Written by Grace Young

It’s story you’ve been told a million times over—the one about the perfect Christ being brutally murdered for our salvation’s sake. For the love of humanity, Jesus wept and bled and died, only to rob the grave of its power and sting for all eternity. The glorious victor forever reigns and is seated in the most high place. 

You have heard it before, that story. It is engrained in your mind. You understand it (at least, you think you do). Perhaps you believe it. 

Here is the real question, though: Has it changed you? 

Jesus rising from the dead and declaring us as whole in our pain and in our folly—as pure and holy—that is the most important thing. It is the most pivotal moment in history. That glorious day, we too were resurrected, we too were given an imperishable hope for all eternity. 

Do you live that way though? 

See, I ask because I often find myself living in pre-resurrection mode. I often find myself, for whatever reason, opening my tomb and re-entering it. God, in His holiness, has given me a gift that is so forgivingly loving that it can only be described as grace. And yet sometimes, I burden myself with troubles that I don’t need to; I live in regret or trauma, I refuse to acknowledge that the Lord took my chains off of me and said, “Be free, daughter.” 

Are you giving your time and attention to your resurrection—your eternal freedom, your Father’s joy—or are you giving it to the tomb? 

Ouch. 

Where you decide to give your mind’s attention is a choice we must make everyday. We must choose to live our lives as victors, knowing even in the midst of turmoil that we are destined for glory as children of light. Guess what? That problem you’re facing isn’t bigger than your God. Not even close. That circumstance you’re stuck in is no match for the King. Never will it be so. 

The Father’s heart is for you to know that you have been given freedom as an inheritance. Though in our humanity we can be tempted to stumble back towards the darkness, never once has the splendour of resurrection day faltered. It was given to you freely by the one who paid it all. 

So today, and every day, choose to believe that you can shake the darkness with the light inside of you. It is the very motion of trusting and saying yes to our resurrection, to our freedom, that we can laugh in the face of pain. We can dance over defeat when we shift our focus to that very day. The day that our Father showed us how to. 

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” – Colossians 3:2-3