In this world people reject suffering. But in God’s Kingdom suffering is transformed. This is the day the Lord has made. Even if this day brings suffering, let us rejoice in this day. I invite you to get a Bible – in print or electronic – and start working through all or part of the prayers, scripture reading, questions, and devotional reading below. May the Lord bless you as you do so. And may the Spirit of God work in each of us to shape us to be a little more like Jesus, today.

— Praise God with Me: (1)
O Christ, who forsook no one but was forsaken by the closest of friends,
and who committed no crime yet was sentenced to a criminal’s death,
we enter your presence in awe and adoration.
On a day like this, centuries ago, you could have saved your life,
but you refused to betray the purpose for which you had been born.
You had come into the world to love God and neighbor as yourself,
and when that love required you to shoulder a cross,
you summoned the strength to bear it.
Today, O Christ, teach us its meaning once again
and help us to take up our cross and follow you. Amen.

— Let’s Read This Scripture:
Come Holy Spirit, help us to hear your still, small voice as we read your word:
Luke 9:18-27

— Answer these four questions:
What does this passage say about God?
What does this passage say about people?
As a result of this reading, what is one step God is inviting you to take?
Who is one person you will tell about that step today?

— With a Heart of Prayer, Let us Respond: (2)
Today, let us remember our baptism:
Do you not know that all of us
who have been baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

— Let’s Gather Wisdom from One Who Walked with Christ before us: (3)
I think that for many of us, when Christ has enabled us to overcome one or two sins that were an obvious nuisance, are inclined to feel (though we do not put it into words) that we are now good enough. He has done all we wanted Him to do, and we should be obliged if He would now leave us alone. As we say, “I never expected to be a saint, I only wanted to be an ordinary chap.” And we imagine when we say this that we are being humble.
But this is the fatal mistake. Of course, we never wanted, and never asked to be made into the sort of creatures He is going to make us into. But the question is not what we intended ourselves to be, but what He intended us to be when He made us. He is the inventor; we are only the machine. He is the painter; we are only the picture… We may be content to remain what we call ‘ordinary people’: but He is determined to carry out a quite different plan. To shrink back from that plan is not humility; it is laziness and cowardice. To submit to it is not conceit or megalomania; it is obedience.

— Let Us Pray Together as We Begin Our Day: (4)
May God, who gives us a new vision of life through the cross,
enlighten our understanding, inflame our affections,
and enable us to walk the way of the cross.
And may the love of God—the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit—
surround us as we seek to discern that love. Amen.

Sources:
(1) From The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources with original edits.
(2) Romans 6:3-4 NRSV as found in The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources.
(3) From Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis.
(4) From The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources.