Kerry Shook - The Saturday In Between
You know this Friday we celebrate Good Friday, and it’s good for a reason. It was 2000 years ago on that day that the Son of God shed sinless blood so we could be forgiven of our sins. This coming Sunday, we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, the day Christ defeated death and rose again so that we can experience resurrection and eternal life.
We celebrate Good Friday, and we celebrate Resurrection Sunday. But what about the Saturday sandwiched in between? What about the Saturday between crucifixion and resurrection? Some have called it Holy Saturday, but most don’t call it anything because we don’t really think about the Saturday in between. We celebrate Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, but we just skip over the Saturday in between. But in life, nobody can skip over the Saturday in between-those days in between the struggle and the solution, those days in between the hurt and the healing. We all have to go through the Saturday in between-those seasons of in between, those seasons where you feel stuck and you’re not making any progress, and it feels like you’ll never get through it. It’s the gap between where we are and where we always thought we would be. It’s the Saturday in between.
In the Saturday in between, that’s where hopes and dreams go to die. On the Saturday in between the crucifixion and the resurrection, the disciples were in complete despair, in total disarray. Jesus, the one on whom they placed their whole future, was dead, and all their hopes had died with him. On that Saturday in between, the disciples' hearts were crushed. Their whole world had fallen apart. They were so disoriented and confused. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to end. And that’s because they didn’t know it was the Saturday in between. It felt like the end. They thought it would last forever, that every day from that day on would be just another hopeless day. But it wasn’t the end; it was just the in between. It wasn’t the end; it was just the Saturday in between. And Resurrection Sunday was just one sunrise away-they just didn’t know it.
If you’re in a season of in between, I know it feels like it’s going to last forever, that it will always be this way, that nothing will ever change. But you need to know it’s not the end; it’s just the in between. It’s just the in between, and Resurrection Sunday is coming-your celebration Sunday is on the way. On that Saturday, the disciples must have thought back and wondered how it could have ended like this. I mean, just the Sunday before, Jesus had made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and the crowds lined the streets, just trying to get a look at Jesus. They were waving palm branches and shouting, and they were yelling and cheering as they sang, «Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.» But less than a week later, on that Saturday, there’s no roaring crowd. There’s no celebrating, just silence-complete silence. The disciples' world fell silent.
The disciples thought it would last forever-that silence. The sound of the Master’s powerful voice that once commanded storms to stop and demons to flee was now silent. They thought it would be forever. The sound of his tender words that would heal the brokenhearted and give hope to the hurting was now silent-and they thought forever. That distinctive and joyful sound of his laugh, with which they were so familiar, was now silent, and they thought forever. It was a silent Saturday for the disciples.
The Saturday in between is often a silent Saturday, where it seems the heavens are silent, and it feels like God is nowhere around. And it’s in the silent Saturdays that those doubts and questions get really loud in our minds-questions like, «Does God even care? I mean, God, don’t you care about what I’m going through? God, where are you? Don’t you care about the struggle and the pain in my marriage right now? God, don’t you care? God, don’t you care about this debilitating depression that I can’t seem to break free from? God, don’t you care about this financial burden that’s just overwhelming me and stressing me out? God, don’t you care? God, don’t you care about my child who’s sick and going through treatments? I mean, where are you, God? God, don’t you care about this hurt from my past that’s wounded me so deeply? I don’t think I’ll ever get over this.»
It’s in the silent Saturdays of life that we really begin to ask that core question: «Does God really care?» And it gets really loud in the silent Saturdays. Does God really care? And if he does, why doesn’t he do something about it? Is God even real? Is he even out there? Those questions get really loud on a Silent Saturday. That’s because, like the disciples, we think the Silent Saturday is going to last forever. And maybe you’re going through a time when it’s hard to see what God is up to, and the heavens are silent, and it feels like God is nowhere around. It may be your silent Saturday, but it’s not the final Saturday because shouting Sunday is coming. It’s coming. It’s not the end; it’s just the in between, and Resurrection Sunday is just one sunrise away. But when you’re in that Saturday in between, it’s really hard to see it.
The Saturday in between was part of God’s purpose for the disciples. And the season of in between is part of God’s plan for our lives. It’s the season in between that really prepares us for the season of blessing. Without the season of in between, we would never be ready for the season of blessing that’s coming. We would not be able to recognize it; we wouldn’t be able to receive it. It’s the season in between that prepares us for the season of blessing. Now, God plans the season of blessing, but we have to prepare for the season of blessing. The Bible has a lot to say about the events of Good Friday, and the Bible has a lot to say about the events of Resurrection Sunday, but it has very little to say about what happened on that Saturday in between. But what it does say is so powerful and life-changing.
