The Power of the Resurrection

Everything in life for the Christian depends on the resurrection. Paul noted this in his letter to the Ephesians when he wrote, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms..." (Eph 1:18).


When we accept the truth of the resurrection, we gain access to the power that accomplished it. Power that enables us to think new thoughts to deliver us from our self-destructive musings. Power that transforms all our hopelessness into confident expectation. Power that provides us with every resource we need to display the glory of God through our lives.


The power of God is available to all who believe. The challenge for every Christian is not God's ability or will to act, but whether or not we believe. To be specific, the challenge is whether we believe the Word of God when He tells us to act. For instance, when God tells us to speak of Jesus to the world, promising that they will believe, we have a choice. Will we speak, believing that God will save? Will we remain quiet, convinced that the world doesn't even want to hear. When God tells us to "not let the sun go down while you are still angry," do we believe Him enough to follow His instruction? Or do we give up in defeat and say, "That's impossible."


The power of the resurrection is a deposit from God to those who would follow Jesus Christ, challenging us to believe God with absolute faith. Dead men don't walk out of their grave, yet Jesus did. After that, what has not been conquered or what cannot be conquered in your life? Unfortunately, in our small thinking, too many of us who claim to follow Christ weigh ourselves down with all kinds of baggage that leaves us powerless to really live.


We hang onto hurts, using them as an excuse as to why we cannot be free. We cling to unfulfilled dreams, paralyzing us from moving on to grander possibilities. We pursue volume instead of value, wondering why satisfaction never comes. We persist in patterns that diminish us, lamenting why we can never gain control of our lives.


The resurrection of Jesus changes all of this... if we will believe. Believing is not easy, but it is possible. And Paul gives us the answer as to how at the beginning of the passage we cited above. Paul prayed for his friends in Ephesus to experience the power of the resurrection of Christ and by extension, challenged them to pray for each other and themselves. If we hope to be different, we need the power of God to make us different and we gain access to Him through persistent, believing prayer.