It’s Resurrection Morning and the wrap-up to our 40 day challenge! Today, we are in John 20

(You can catch up on our Intro, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, Day 15, Day 16, Day 17, Day 18, Day 19, Day 20, Day 21, Day 22, Day 23, Day 24, Day 25, Day 26, Day 27, Day 28, Day 29, Day 30, Day 31, Day 32, Day 33, Day 34, Day 35, Day 36, Day 37, Day 38, Day 39 if you missed them)

John 20:1-18

The Empty Tomb

20 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. ² 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!”

³ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴ Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there,⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹ (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) ¹⁰ Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

¹¹ Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹² and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

¹³ 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.” ¹⁴ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

¹⁵ He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it 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.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

¹⁷ 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.’”

¹⁸ 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.

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Mary stayed, and because she waited on the Lord, she became the first to proclaim the Resurrection! This is the day we’ve waited for! Hallelujah! He is risen!

We’ve made it to the end of our 40 days. We all will have things we’ve been praying for during these 40 days that we are still waiting for. Some things we’ve been waiting for years and years.

We can’t live life with the Lord and avoid waiting, but the wait will always be worth it.

I almost wrote if we wait faithfully, it will be worth it, but the Lord remains faithful even when we’re not, and we see that even when we mess up incredibly during the wait and create ramifications that go on for millennia, as we see with Abraham, God remains faithful.

God knew what Abraham and Sarah would choose to do before He made the promise. That’s why He put Abraham to sleep for the covenant.

The Lord has already accounted for our mistakes and sin nature when He called us. He is faithful.

And as we see all throughout Scripture, the Lord will often give us a dream or call long before we are ready for it. God wants us to join Him, and cooperate with Him as He prepares us. To follow Jesus is to have many seasons of waiting.

One of the most famous verses about waiting is Isaiah 40:31. This verse uses the word qavah, which also means to bind together.

As we wait with God, we bind ourselves together with Him. And He molds and shapes us and builds our character into the kind of person who can accomplish and not be destroyed by the dream or calling.

So, as we enter into the 50 days of Easter, as the first disciples waited for the promised Spirit, may we continually bind our hearts to the Lord’s so that we may find strength in the wait. ♥

Options for further  journaling or discussion throughout the challenge:

• Choose a part of the passage to write out by hand. Writing by hand helps us slow down and focus on what the Lord might highlight for us in the passage. Our brains can focus and remember better by writing than just reading alone.
• Journal about what the passage brings to mind. Does the passage tell us anything about God? Does it tell us anything about our response to Him?
• Does your heart respond in gratitude to any part of the passage? Write or pray your gratitude to the Lord.

And that’s all for this year! Praying that the seeds planted in your heart during these 40 days of prayer and spending time with the Lord in His word will continue to grow and bear much fruit this year and onward.

♥ Samantha