7 Day Devotional

Day 1: He Always Goes First

General • •

“After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples.” — Luke 19:28 (NLT)

Day 2: God Doesn't Wait for Ready

General • •

“As he came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead.” — Luke 19:29 (NLT)

Day 3: The Lord Needs It

General • •

“If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.'” — Luke 19:31 (NLT)

Day 4: Waving the Wrong Palms

General • •

“As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him.” — Luke 19:36 (NLT)

Day 5: Good Friday: He Wept Before He Went

General • •

“But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep.” — Luke 19:41 (NLT)

Day 6: Don't Let the Stones Do Your Job

General • •

“He replied, ‘If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!'” — Luke 19:40 (NLT)

Day 7: Easter Sunday: This Is the Moment

General • •

“They will crush you into the ground… because you did not recognize it when God visited you.” — Luke 19:44 (NLT)

Day 1: He Always Goes First

General • •

“After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples.” — Luke 19:28 (NLT)

Devotion

There’s a quiet courage required to follow someone into the unknown. And most of us hesitate not because we don’t trust God, but because we’re not sure He’s already gone ahead. We wait for certainty before we move. We want to see the path cleared before we take the first step.

But look at what Jesus does here. He walks ahead. Not beside, not behind, but ahead. It’s the same posture God took in the wilderness as a pillar of fire leading Israel through the dark. Jesus doesn’t stand at the edge of the difficult thing and point you toward it. He enters it first and then invites you to follow.

Whatever you’re facing this week — the conversation you’ve been avoiding, the step of faith you keep delaying, the season that feels uncertain — Jesus has already walked into it. The invitation is always open because the One who sends it always goes first. You cannot be sent somewhere He hasn’t already been.

Reflection

What situation in your life feels too uncertain to step into right now?

How does it change your courage to know that Jesus has already walked ahead of you into it?

What is one step you’ve been waiting on clarity before taking — and what would it look like to simply follow today?

Prayer

Lord, I’ve been waiting for You to clear the path before I move. But You’ve already gone ahead. Give me the courage to follow, not when it’s certain, but because You’ve already been there. Whatever is in front of me this week — You’ve already walked it. I choose to follow. Lead me. Amen.

Day 2: God Doesn't Wait for Ready

General • •

“As he came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead.” — Luke 19:29 (NLT)

Devotion

Bethany means “house of affliction.” Bethphage means “house of unripe figs.” Jesus launched His royal entry from a place of poverty and incompleteness. He didn’t wait for the right city, the right crowd, or the right conditions.

This is how God tends to move. Not when people are ready. Not when the circumstances are polished. Not when everything looks right. He moves toward the incomplete, the unfinished, the not-quite-there-yet. He always has.

 

He chose shepherds and fishermen, a teenage girl and a stuttering prophet. He starts from the unlikely place, with the unlikely person, at what looks like the wrong time.

You may feel unripe right now — not ready enough, not healed enough, not together enough. And so does someone in your life.

But what would happen if you allowed God to do the ripening in your life? He moves toward the house of affliction and calls it the starting point.

Reflection

Where in your own life do you feel unripe or unready — and have you let that stop you from expecting God to move?

Who in your life feels far from ready, but God might be moving toward anyway?

Prayer

God, I’ve been waiting until I felt more ready to take the next step with You. But You started Your greatest moment from the house of unripe figs. Thank You that You don’t wait for ready. Give me the courage to reach out to others. Amen.

Day 3: The Lord Needs It

General • •

“If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.'” — Luke 19:31 (NLT)

Devotion

Five words. No strategy. No long explanation. No apology.

What makes this remarkable is the word behind “Lord” — Kyrios, the same word used in the Greek Old Testament for the name of God. The all-powerful, sovereign God of the universe chose to express His invitation not as a command, but as a need. He could have simply walked. He didn’t have to involve anyone. But He chose to make Himself dependent on human willingness. Sovereignty expressed as invitation.

God still works this way. He could reach people without you. But He chooses to work through you — through your ordinary conversations, your simple invitations, your willingness to say a few words without over-explaining them.

The forerunner doesn’t need a perfect approach. They need a clear word. Five words changed everything once. Your simple, honest invitation might do the same for someone this week.

Reflection

What has been holding you back from simply extending an invitation, whether it’s over-explaining, fear of the response, waiting for the perfect moment?

Is there someone specific God has been placing on your heart that you keep talking yourself out of reaching?

What would it look like this week to simply say the word, without strategy or apology?

Prayer

Lord, You made Yourself dependent on human willingness. And You’re still doing it, working through ordinary people with simple words. I’ve been overthinking the approach when all You need is my willingness. Give me the clarity and courage to say the simple thing. Use me as a forerunner for someone who needs to encounter You. Amen.

Day 4: Waving the Wrong Palms

General • •

“As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him.” — Luke 19:36 (NLT)

Devotion

The crowd got so much right. They laid down their most valuable possessions. They waved palm branches, a symbol of liberation and national victory. They shouted the words of Psalm 118, the messianic psalm. They were worshipping the right person, yet they were doing it with the wrong expectation.

They wanted a warhorse king who would drive out Rome. They got a Prince of Peace riding a donkey on His way to a cross. Their hands were open but their imagination was closed. They were declaring truths about Jesus that were deeper than their understanding of Him.

