In his sermon entitled, "The Resurrection and the Life," Pastor Shawn explored explored the hope at the heart of the Nicene Creed - not escape from the world, but resurrection, renewal, and God making all things new... beyond our wildest imaginations.
We invite you to spend the next five days reflecting and praying through this devotional based on that message.
We invite you to spend the next five days reflecting and praying through this devotional based on that message.
Day 1: The Body Matters to God
Rest: Take 2 minutes of silence and invite God - Father, Son, and Spirit - to draw near to you in this time.
Read: 1 Corinthians 15:35-49
Reflect: We often treat the body as something to be escaped rather than redeemed. But Paul insists that resurrection is not the soul floating free of flesh — it is transformation. Like a seed buried in the ground, what goes in and what comes out share a real connection, yet the difference is staggering. God does not discard what he made. He glorifies it. Whatever you have endured in your body — illness, shame, loss, or limitation — God sees it and intends to redeem it. Your body is not a burden to be shed. It is a vessel he is preparing for glory.
In what ways have you believed your body was something to escape rather than something God values and will redeem? Pause and talk with the Lord honestly about all of the thoughts and feelings that arise in you as you reflect on this.
Respond: Spend time today thanking God specifically for your body, even in its brokenness, and ask him to renew your vision of what he intends for it.
Return: Spend a moment thanking God for this time, invite Him to continue to speak throughout this day, and close by praying the "Our Father".
Read: 1 Corinthians 15:35-49
Reflect: We often treat the body as something to be escaped rather than redeemed. But Paul insists that resurrection is not the soul floating free of flesh — it is transformation. Like a seed buried in the ground, what goes in and what comes out share a real connection, yet the difference is staggering. God does not discard what he made. He glorifies it. Whatever you have endured in your body — illness, shame, loss, or limitation — God sees it and intends to redeem it. Your body is not a burden to be shed. It is a vessel he is preparing for glory.
In what ways have you believed your body was something to escape rather than something God values and will redeem? Pause and talk with the Lord honestly about all of the thoughts and feelings that arise in you as you reflect on this.
Respond: Spend time today thanking God specifically for your body, even in its brokenness, and ask him to renew your vision of what he intends for it.
Return: Spend a moment thanking God for this time, invite Him to continue to speak throughout this day, and close by praying the "Our Father".
Day 2: The Age to Come Starts Now
Rest: Take 2 minutes of silence and invite God - Father, Son, and Spirit - to draw near to you in this time.
Read: Ephesians 5:8-21
Reflect: Paul urges believers to live as children of light, because the dawn has already broken. The resurrection of Jesus was not merely a past event to be remembered — it was the first sign of a new age breaking into the present one. Like a traveler adjusting mealtimes to their destination's time zone, we are called to align our appetites and habits with the kingdom we are heading toward, not the one we are leaving behind. Reconciliation, justice, healing, and the practice of God's presence are not idealistic dreams. They are foretastes of what God has already promised and is already bringing.
Where in your daily life are you still eating according to the old time zone — living by old fears, old patterns, old hungers? Pause and talk with the Lord honestly about all of the thoughts and feelings that arise in you as you reflect on this.
Respond: Choose one concrete practice today — an act of reconciliation, a prayer for healing, a moment of stillness in God's presence — and ask the Lord for the grace to experience it as foretaste of the life to come.
Return: Spend a moment thanking God for this time, invite Him to continue to speak throughout this day, and close by praying the "Our Father".
Read: Ephesians 5:8-21
Reflect: Paul urges believers to live as children of light, because the dawn has already broken. The resurrection of Jesus was not merely a past event to be remembered — it was the first sign of a new age breaking into the present one. Like a traveler adjusting mealtimes to their destination's time zone, we are called to align our appetites and habits with the kingdom we are heading toward, not the one we are leaving behind. Reconciliation, justice, healing, and the practice of God's presence are not idealistic dreams. They are foretastes of what God has already promised and is already bringing.
Where in your daily life are you still eating according to the old time zone — living by old fears, old patterns, old hungers? Pause and talk with the Lord honestly about all of the thoughts and feelings that arise in you as you reflect on this.
Respond: Choose one concrete practice today — an act of reconciliation, a prayer for healing, a moment of stillness in God's presence — and ask the Lord for the grace to experience it as foretaste of the life to come.
Return: Spend a moment thanking God for this time, invite Him to continue to speak throughout this day, and close by praying the "Our Father".
Day 3: God Does Not Abandon His Projects
Rest: Take 2 minutes of silence and invite God - Father, Son, and Spirit - to draw near to you in this time.
Read: Genesis 12:1-3 and Romans 8:31-39
Reflect: The story of Scripture is the story of a God who refuses to quit. Abraham stumbled. His descendants wandered. The whole of human history reads like one long record of people getting it wrong. And yet God stayed. He did not scrap the project. He entered it himself, in the flesh, through Abraham's own line, to accomplish what no one else could. If you have ever feared that you are the exception — that you are the one God will finally give up on — the arc of Scripture answers that fear directly. His promises are not contingent on your performance. They rest entirely on his faithfulness.
Do you carry a fear that God has a limit with you? Where did that fear come from, and what does Scripture say in response? Pause and talk with the Lord honestly about all of the thoughts and feelings that arise in you as you reflect on this.
Respond: Write down one promise from Scripture that speaks directly to your fear of abandonment, and return to it every time that fear surfaces this week.
Return: Spend a moment thanking God for this time, invite Him to continue to speak throughout this day, and close by praying the "Our Father".
