Resurrected with Power
Acts 13:30-31
But God raised Him from the dead, and He appeared for many days to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now His witnesses to the people.
Our hope is not in the crucifixion of Jesus alone. The Romans killed many people on crosses, but God raised Jesus from the dead! The cross was not the end of the story, as the religious leaders and the Devil, himself, had hoped. Our hope is in the resurrection and glorious ascension to be at the right hand of the Father, where Jesus currently resides to intercede for us. The resurrection proved that God accepted the sacrifice and provided forgiveness for us through His Son.
After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples for about 40 days. God allowed them to see the rest of the story so they would know full well the purpose to which they were called. Had Jesus only died, they could easily have lost hope. Because they saw Him in resurrected form, however, there was no stopping them from fulfilling their destiny because they were first hand witnesses to the miracle and knew God had certainly done something divine in their midst. They could tell their story with confidence, even if it killed them.
God often works the same way in our lives. When we’ve experienced the death of a dream, it can be as heart-wrenching as the loss of a loved one. We may seem to lose all purpose without the hope of fulfilling what we thought we were made to be. Not every dream, however, is from God. Some dreams will die simply because there is no life in them from the start. When God instills a dream in us, however, He will often let it die and resurrect it with new power. When we experience His power, we become witnesses to His divine purpose and are then able to fulfill the destiny to which we are called with full confidence. That is the hope of the resurrection. Any dream outside of Christ is dead already, but any dream with Christ at the center will live eternally.
If you are currently suffering the death of a dream or of a loved one, know that death is not the end of the story. God has new life awaiting. Your time of grieving will be very short in comparison to the power His new life will bring. Place your hope in the resurrection today, and trust God to bring to life all that He has purposed for you. The rest of your story is worth telling.
Have a blessed day!