5 Purposeful Prayers for the Easter Season
Share
Easter, also known as Resurrection Sunday, is the most important holiday in the life of the church. That’s because its entire purpose is to commemorate and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our savior. It is the key event upon which the Christian faith is based.
Resurrection means “a rising up,” as in restoring or reviving to an earlier state. In the Bible, the resurrection refers to the literal raising up by God of his son Jesus, who was crucified for our sins, died, and buried in a tomb. On the third day, Scripture tells us Jesus’ followers discovered his tomb was empty, the heavy stone blocking it rolled away (Mark 16:1-8). Soon after, Jesus appeared to his disciples, eating and drinking among them and even showing his wounds from the cross, and spent 40 days teaching them about God’s kingdom before his ultimate ascension to heaven.
The time just before Easter is called Lent, and it runs from Ash Wednesday through sundown on Holy Thursday (the night of Jesus’s Last Supper and betrayal), roughly 40 days marked by a time of repentance, fasting and preparation for the coming of Easter. Then, on Easter Sunday — or Resurrection Sunday — we gather in joyful celebration over the good news that in Christ's death and resurrection we are made new by God's love and saving grace.
Here are five prayers to help us as we go through the Easter season, from Ash Wednesday to Resurrection Sunday and beyond.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/udra
1. A Prayer Recognizing Our Fragile Humanity
Lord God,
You are everything — the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the creator of the universe and our very souls. You set time into motion and established the air that we breathe. Indeed, you breathed your breath into our lungs, breath that gives us life and infuses us with your perfect love.
We know that we are sinful, fallen human beings, created from nothing yet in the image of you, Lord, the great and holy one. As Genesis 3:19 reminds us, “For dust (we) are and to dust (we) will return.” James 4:14 reminds us that we are “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” Only because you love us, Lord, can we hope beyond that. For while on our own, we are nothing. Because of your spirit that lives in us, we who choose to believe in your son Jesus Christ are invited to share eternity with you. Your grace washed us clean, not because of anything we did or can possibly do, but only because of you and your extravagant, generous love.
Sometimes we have no idea how blessed we are. Other days perhaps we feel entitled to such salvation. We forget the sacrifice Jesus made by dying on that cross and choose not to remember its magnitude.
Help us remember how fragile we are apart from you. Help us remember that only in Christ are we connected to you and have a place in your heavenly kingdom.
Thank you, Lord, for your great love.
Amen.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Boonyachoat
2. On Sharing the Gospel
Heavenly Father,
You know my heart. You know there are days I walk my own path, keeping my eyes on you, yet I forget about the others around me. I forget there are many who have not heard about you, or who have only heard lies. I forget there are those still running fast and far in the other direction, trying to heed the lies of the world and feed the desires of the flesh. I forget that the great love that saves me isn’t mine alone, that it’s not meant to be a secret, hoarded only for myself and those I love.
Your love is meant to be shouted from the rooftops and proclaimed from the highest of highs, meant to be shared in all languages and on all continents. Your love is a free and expansive gift available to every single person past, present, and future regardless of how lost they might be or how many sins they have committed — or how terrible.
Your love conquers all and knows no boundaries.
This season, help me share your good news with others in any way you ask, whether I use words or actions, whether in my community or my home or thousands of miles away through your gift of technology. Help me trust that any effort I put forth in your name will be used by you, and that all I need to do is surrender and say “Yes, Lord.” Your power will magnify even the tiniest of gifts.
Help me heed your words in Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Pointing others to you is what it’s all about. Help me, Lord, to share your Gospel.
Amen.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/millann
3. On Hope When Hurting
Precious Lord,
I’m hurting this year, and you know all the reasons why. You know the pain in my heart and the groans of my soul. Some days, I feel this will never stop. In my heart of hearts, I know this pain might well continue until I draw my last breath on this earth, however long that might take.
Yet into this pain you offer hope: the hope of the resurrection. And even if my pain makes it difficult to see or even appreciate such a gift, help me recognize it anyway.
Help me remember that when your son was betrayed, arrested, beaten, and crucified, all who loved him gathered in defeat, mourning. Perhaps, in their eyes, the light of the world had just been extinguished. All their dreams and desires were squashed. Maybe they felt like the psalmist, lamenting, “Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment” (Psalm 22:16-18).
Maybe they felt like Job, all of his cattle and riches, his sons and daughters, even his own health taken from him, and he had done nothing wrong (Job 1:13-2:8).
Yet into that darkness, you brought light. You rose from the dead and defeated the enemy, death. Because of you, our sins are forgiven and we have a place in your heavenly family for all eternity.
Help us remember that this world is far from perfect. Jesus warned us we would suffer during our time on earth. But our time here is but a speck compared to the infinite beauty and bliss that awaits us.
This Easter, wrap my soul in your cloak of protection and peace, reminding me that no matter what this world brings, my true hope awaits.
In your holy name I pray,
Amen.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Martin Dimitrov
4. A Prayer of Gratitude
Almighty God,
I grow weary sometimes, beaten down by the drudgery of life, by hard work and spiritual warfare, by grief and hurt and sickness and pain. Some days it feels like everyone else has so much more than me — health, prosperity, good relationships, peace — and I’m stuck in the swamp and gloom.
Yet I have breath in my lungs and your Holy Spirit in my heart. I have your promise of eternal life and hope.
Help me remember this and appreciate the gifts you bring, counting and focusing on my blessings. Let the love and gratitude within me bubble out like a rolling wave, washing over all in my midst. Help your love and grace and hope cover all around me like a blanket, helping all to know your truth and your light.
Amen.
5. A Prayer of Mercy and Compassion
Lord,
Sometimes during the holidays, I get so wrapped up my own concerns that I tune the world out. I think of my family, my neighbors, my church, focus on the traditions of the season — perhaps a meal or other festivities — and I forget that all around me there are people aching in misery, lost without you.
Help me to be your face to others, your hands and feet. Help me to serve and love others as if I were serving you. Indeed, let your hands be my hands, reaching out and touching and soothing others in compassion and fathomless wells of vast mercy and love.
Allow the cries of the needy and the lost to penetrate my soul, and let me be your instrument in the world, serving and helping them so they, too, know the bliss of your healing and perfect love, a love that transcends time and space, now and forever.
Amen.
These are just a few prayers that might help you this Eastern season. Beyond these, take a moment to sit in the presence of the Lord and open your heart to him. Ask him for a special word for you to today, a task or a truth that draws you ever deeper into his love and enables you to shine his light to all.
Happy Easter. He is risen!
BONUS PRAYER:
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Halfpoint