So would you stand in honor of God’s word? We’re going to look at Luke chapter 23: «And when the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw that Jesus was dead, they went home in deep sorrow. So they took down Jesus' body, wrapped it in a long linen cloth, and laid it in a new, unused tomb hewn into the rock at the side of a hill. This was done late on Friday afternoon, the day of preparation for the Sabbath. As the body was taken away, the women from Galilee followed and saw it carried into the tomb. Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments to embalm him, but by the time they were finished, it was the Sabbath. So they rested all that day as required by the Jewish law.»
You can be seated. Something really powerful in that: Jesus died on a Friday. And for the Jews, Friday was always a day of preparation. They called it the day of preparation. Why? Because Sabbath started at sunset on Friday and went to sunset on Saturday. And the law required them to stop all their work on the Sabbath. That meant on Friday they had to hurry as fast as they could to get everything done to prepare for the Sabbath before the sun set. Friday was always a day of preparation. So Good Friday was a day of preparation, but really, Saturday was the day of preparation for the resurrection. The Saturday in between was really the preparation day for the resurrection because there has to be a burial before there’s a blessing. There has to be preparation before God’s plan comes to pass. It’s the Saturday in between that prepares us for Resurrection Sunday. It’s the season of in between that prepares you for the season of blessing.
So how do we prepare? What do you do in those seasons of in between so you’ll be prepared for your season of blessing when it comes? Well, you do just the opposite of what you think you would do. First, you rest in God’s purpose. You have to come to this place of rest in God’s purpose. You have to go from restlessness to rest. Some of Christ’s followers were rushing around on that Friday to prepare spices and ointments to anoint Jesus' body for burial. Some of the women were just doing whatever they could, and they were grieving. They didn’t really know what to do, so they did the one thing they could think of to honor Jesus, and that was to prepare his body with spices and ointments. So they rushed home after the crucifixion in total despair and confusion, just trying to stay busy and push those thoughts out of their minds to push through so their crushing grief wouldn’t set in. And they were preparing the spices and the ointment. But then they noticed the sun was setting, and they realized they had to stop.
They had to stop all their preparing. They had to stop everything that they were doing. They had to stop because the law required you could do nothing on the Sabbath day. It was a day of rest. So they rested all that day, the scripture says, as required by the Jewish law. They had to rest; they had to stop. It was probably a restless rest because I think they really wanted to prepare Jesus' body. They really wanted to finish. They didn’t want to rest on that day of rest, but they had to. They were stopped. And God uses the season of in between to stop us in our tracks. It’s the Saturday in between that God uses to bring us to the end of ourselves, and we have to stop. We’re stuck; nothing is working, and we finally stop trying to fix the situation because we’re just making it worse. It’s in the Saturday in between where God makes us stop-sometimes it’s a hospital stay where he makes us stop. Why? Because he wants us to learn to rest in him and stop trusting in ourselves.
So what do you do in the season of in between? You stop trying to control everything, and you rest in your heavenly Father’s plan. In the Old Testament, there’s a prophecy that was a promise for the Messiah that was quoted again in the book of Acts. Look at it with me in Acts 2:27: «Because you do not abandon my soul to the grave or allow your holy one to decay.»
You see, God the Father promised the Son that even though he would be in a grave on Saturday, God would never abandon him. Jesus knew that his Father would not leave him alone in the grave. And God will not leave you alone on your Saturday in between. He will not leave you alone on your silent Saturday. His silence is not his absence. Just because God is silent, just because you feel stuck, just because you don’t know what God is up to, just because you feel like he’s nowhere around doesn’t mean that he’s left you. In fact, he will never leave you. That’s his promise to you. If you go to the depths of the earth or the heights of heaven, he is there with you. Whatever you walk through in life, if you’re a Christ follower, he will walk through it with you. When you’re going through hell, he will walk through hell with you and bring you out on the other side because he will never leave you; he will never forsake you.
And just because you can’t feel his presence doesn’t mean he’s not there. His promise tells us that in our silent Saturdays, he will not abandon us. Just because the heavens feel silent to you doesn’t mean God is absent from your life. He’s right there. So what do you do? You rest in his purpose. Jesus rested in his Father’s purpose knowing that his Father would not allow his body to undergo decay and that his Father would not leave him alone in the grave. You rest. But that’s just the opposite of what we feel like doing. We’re so restless. We want to get out of the Saturday in between. Usually, we want to go back to how it was before the Friday crucifixion and back to how it was before we got stuck in this place-before we got stuck in the pain, and we want to get out of it. We want to move back.
