Resurrection Power

Picture someone whose marriage now runs on schedules and errands, and whose prayers dried up two years ago. To that person, a verse about resurrection power can sound like it belongs in someone else's story, and that is a fair complaint.

So look at what the verse actually promises, because it is both smaller and larger than the way people often use it. It does not promise that you will feel alive. It promises a body: God "shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit." Quicken means "bring to life." Mortal is the plain word for a body that is going to die. So this is about a real, physical resurrection, and it rests on something that has already happened once, to Someone with a name. The argument runs from one Person to another. "The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead" is the same Spirit who lives in you. That means the two resurrections are tied together by the One who lives in you, and they are much more than a comparison.

Paul also keeps the condition in place. Two verses later he says it without softening: "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." The power is great, and it cares how you spend your week.

Still, the part of you that feels dead is not what this verse is measuring, and that is worth hearing today. Feeling dry does not tell you who lives in you.

So may the Spirit who raised Jesus, who has come to live in you and not just to visit, keep working where He lives. May the part of your life that feels dead turn out to be a seed in winter and not a grave. If it is a grave, may you remember that the One who lives in you has already emptied one. And may the body that disappoints you now be raised one day in a form that finally does what you meant it to do.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 69 is Before Anything Happened (Matthew 3:17).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna