Because Jesus lives we live

​4-5-21
Today is the day after Resurrection Sunday, and since we are still celebrating our Savior rising from the dead, I have chosen Mark 16:1,2 to base my devotion on for today.  “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb.”
They expected to see a dead body, just like we do when we go to a funeral.  That’s what you expect because that’s what you’ve experienced. That’s what the women who visited Jesus’ tomb on Easter morning were expecting, too. They’d been to funerals before. They thought they knew how this funeral was going to go. Only when they arrived, there was no body. The grave could not hold Jesus. And it will not hold the ones who have faith in Jesus either. He promises, “Because I live, you also will live.” (John 14:19)
The grave is where we were supposed to get what our sins deserve. But instead, the grave is where the believer receives what Jesus deserves—heaven, forever. Instead of closing our eyes in death and opening them again to see even greater death, we close our eyes in death and open them to see Jesus. Leave it to our Savior to take the devil’s greatest weapon and use it as the believer’s greatest blessing.
Please pray with me the prayer for today: I praise you, living Savior, for your victory over death and the devil. Even more, I thank you that you share your victory with me. May your victory be my comfort in difficult days and my certain hope for the life to come. In your blessed name, I pray. Amen.