A couple of months ago, I was pruning back some roses in our backyard. I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to gardening, but I do it anyway. It’s so much fun; it’s stress relieving. I can destroy plants; I can overwater them. I can do all kinds of terrible things, but I love it. I go out there and I do it anyway. And I was pruning some roses, of course without gloves, and there was a branch kind of on the inside of a rose bush. I reached in, and boom! You know that thorn just got me right about there, and it just dug in, and it hurt. And so what did I do? What comes natural? I just pulled back, and it just really dug in. If you know anything about thorns on rose bushes, then that’s just the opposite of what you should do. You shouldn’t do what comes natural.
When the pain hits, don’t pull back because it just digs in deeper. What do you do? You move forward. You move forward, and as you move forward, that thorn comes out, and the pain begins to go away. You move forward. You stay in there. And that’s what you do when you get stuck when the pain is there in your season of in between. You don’t rush out of it; you don’t try to go back; you don’t pull back. You just stay in it. You stay in it. When the pain hits, though, what do we want to do?
We just want to pull back. We want to go back to where it was before the pain. And we can’t make it go back; we can’t fix it that way. We have to trust God and stay in it until God is finished doing what he wants to do. You’ve got to let him cook; you’ve got to let God cook. God’s not finished yet; God still has to do his work. And he wants to do his work in your life. But many times we don’t let him do all that he wants to do.
You know, we pull back, and we’re not ready for the season of blessing when it comes, and it just causes more pain because we don’t come to that place of rest where we go, «God, I’m going to rest in your purpose. I don’t get it. It feels like you’re nowhere around. I’m in pain right now, but I’m going to rest in your purpose, and I’m going to push forward into you. I’m going to push forward into my relationship with you. I’m not going to miss church. I’m going to keep praying. I’m going to keep seeking you. I’m going to keep trusting you because I know it’s a time of testing.» There has to be a test before you’re blessed. And God is getting ready to bless you. Resurrection Sunday is just one sunrise away. Let God do what he needs to do in your life so you’ll be prepared for the season of blessing. You’ve got to come to that place of rest even when I’m restless; I’ve got to stay in it.
And then secondly, in your Saturday in between, you’ve got to surrender to God’s power. In our Saturday in between, we have to come to the place where we surrender everything to God. Because the Saturday in between is the place where dreams go to die. It’s the place where relationships go to die. It’s the place where hopes go to die. And that’s part of God’s plan many times-to bring us to this place where we die to ourselves. And we have to turn to him; we have to turn to him and rest. We have to surrender everything that we’re holding on to so that he can bring resurrection because there has to be death before there’s resurrection. There has to be a burial before there’s blessing. Death had to have its day.
Look at what Jesus said in John 12:24 to the disciples-it just went right over their head. All those things that Jesus said about his death and resurrection, they just didn’t get it until after the resurrection. In John 12:24, he says this to the disciples: «Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.» Jesus was predicting his death and resurrection. He was saying, «I’ve got to die and go into the earth and then come back to life, and I’ll produce all this fruit and life change from my death.» The seed has to fall into the ground, and there in the darkness and silence of the soil, it dies. There in the cold, it dies. And then it springs to life and produces so that there’s a harvest.
Sometimes the dream has to die. Sometimes it has to come to the place where your dream dies -it’s done; it’s over. So that God can take the selfishness out of the dream and then resurrect it and give it back to you. But this time, it’s not a selfish dream; it’s not about you. It’s about God; it’s about others; it’s about life change; it’s about eternity. And it gives you a whole new purpose for doing what he’s called you to do. Sometimes a dream has to die before God can resurrect it. And it’s no longer a selfish dream; it’s no longer the American dream. It’s God’s dream for your life. Sometimes a marriage has to die so that God can wake up a spouse who’s going the wrong direction or a spouse who’s unfaithful-a spouse who has to feel the pain of hitting rock bottom so that the only place they can look is up. It’s the only hope for resurrection. Sometimes all our hope has to die so that we’ll stop placing our hope in things that can change or be taken away, and we’ll place our hope in the only one who never changes-the only anchor for our hope that is secure and unshakable in shaky times.