Within days, the same crowd would be calling for His crucifixion. The palms faded. The garments were trampled. The revolution they wanted never came.

It’s easier than we think to worship Jesus for the version of Him we’ve constructed — the one who does what we want, fixes what we want fixed, shows up the way we expect. However, the invitation isn’t to the king we’ve imagined.

It’s to the Prince of Peace who came to purchase peace not with a sword, but with His own blood.

Reflection

Where have you been disappointed with God because He didn’t show up with your own expectations? How can you root your expectations in His character?

What would it look like to lay down the expectation and receive the Prince of Peace instead?

Prayer

Jesus, I’ll be honest… Sometimes I want the warhorse. I want the king who fixes things quickly, who removes the obstacles, who wins the way I expect. You came on a donkey on Your way to a cross. I receive the Prince of Peace, even if that looks different than I planned. Amen.

Day 5: Good Friday: He Wept Before He Went

General • •

“But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep.” — Luke 19:41 (NLT)

Devotion

On this Good Friday, it’s worth pausing at a moment that happens before the cross. It’s a moment some of us might move past too quickly: Jesus sees the city and He weeps. Not with quiet tears, but with éklaúsen (Greek). The audible, convulsive sobbing and wailing of a parent at a graveside.

Jesus isn’t weeping for Himself. He already knows what today will cost Him. He is weeping for the people who will miss it. For a city named after peace that can no longer see the Prince of Peace standing in front of it. He is entering the grief of prophetic lament because love that deep always feels the weight of what is at stake.

Everything that takes place today — the betrayal, the trial, the nails, the darkness — is the culmination of a love that wept before it bled. He didn’t go to the cross with clenched teeth. He went with open arms, absorbing everything that separates us from God, because the alternative was unthinkable to Him. He refused to let sin separate us from Him eternally.

Today, don’t rush to Sunday. Sit with what today cost. Let it be as real as it was.

Reflection

When did you last let the weight of Good Friday actually land, not as theology to understand, but as a love to receive?

Jesus wept over the people who missed their moment of visitation. Is there someone in your life you’ve been carrying with that same kind of grief?

What does it mean to you personally that Jesus wept before He went to the cross — that this was love, not obligation?

Prayer

Jesus, today I don’t want to rush past what this day cost You. You wept before You bled. You went to the cross with open arms, not clenched teeth. This was love. Not transaction. Not obligation. Love. Let the weight of today be real to me. Thank You for going through what You did because the distance was unthinkable to You. I receive it. All of it. Amen.

Day 6: Don't Let the Stones Do Your Job

General • •

“He replied, ‘If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!'” — Luke 19:40 (NLT)

Devotion

Jesus doesn’t say the stones might cry out. He says they will. Future. Certain. The worship of God is cosmically inevitable and creation itself strains toward it. In a sense, the stones of Jerusalem have been crying out ever since. The Western Wall still stands after everything else was destroyed, bearing silent witness to what the city walked away from.

You, however, are not a stone. You have a voice, a story, and people in your life who haven’t yet encountered the One creation itself declares. The stones are ready to do the job if you won’t. But God’s preference has always been a person — a forerunner, a herald, someone who has encountered Jesus and can simply say: come and see.

Easter Sunday is tomorrow. There is someone in your life — a friend, a family member, a colleague — who is one invitation away from sitting in a room where they could encounter the living God.

The window is open. The door is standing wide. You don’t need a perfect approach. You just need to not let the stones do your job.

Reflection

Who has God been placing on your heart that you haven’t yet invited to Easter or shared the Gospel with?

What is the simplest, most natural way you could reach out to that person today or this week?

Prayer

God, creation declares Your glory whether I join in or not. But You’ve chosen to work through people, not stones. I don’t want to stay silent when I have a voice and a story and people who need to hear it. Give me the courage to make the invitation today. Show someone the door through me. I’m available. Use me. Amen.

Day 7: Easter Sunday: This Is the Moment

General • •

“They will crush you into the ground… because you did not recognize it when God visited you.” — Luke 19:44 (NLT)

Devotion

Jerusalem missed its moment. They couldn’t recognize Him because He didn’t look like what they expected. The sacred window, the kairos moment, opened and closed, and most of them never saw it.

This morning, Easter Sunday, is a kairos moment of its own. This is not a regular Sunday. All over the world, people who would not walk into a church on an ordinary week are sitting in seats, open in ways they haven’t been open in years. The curtain is still torn. The tomb is still empty. The risen Jesus is still the same Person who went ahead of His disciples into Jerusalem, who wept over a city, who rode toward the cross on a donkey, who absorbed every sin and shame and separation on a Friday and walked out of a grave on a Sunday.

He is alive and that changes everything. It’s not just as a historical fact, but as a present reality. The same Spirit that raised Him from the dead is in you right now. And someone sitting near you today may be moments away from their own beginning. Be the person who helps them recognize what they’re looking at. This is the moment!

Reflection

What does the resurrection mean to you today?

What is the one thing you want to carry with you from this week into the season ahead?

Prayer

Jesus, You are alive. Not metaphorically or historically. Right now, You are alive. Today I receive the resurrection as my reality, not just my belief. Open my eyes to the people around me who are in their own kairos moment. Let me be the one who helps them see what they’re looking at. The tomb is empty. The curtain is torn. The invitation is open. I say yes and I carry it into everything that comes next. Amen.