Week 5: Carrying of the Cross

 

Jesus is condemned to death by crucifixion and is forced to carry the cross to the place of execution.  The suffering of Jesus is intense as the cross is laid on His bruised and wounded back and shoulders.  Weak and exhausted from loss of blood, lack of food and rest, Jesus falls three times under the cross. 

 

As we pray these prayers this week, let us consider what it means to “take up the cross, and follow Jesus”.

 

Day 23, Monday:  Never Separated

Day 24, Tuesday:  Follow the Straight Path

Day 25, Wednesday:  Bear the Other’s Burden

Day 26, Thursday:  Claim Spiritual Healing

Day 27, Friday:  Claim Heavenly Treasure

Day 28, Saturday:  Open a Wise Heart with Sweet Words

5th Sunday in Lent  

 

Focus Verse:  Day 23 – Never Separated (Adapted from Romans 8:31-37)

 

In the name of Jesus, I claim this mighty prayer in my own life:  If God is for me, who can be against me? You who did not spare Your own son, but delivered Him up for my sin, how will You not also through Jesus freely give me all things and protect me through all circumstances?  Who can bring a charge against me as one of Your elect?  Only You can justify!  What is able to separate me from Your love?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?   No!  In all of these things I overwhelmingly conquer through Your love.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, not things to come, nor powers, nor height, or depth, nor any created thing, is able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus my Lord.  Amen.

 

As we imagine the loneliness of Jesus struggling under the weight of the cross when He took the long walk to Calvary, we are forced to consider the cost of that walk to God.   Not sparing His own Son, but delivering Him up for our sin, God endured this pain so that we would never be separated from His love.  It is difficult to comprehend the extent of such love.   Reading the prayer from Romans reminds us that nothing can come between us and that love. 

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Study Questions:

Have there ever been times in your life when you felt utterly alone and separated  from friends and God?  What does it mean to you to know that nothing can separate you from God’s love?

What do the prayers for this week tell you about the nature of man?  What do they tell you about the nature of God?

What is your personal response to following the straight path and bearing one another’s burdens?  How can you claim your own spiritual healing and heavenly treasure?