Prepare Your Heart to Celebrate Easter
How do you prepare your heart for Easter? Do you celebrate (or even acknowledge) Easter? What is the meaning of Easter to You?
The truth is, that Christians should celebrate Easter every day of the year, not just on the one day designated and set aside on our annual calendar.
Much like Christmas, for many people, Easter has become a secular celebration focused on “us” rather than the “reason for the season.” Retailers spend weeks pushing the latest in high-tech, pleasure seeking, and delicious tasting items to fill up baskets of gifts and goodies for kids of all ages. Adding to the excitement, these brightly colored, surprise-filled baskets will supposedly be delivered by a family-friendly giant “Easter” bunny, and many hours will be spent hiding and hunting pastel colored “Easter” eggs.
However, the Easter Bunny is not the reason we celebrate Easter, just as Santa Clause is not the reason we celebrate Christmas.
Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior, and Lord of all mankind. The birth of God’s son.
Easter is a time to celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He left the perfection and glory of heaven to come to earth and die on the cross for our sins and bring salvation to all mankind.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NIV)
Have you ever thought that it might be important for you to pause from your never-ending daily life “to do” list, and take the time to prepare your heart for celebrating Easter?
Why Should You Prepare Your Heart for Easter?
Easter should be a celebration of the greatest gift God gave to all mankind, Jesus Christ.
God loves us so much, that not only did he create us in his image and for his pleasure, his greatest desire is for us to be with him in eternity. Yet we (all mankind) are sinful and unable to come on our own into the presence of the one and only Holy, Perfect, Almighty God of the universe.
So, God prepared a way of salvation for us to be able to come into His Presence. He provided a way for us to overcome the sinfulness that separates us from Him. He “gifted” us with His Son, Jesus, who as the Bible says, is “God in the flesh.”
And while Jesus was and continues to be “the greatest gift” for all humankind, his earthly life and death was no laughing, goody-eating, dress-up occasion at the time. It was an agonizing, lonely, and cruel, yet obedient, sacrificial gift from God the Father and Creator of the universe through His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit. 1 Peter 3:18 (NLT)
Jesus Christ, The Greatest Easter Gift
Jesus was greatly mistreated. He lived a sinless life in a sinfully imperfect world yet was obedient to His Father and sacrificed his earthly life for our benefit.
The religious leaders of the day were threatened by Jesus, resolved to prove he was a liar, and determined to kill him. Satan tried to destroy him by tempting him in the wilderness for 40 days and nights. His family didn’t believe in him. And one of his disciples betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver.
When things got tough, most of his closest friends and followers abandoned him. The very people Jesus came to save traded Jesus’ life to free a notorious criminal named Barabbas, sealing his death sentence. The Roman soldiers tortured him, spit on him, mocked him, nailed him to a cross and crucified him.
Yet Jesus loved us so much he willingly carried the weight of all mankind’s sins to the cross and sacrificed His life as payment for those sins. Upon His death, His body was buried hurriedly and unceremoniously in a tomb due to the necessity for observing the Sabbath.
Once the Sabbath was over, a few remaining loyal followers came to make final preparations for His body and found that Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb. His body had been resurrected. He was no longer dead. He was alive!
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 (NLT)
If not for Jesus’ sacrifice, we would still be dead in our sin. If he hadn’t risen from the dead, we would not have the hope of eternal life with Him.1
Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection is the real reason we should celebrate Easter! We should each prepare our heart to acknowledge the great gift of salvation, life after death, and our on-going relationship with God through His Son, Jesus.
Six Ways to Prepare Your Heart for Easter
How can we get our hearts away from celebrating a giant Easter Bunny bringing baskets of goodies and eggs and focus on the true Easter gift, Jesus Christ?
Here are six suggestions for focusing our hearts on the true gift of Easter–our relationship with Jesus Christ, his sacrifice for our sins on the cross, and his resurrection showing us his (and our) victory over death.
1. Spend Time in Prayer
Take time to be still before the Lord and pray that He will help you prepare your heart to celebrate the true meaning of Easter. Try to let go of the distractions the enemy will put in your way. Our lives are busy; but are we busy with the right things?
Make the Lord your focus. If what you are doing is hindering your time and focus on the Lord, then you need to consider whether it is something you need to be doing or not.
“Be still, and know that I am God! Psalm 46:10a (NLT)
Seek His wisdom and discernment. Be still and listen. Be obedient to what He tells you to do.
2. Spend time in Scripture
Review the scriptures on Jesus’ life: who he was, why he was born, why he died, and what his resurrection means for us. There are many books and devotionals that can be used as resources, along with the Internet. There are also many videos and movies based on the Easter story. Just be sure to back up what you read, hear, and see against the Truth of the Bible.
Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105
Review the plan of salvation; refresh your heart as you walk through it again and remind yourself of your salvation.
The more you know about Jesus, the more meaningful the Easter story will be to you.
3. Search your heart.
Pray that God will search your heart and make you aware of any sin standing in the way of openness in your relationship with Him. Confess, repent, and resolve to overcome your sin and live a more Christ-centered life.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV)
4. Accept God’s Grace and Mercy
Now that you have been reminded of the true reason for celebrating Easter and all that Jesus Christ has done for you, accept that you have been forgiven by God’s mercy and grace.
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions… 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:4,5,8 (NLT)
Every time you hear God’s plan of salvation, review the Easter story, or seek God in prayer, you should be reminded anew of how much God loves you.
5. Share the True Meaning of Easter with the Lost
Reach out to others and share that in celebrating Easter, we are celebrating Jesus’ resurrection and the salvation he brought to us by dying on the cross. Encourage the lost to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. Take every opportunity to share the news and support others in their efforts to reach the lost for God’s kingdom.
9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. Romans 10:9-19 (NLT)
6. Rejoice in Your Salvation
Rejoice in your salvation as you celebrate the true meaning of Easter—the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...1 Peter 1:3 (NIV)
Closing Prayer
Holy Father,
Please open our hearts and minds as we spend time in your presence. Help us to focus solely on you and keep the distractions of the enemy at bay during our time together.
Guide us as we seek to understand fully the significance of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. In sacrificing his life on the cross for our sins, he opened the door for salvation for all mankind and eternal life with you in heaven.
It is impossible to comprehend the full depth of your love for us and the grace and mercy you offer when we are so unworthy.
Please search our hearts and convict us of any sin that might be hindering our connection with you. We ask that you forgive us our sins and give us obedient hearts as we seek to restore our relationship and live a Christ-centered life that honors you.
Guide us to take the opportunity to share the gospel message with those who don’t know you and may their hearts be receptive and responsive to accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
We praise you, Father, for the depth of your love, grace, and mercy. May you be glorified and worshipped as the one true God and Creator of the universe, not only during this Easter season but every day throughout our lives.
In Jesus’ name we pray,
Amen
References: All scripture taken from https://www.biblegateway.com
Footnotes:
1. https://busyblessedwomen.com/prepare-your-heart-for-easter/