The Saturday in between is where death occurs, and we have to surrender it all to God. The Jews divided days very differently from the way we divide days. We divide days at midnight-midnight to midnight. But they would divide days at sunset-from sunset to sunset. And that’s why the Sabbath started on Friday at sunset and went to Saturday at sunset.
Now, of course, we go by midnight to midnight to count a day. But in the first-century Jewish mindset, if there was any part of a day, they would count it as a day. That’s why Jesus was crucified on Friday later in the day, and that was counted as one day. He rose from the dead on Sunday at dawn, and that was counted as another day-and then, of course, Saturday. So that was three days. It was three days in the tomb according to that first-century Jewish mindset. But in our mindset today, we realize that Jesus was only in the tomb one full day. And that’s why the Saturday in between is so important. It’s when death had its one day. Death had to have its one day so God could have the final say. Death had to have its one day so that Christ could win for us every day for all eternity. Death had to have its day so that we could have heaven one day.
You see, Jesus didn’t just die; he was dead for a day. Death had its day, but God Almighty had the final say on Celebration Sunday. And those seasons in between are so important because they let us feel the weight of how weak we are. Sometimes we’ve got to go through the Saturday in between to really feel it, because we think maybe we can still solve the problem on our own; we can still fix it; we can still do something to change it. Sometimes we have to hit a dead end where death has its day so that we die to ourselves and our own strength and let God fill us with his strength. And the Saturday in between helps us feel the full power of God’s strength-that we would never know that resurrection power unless we came to the place where everything dies. There’s no hope; it’s a dead end.
You know what? If God had raised Christ from the dead just five minutes after the crucifixion, we wouldn’t have appreciated his power-not fully. Just imagine what it would have been like if just one second after the crucifixion, God would have raised Christ from the dead. You know, he’s crucified, and he says, «It is finished.» And he hung his head, and he’s dead. And then he’s up! He rose from the dead just one second later. We wouldn’t have seen how great his resurrection power is because not only did he die; he was dead for a full day. He was in the grave all Saturday. He was in the grave for a day so that he could defeat death and the grave and hell forever. Death had its day, but Jesus Christ won the day.
Think about this: If God solved all your problems just five minutes after they came into your life, you wouldn’t appreciate God’s power. You wouldn’t know how weak you are without him. You wouldn’t know how dependent you are on him. If God solved all our problems one minute after they appeared in our lives, we would never pray. We would never depend on God. We would never see how dependent we are on God. But sometimes God leaves those problems, and those difficulties turn into delays, and those delays become dead ends. Sometimes God leaves them until they become dead ends, and we go through a Saturday in between to get to the place where we realize the full weight of our weakness. Then God comes through on Resurrection Sunday, and we begin to comprehend just a little bit of the greatness of God’s strength available to us. And it helps us put our faith in his strength. Then it builds our faith and builds our relationship with God Almighty.
It’s in those seasons where everything is still and everything dies that brings about the season of blessing. And it’s in the tomb of our silent Saturdays that we finally stop fighting, and we stop struggling, and we let God fight for us because there’s no other choice. We fight and fight and struggle and struggle until we can’t do it anymore, and we come to that dead end. Then we let God fight for us, and he always wins. He’s never lost a battle. Some of you need this passage, this promise.
There was a time in the Old Testament where the enemies of God surrounded Israel. All these armies surrounded Israel; they were greatly outnumbered. And God gives them this very comforting promise that he wants to give someone today. I know somebody needs it. In 2 Chronicles 20, this is what the Lord says: «Do not be afraid. Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours but God’s.» Somebody needed that today because you’ve been fighting. You’ve been fighting to fix a situation. You’ve been fighting to overcome something in your life. You’ve been fighting. But God says, «It’s time for you to stop fighting in your own strength and surrender it all to me, and I’ll fight for you. I’ll make a way for you. I’ll break through that barrier that you can’t break through.» Have you come to the place of surrender?
For some of you, you know you’ve got a battle tomorrow. There’s a battle you’re facing; there’s a struggle you’ve been having, maybe at work. There’s a struggle you’re in right now, and you’ve been fighting -there’s a problem, there’s a pressure. There’s something you’re trying to change, maybe in your family or in a relationship. And you’ve been fighting and fighting. And God says, «I’ve got this one if you’ll just give it to me. If you’ll surrender, then I’ll start fighting, and I’ll win the battle for you. This battle is not yours; this is not your fight. This is God’s fight. And if you’re a Christ follower, he fights for you, and he’s never lost a battle.»
