.  

That means the things we used to do before we met Jesus Christ are not things we continue to do. Just as Jesus Christ died on the cross for us, we are called to surrender our lives to Him. Take up our cross daily (Luke 9:23). That means giving our time to Him. Casting our cares upon Him. And letting Him have a say in our plans for each new day.

We approach each day with hope. Because Jesus is alive, we don’t have to fear the future. We know who holds the future. We will have a resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). We will live with Jesus Christ in heaven forever. So because we know we don’t have to fear death, it should cause us to live differently today. With hope.

We tell the old old story of Jesus and His love. We take the best news ever and proclaim it to others. We tell them about what our lives were like before we met Jesus Christ. And how our lives have changed since because of Jesus Christ. Then we live our lives in the light of the gospel. We let people see the changes. We live like Christ. We follow His example. And as we reflect the light of Christ to those around us, some will ask us about this hope we have. Then we take that opportunity and share it. That’s our response to Easter. 

New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.