Read: Genesis 12:1-3 and Romans 8:31-39
Reflect: The story of Scripture is the story of a God who refuses to quit. Abraham stumbled. His descendants wandered. The whole of human history reads like one long record of people getting it wrong. And yet God stayed. He did not scrap the project. He entered it himself, in the flesh, through Abraham's own line, to accomplish what no one else could. If you have ever feared that you are the exception — that you are the one God will finally give up on — the arc of Scripture answers that fear directly. His promises are not contingent on your performance. They rest entirely on his faithfulness.
Do you carry a fear that God has a limit with you? Where did that fear come from, and what does Scripture say in response? Pause and talk with the Lord honestly about all of the thoughts and feelings that arise in you as you reflect on this.
Respond: Write down one promise from Scripture that speaks directly to your fear of abandonment, and return to it every time that fear surfaces this week.
Return: Spend a moment thanking God for this time, invite Him to continue to speak throughout this day, and close by praying the "Our Father".
Day 4: Longing for a Home We Have Never Visited
Rest: Take 2 minutes of silence and invite God - Father, Son, and Spirit - to draw near to you in this time.
Read: Revelation 21:1-7
Reflect: John's vision is startling in its direction. Heaven does not pull us upward and away. God comes down. The holy city descends. The dwelling of God is established among his people, here, in renewed creation. The Christian hope is not escape — it is arrival. C.S. Lewis described a deep ache in the human soul, a longing for a home never visited. That longing is not a mistake. It is a signpost. It points not to an exit from creation but to its completion, perfection, and transformation. Whatever you have loved most beautifully about this world is a whisper of what God is preparing.
What could your longing for home tell you about the kind of future God is building? What could it reveal about what he values? Pause and talk with the Lord honestly about all of the thoughts and feelings that arise in you as you reflect on this.
Respond: Take a walk today and pay attention to something in creation that stirs that deep ache. Let it become a prayer — an acknowledgment that you were made for more than what you currently see.
Return: Spend a moment thanking God for this time, invite Him to continue to speak throughout this day, and close by praying the "Our Father".
Read: Revelation 21:1-7
Reflect: John's vision is startling in its direction. Heaven does not pull us upward and away. God comes down. The holy city descends. The dwelling of God is established among his people, here, in renewed creation. The Christian hope is not escape — it is arrival. C.S. Lewis described a deep ache in the human soul, a longing for a home never visited. That longing is not a mistake. It is a signpost. It points not to an exit from creation but to its completion, perfection, and transformation. Whatever you have loved most beautifully about this world is a whisper of what God is preparing.
What could your longing for home tell you about the kind of future God is building? What could it reveal about what he values? Pause and talk with the Lord honestly about all of the thoughts and feelings that arise in you as you reflect on this.
Respond: Take a walk today and pay attention to something in creation that stirs that deep ache. Let it become a prayer — an acknowledgment that you were made for more than what you currently see.
Return: Spend a moment thanking God for this time, invite Him to continue to speak throughout this day, and close by praying the "Our Father".
Day 5: I Am the Resurrection and the Life
Rest: Take 2 minutes of silence and invite God - Father, Son, and Spirit - to draw near to you in this time.
Read: John 11:17-27
Reflect: Jesus does not merely promise resurrection. He declares himself to be it. When Martha's grief was at its heaviest, Jesus did not offer a theological lecture. He stood in front of her and said, I am the resurrection and the life. Our hope is not ultimately rooted in a doctrine or a timeline. It is rooted in a person. We may not be able to fully imagine what new creation looks like, what our resurrection bodies will feel like, or what the age to come will hold, but we know who holds it. And when we finally see it all for what it is, we will say, "of course. Of course this is what it is... I couldn't have described it, I couldn't have imagined it, but now that I see it... of course."
Jesus asks directly: "Do you believe this?" What is your honest answer today — full belief, a desire to believe, or a longing to want to believe? All three are a beginning. Pause and talk with the Lord honestly about all of the thoughts and feelings that arise in you as you reflect on this.
Respond: Pray today using your honest answer as your starting point. Bring whatever measure of faith or longing you have and place it before the one who calls himself "the resurrection and the life"; the one to whom all desire is eloquent and no secret is hidden. Even the seed of desire is a grace from the Lord and evidence of his desire for you.
Return: Spend a moment thanking God for this time, invite Him to continue to speak throughout this day, and close by praying the "Our Father".
Read: John 11:17-27
Reflect: Jesus does not merely promise resurrection. He declares himself to be it. When Martha's grief was at its heaviest, Jesus did not offer a theological lecture. He stood in front of her and said, I am the resurrection and the life. Our hope is not ultimately rooted in a doctrine or a timeline. It is rooted in a person. We may not be able to fully imagine what new creation looks like, what our resurrection bodies will feel like, or what the age to come will hold, but we know who holds it. And when we finally see it all for what it is, we will say, "of course. Of course this is what it is... I couldn't have described it, I couldn't have imagined it, but now that I see it... of course."
Jesus asks directly: "Do you believe this?" What is your honest answer today — full belief, a desire to believe, or a longing to want to believe? All three are a beginning. Pause and talk with the Lord honestly about all of the thoughts and feelings that arise in you as you reflect on this.
Respond: Pray today using your honest answer as your starting point. Bring whatever measure of faith or longing you have and place it before the one who calls himself "the resurrection and the life"; the one to whom all desire is eloquent and no secret is hidden. Even the seed of desire is a grace from the Lord and evidence of his desire for you.
Return: Spend a moment thanking God for this time, invite Him to continue to speak throughout this day, and close by praying the "Our Father".