So what do you do? You come to the place of surrender in your Saturday in between. And it’s in that burial that prepares you for resurrection. In that season of in between, when you surrender, it prepares you to receive your harvest that’s coming. The season of harvest is coming. Maybe God’s just waiting for you to come to that place where you realize it’s a dead end so he can bring you to deliverance. Maybe God is just waiting for you to come to that place where you finally give up, but you give over to him and let him fight for you so that he can bring the season of harvest into your life. But what else do we do? Well, we claim our victory in the Saturday in between. You claim your victory. We’ve got to open our hearts, open our arms, open our eyes, and receive the blessing that God gives.
In Revelation, you know, well, first in John 19: 30, Jesus said this on the cross right before he died: «It is finished.» And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Now notice, Jesus didn’t say right before he died, «I am finished. I’m dead.» No, he said, «It is finished.» So what is «it»? It was his purpose. It was the purpose that he came for. He came to this earth to shed his blood, to give us total forgiveness, to win a place in perfect heaven for us one day, to give us the victory over sin so that we could live in victory in this world and have eternal life in the next. He said, «It is finished.»
On Friday evening, it was finished; the victory was won; the blessing was already there for the disciples. The blessing was ours. The work was finished on that Friday afternoon; he won the battle. He won the war; he defeated the devil. The devil is a defeated foe. Christ won. But the disciples didn’t know it. The most depressing day they ever experienced was the Saturday in between. They had no idea the victory was already won. They had no idea that they were victors already; they were the winners. They didn’t get it because they couldn’t see it.
The resurrection just proved that Jesus was who he said he was, that he was the one who finished the work and took all of our sins so we could live in perfect heaven one day. The resurrection just proved it. You see, the disciples didn’t realize the victory was already won; it was already finished. They were living in defeat. They thought they were finished, but the purpose was already finished. Jesus already won the victory; they were on the winning team. They were living in defeat on that Saturday because they didn’t realize the blessing was already theirs.
And we have to open our spiritual eyes, open our hearts to receive the blessings because sometimes they come disguised in a Saturday in between. You just can’t see it yet. It’s just on Celebration Sunday where it appears to everyone. But I’m telling you, the blessing is already here. If you’re in a season of in between, the blessing is already there; you just don’t feel it. Maybe you can’t see it with your physical eyes; God has that blessing for you-maybe right under your nose, but it could be disguised as a problem or as a hurt or as a pain. It could be disguised as a dead end. But God says, «Don’t miss it; it’s already here. It’s going to reveal itself soon, but it’s already here.»
So you claim it whether you feel it or not. You’ve already won the victory. Christ has already won the victory for you. You can live in it; you can claim it; you can celebrate it even in your Saturday in between. The disciples just didn’t know. They thought they had lost forever; they thought they were on the losing team. But after the resurrection, they remembered finally all the things Jesus had told them of what had to happen for the victory to be won, and then they realized it-that on that Saturday, the day they felt most like losers, the victory had already been won. And so even though you can’t feel it, even though you can’t see it, even though it feels like God is nowhere around, you speak it, and you claim it that you’re victorious in Christ, that Christ is blessing you even now. You speak it in faith. You claim it in faith whether you see it or not, whether you feel it or not. And that prepares the way for the Lord to open your eyes and your heart to receive all that he’s already given you.
But then there’s something else that we have to do to prepare our hearts in that Saturday in between so we’ll be ready for all the blessings that are coming our way. Hold on for the harvest. Hold on for the harvest. In Psalm 126:5-6, it says, «Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.» And maybe you’re in a season of in between -it’s a season of weeping; maybe it’s a season of shedding tears. I want you to know that those tears are just watering the harvest that’s about to come into your life. It may feel like a silent Saturday, but singing Sunday is on the way. You may be weeping now; you may be crying now; you may be shedding tears now. But you’re about to be singing; you’re going to be rejoicing like the disciples.
Now, it’s good to weep; it’s good to cry; it’s good to shed tears in that Saturday in between-to grieve those losses, to grieve the death of that dream, to grieve the hurt and the pain. Those tears are watering the harvest that’s about to come into your life. There’s always burial before blessing. And you’re going to be rejoicing; the season of singing is coming. Don’t you realize it? Can’t you see it? Can’t you feel it? If you can’t, then you’re normal; it’s okay. You claim it anyway. Look at Revelation 11:17: Jesus says this: «Don’t be afraid; I am the first and the last, the living one. I was dead, but now I am alive forever, and I have the keys to death and hell.» He’s saying, «I died on that Good Friday; I was dead on that Saturday in between, but then I took the keys of death and hell so I could set the captives free.» Praise God for the silent Saturday that turns into Celebration Sunday. Praise God for the Saturday in between that turns into Resurrection Sunday.
