A Prayer from the 7 Last Statements of Jesus on the Cross

1. "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
(Luke 23:34)

On this Good Friday, I pray that we can all find some grace in the eyes of the Lord...grace for one another...grace for ourselves...today I'm thinking about the forgiveness that I personally need in my own life, and the forgiveness that I need to show and give others...I pray today for a manifestation of the heart of Christ, so that I can even go beyond forgiveness, and make this kind of pure intercession for those who have wronged me, truly believing with a child's mindset that "they know not what they do"...


2. "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise."
(Luke 23:43)

On this Good Friday I pray that, as Jesus assured the dying thief that everything would be all right for him in the end, that we would all have the same assurance concerning the things, attitudes, opinions, strongholds...even perhaps some hopes and dreams...that may be in the process of death...and that we would not fear it...that we would let that die which needs to die, knowing that in the death we will ultimately find paradise...

3. "Woman, behold your son: behold your mother."
(John 19:26-27)

On this Good Friday, I pray that we would all be concerned with the preservation of relationships...that as Jesus gave the responsibility of His mother over to John in His last words, creating a new sense of family in so doing, we would also embrace the ministry of reconciliation...that we would be aware that there's much too much pain in the world...too many broken hearts...I pray today for the possibilities of restoration, even in the midst of death...

4. "Eli Eli lama sabachthani?"
("My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?")
(Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34)

On this Good Friday, I pray for an outpouring of empathy in and for all of us...that, as Jesus identified with man on the cross, and with his sense of being disconnected from the Creator...as He cried out these desperate words in His native Aramaic to "God", not "My Father", as He had always said before...I pray that we can all feel for each other today, and realize that we are not disconnected, after all...from Him...from one another...that we would cry out for each other in our own familiar words, and that, as we pray for one another, we would all be healed...

 

 5. "I thirst."
(John 19:28)

On this Good Friday, I pray that we would not overlook the needs of the human being...the natural man...that we would remember that all the while Jesus, the holy Son of God, was wrestling with death in the spirit-realm, He was still very much the thirsty (hungry, sweaty, bleeding, stinking, bruised, wounded, naked, pain-ridden) Son of Man, struggling for survival...He said "I thirst", and we can all relate...we're all thirsty...we're all needy...we're all human...all of us...
 

 6. "It is finished."
(John 19:30)

On this Good Friday I pray that we could all, once and for all, accept the fact that it was and is, indeed, finished...that today we would cease from our constant striving...from proving our points...from propping up our own agendas...from waving around our own filthy rags of righteousness, trying to defend ourselves and make ourselves look good at all costs...from always having to be right...and intentionally enter into the rest that only comes from knowing that Jesus truly finished for us what He started...

7. "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."
(Luke 23:46)

And finally, on this Good Friday, I pray that we would all embrace the blessedness of committing a thing into the hands of God, and then letting it go...that we would grasp the concepts of release...of surrender...of acceptance...and of making peace with our own destiny...Jesus asked "God" why He had forsaken Him, but He volunteered His spirit up to His "Father"...may we all have a revelation of the security we have in the nurturing, loving care of our Creator...

I pray that this Good Friday would truly be good for all people, everywhere...amen.