Awaken My Soul

 I'm finally sitting in my own home this morning after a couple of (life giving) weeks of traveling. 

It's Good Friday today. Typically our Holy Week is filled with devotions and activities leading up to Resurrection Sunday, but this year has looked a little  lot different. And so it is as kids get older and seasons change (and you go out of the country and then out of town for spring break).

So I headed outside to have some sun and Jesus time. I opened my Bible and it just didn't feel right to pick up in Ezekiel where my Bible reading plan currently has me. I decided I'd read the accounts of Good Friday in the gospels.

I opened up to Matthew, found the night of the plot to kill Jesus, and picked it up from there. I got about halfway through the account of the woman who poured oil on the feet of Jesus and I just felt this inclination to stop and pray. The words that kept coming to mind were "awaken my soul".

So I began to pray for my own soul to wake up. For my eyes to be opened to what these words were portraying. To wake up to the gravity of the cross. Taking it from merely a story I read and hear about all the time, to an actual event in history that has forever changed my life. Changed the world. It is so deeply personal and I wanted God to help me FEEL it again.

I lingered there for a minute before the Lord began bringing other people to mind. Dear friends and family members. I felt a heaviness to pray for an awakening of their souls to the freedom and life and peace that is made possible because of what we celebrate on Easter.

And this is my prayer:

For those of you who are weary in life, feeling like the world is spinning all around you and you cannot catch your breathe...

May your soul be awakened.

For those of you who have the faith but it feels as though it is asleep, lying dormant, and you cannot find your bearings...

May your soul be awakened.

For those of you who have been hurt, disappointed, and feel jaded by those in Christ's community and simply don't know who to trust...

May your soul be awakened.

For those of you who have been through the unimaginable and feel forgotten and unheard by the God who you have cried out to...

May your soul be awakened.

For those of you who have lost faith but are still searching for something...

May your soul be awakened.

For those who have never really started a personal relationship with this God who sent his only son to die on our behalf...

May your soul be awakened.

I'm praying for you today. I'm praying for me today. That we can experience Him in a way that opens our eyes and awakens our souls.