Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
65: Easter Sunday Guided Prayer
166 Plays2 years ago
Don’t allow your busy life to get in the way of connecting with Jesus this Holy Week. For each day of Holy Week, starting with Palm Sunday tomorrow, you will find a 10 minute guided prayer session with Dr. Laura Fleetwood. These episodes of Normal Goes a Long Way will help you center yourself in the present moment, listen to God’s Word, and connect you to the Spirit of Christ as you are guided in prayer and reflection. Set aside 10 minutes for each day of Holy Week to experience God’s love for you in a brand new way as Laura reads about Jesus’ last days.
Sunday: A mindful reading of John 20:1-18 and a guided prayer to focus on the way that God makes all things new on Easter and in our lives.
Normal Goes A Long Way Website: https://www.normalgoesalongway.com/
Normal Goes A Long Way Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/normalgoesalongway/
Normal Goes A Long Way Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Normal-Goes-A-Long-Way-110089491250735
Normal Goes A Long Way is brought to you by Messiah St. Charles: https://messiahstcharles.org/
Two Kids and A Career: https://www.jilldevine.com/podcast
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Purpose of the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
The following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production. Christianity has become known for judgy people, strange words, ancient stories, confusing rules, and a members-only mindset. This is why I stayed away from the church for so long, but it's not supposed to be that way. I'm Jill Devine, a former radio personality with three tattoos, a love for a good tequila, and who's never read the entire Bible.
00:00:24
Speaker
Yet here I am hosting a podcast about faith. The Normal Goes Along Way podcast is your home for real conversations with real people using real language about how faith and real life intersect. Welcome to the conversation.
Easter Reflections and Gratitude
00:00:43
Speaker
He is risen.
00:00:45
Speaker
He is risen indeed. It is Easter Sunday and there is so much to be thankful for. And I hope that whatever you do today with family, with friends, that you remember the love that Jesus Christ has for you. And I hope that you will find this final guided prayer from Laura Fleetwood exactly what you need on this Easter Sunday.
Guided Prayer Session for Easter
00:01:15
Speaker
Happy Easter. Welcome to Easter Sunday in our week of guided prayer and reflection for Holy Week. It's an exciting day and we want to just dive into it and celebrate. Before we do that, let's begin with bringing our attention to the present moment
00:01:40
Speaker
reading the description of Jesus resurrection from the book of John and spending some time in guided prayer for our Easter Sunday. Turn your attention to your breath to help you center and focus on being in the present and the here and the now.
00:02:26
Speaker
When your thoughts get stirred up, just return your attention to your breath and remember that
Resurrection Story and Its Significance
00:02:35
Speaker
The experience you have here with Jesus is always available to you. He's closer than your breath. Keep focusing there on your breath as I read the description of Jesus' resurrection from John 20.
00:03:00
Speaker
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved and said, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put him.
00:03:22
Speaker
So Peter and the other disciples started for the tomb, both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.
00:03:50
Speaker
Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside. He saw and believed. They still did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
00:04:06
Speaker
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, Woman, why are you crying? They have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don't know where they have put him.
00:04:28
Speaker
At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, woman, why are you crying? Who is it that you are looking for? Thinking he was the gardener, she said, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him. Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, rebboni, which means teacher.
00:04:58
Speaker
Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news, I have seen the Lord, and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Prayers for Renewal and Hope
00:05:22
Speaker
Oh Lord, we just come to you today with such celebration in our hearts. You did not stay in that empty tomb. You rose again. You live. Please remind us that you, just like you, you will not keep us in our tombs.
00:05:49
Speaker
the tombs that we make on this side of heaven and the tomb where we will lay when we breathe our final breath here on earth. What an amazing God you are. That you would send your son, heavenly father, to take our place.
00:06:15
Speaker
to take our place in death and in resurrection and then to give us this new life that Jesus had and that we now have through our faith in Him, not because of anything we have done, but because of what you have done for us, because you love us. And Lord, just like Jesus rose from the dead and was resurrected,
00:06:39
Speaker
Would you please place in our heart and our mind something in our life that we've been seen as a death, something that we've been seen as an ending?
00:06:54
Speaker
And would you please fill us with hope that in some way, in your way, somehow that experience or that hurt or that difficulty could be resurrected. Because you are a God who makes all things new. What is it in our life
00:07:23
Speaker
Lord, that you want to make new. Show us where to put our trust in you, what situation, and then fill us with your spirit so that we can continue to turn our hearts and our minds and our attention to you and not to the darkness, to you.
00:07:50
Speaker
the one who rose from the grave, the one who ascended into heaven, and the one who still lives with us, even as you live with the Father in heaven.
00:08:04
Speaker
Lord whatever this life brings here on earth help us to fix our eyes to you and to to the future in heaven that you have for us where we will live with you forever forever and ever and ever in Jesus name we pray amen