For the disciples, the Saturday in between was not only a silent Saturday; it was also a sickening Saturday. They must have had a sick feeling in the pit of their stomach as they thought of how it all ended so suddenly, and it didn’t make sense. That’s because they didn’t realize it was the Saturday in between, and Celebration Sunday was coming. For Simon Peter, it was a shameful Saturday. He was hiding in shame that day for denying that he even knew who Jesus was-the same Simon Peter who Jesus looked at and said, «You’re going to be the rock upon which I build my church.» But on that Friday, the rock crumbled. And on that Saturday, all the broken pieces were hiding in shame. And Peter was certain there was no coming back from this; there was no coming back from this monumental failure. That’s because Simon Peter didn’t realize it wasn’t the end; it was just the in between. It was just the Saturday in between redemption that was coming on Sunday-just one sunrise away for him.
On that Saturday, the Pharisees were still scheming. So they went to Pilate to make sure he put a guard in front of the tomb because they remembered that Jesus said he was going to rise from the dead in three days. They remembered it, but the disciples forgot. The Pharisees wanted to make sure that none of his followers tried to steal his body and spread a lie that he rose from the grave. So they put a guard in front of the grave. They weren’t resting on the day of rest-they were still restless, scheming and fighting against the Savior because they didn’t know on that Saturday that Resurrection Sunday was just one sunrise away.
And no scheming of man and no strength of a million guards could keep the Son of God in the tomb on that Celebration Sunday. It was Saturday, and Satan and his demons were the only ones who were shouting. They celebrated evil’s apparent triumph. But their Celebration Saturday was short-lived. Their Celebration Saturday turned into a silent Sunday as our Savior rose again and silenced Satan’s shout. He rose again, and he silenced the grave. He rose again, and he silenced hell itself. And he took hold of the keys of death and hell, and he set you and I free. And we are free indeed.
And maybe today you’re in a season of in between, and it feels like it’s going to last forever and you’ll never get through this one. But it’s not the end; it’s just the in between. It’s just the Saturday in between, and Celebration Sunday is just one sunrise away. So don’t you dare give up. You keep your heart open; you keep your arms open because harvest is coming. A season of blessing is coming. Burial comes before blessing. Silent Saturday comes before shouting Sunday. And the living one, the resurrected King, holds the keys to death and hell, and we are free. Claim it today, Woodland Church.
Let’s bow together. Dear God, I thank you that we are free, that we have your blessing, and the victory is already won. But Lord, so many times, I don’t feel like it. I don’t see it. I don’t feel it. But Lord, I claim it. And I thank you so much that it’s in those Saturdays in between where you prepare us to receive all the blessings that you have for us. And I know some today are in a season of in between, and maybe it’s a silent Saturday where it feels like the heavens are silent, Lord, and you’re nowhere around. Just remind them today that you’re doing a great work. They can’t see it, but you’re working. Maybe it’s underground right now; maybe it’s in the tomb right now. But Resurrection Sunday is one sunrise away, and the blessing is already there, and they’ll see it soon.
Lord, so many times I try to pull back; I try to get away from that Saturday in between. But Lord, help us stay in it and rest in you. And I pray for those who are at a dead end right now. They would realize that those dead ends are at the very place before you bring deliverance. They’re not farther away from deliverance; they’re right next to the door of deliverance. They’re not farther away from the harvest; they’re right there-just one step away from the harvest. Lord, remind them that they’re not further away from Resurrection Sunday, but it’s just one sunrise away. It’s just the in between. Thank you, Lord. It’s not the end; it’s just the in between. And I pray for those who’ve never received you, Lord, and the victory that you’ve already won-that they would do that right now. They wouldn’t wait for Easter to come; they would do that right now, and they would pray this prayer in their hearts:
«Jesus Christ, I need you. I admit it, I’m tired of trying to do life on my own. So I ask you to forgive me of all my sins. Thank you for taking them on the cross. I ask you to come into my life. I thank you that the tomb is empty so my life can be filled. I ask you to give me heaven one day, and I accept your free gift of salvation and your free ticket to heaven because of what you’ve done on the cross and how you rose from the dead to prove it. Be the Lord of my life from now on, for you are the King of Kings.» In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.