3 Ways Resurrection Hope Changes Your Inner Life

Today on the blog, my friend and podcast co-host, Rev. Jessica Van Roekel, offers a powerful reminder that Resurrection Hope changes your life, not just on Easter, but in the way you face stress, fear, and discouragement every day.

3 Ways Resurrection Hope Changes Your Inner Life Long After Easter
By Jessica Van Roekel

Easter Sunday dawns with the anticipation of celebrating the hope of Jesus’ resurrection. We lift our voices in celebration with a shout of “He is Risen!” Then Monday dawns and we return to the same mental and emotional battles. We wonder what happened to the victory we just celebrated the day before.

But resurrection hope is something we can practice daily. Imagine how it would impact our days if we let it shape how we process stress, fear, and discouragement. Here are three ways resurrection hope changes your inner life long after Easter.

Resurrection Hope Changes the Questions We Ask

It’s way too easy to ask questions like, “Why is this happening to me?” or “Will these hard days ever end?” These kinds of questions trap us in fear and frustration, but the resurrection invites us to ask a different kind of question. We sometimes forget Jesus’ words in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world,” (NIV).

Trouble is part of our lives.
It comes, but that doesn’t mean victory vanishes.

Resurrection hope teaches us to ask, “What might God resurrect in this situation?” or “What is God wanting to grow in my life?” Exchanging the “why me” questions for “what God” questions reframe our problems from dead ends to potential beginnings. Living in resurrection hope shifts our perspective to anticipating where God might bring life to our difficulties.

Resurrection Hope Interrupts Catastrophic Thinking

Imagine how Mary must have felt when she arrived at Jesus’ tomb and found his body gone. Her thoughts may have raced as she stood shocked at the site of the open and empty grave. Many of our emotional battles begin with runaway thoughts. We imagine worst case scenarios. Fear spirals into a raging tornado whipping through everything in our life. In moments like these, we can begin to believe that nothing will ever get better. But the resurrection of Jesus Christ interrupts the swirling negative narrative because it proves that the worst moment became the greatest victory.

For three days the cross looked like defeat. Everything the disciples believed in and hoped for had collapsed. But God wasn’t done. The story wasn’t finished, which means we can challenge the whisper, “Things will never get better.” The Bible reminds us, “We hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed,” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, NIV). Living in resurrection hope teaches our minds a new pattern of thought.

Resurrection Hope Restores Our Identity

Adam and Eve walked with God and spoke to him face to face in the Garden of Eden. And then sin entered their life and skewed their identity. Peace was exchanged for conflict. Hope for despair. Love for hate. Failure became commonplace. Holding onto shame wove its way into hearts and now we say phrases like, “I’m a screw up,” or “I’ll never change, why bother trying,” or “I’m too broken.”

Words like these get woven into our identity, but Jesus didn’t just conquer death and bear our sin. He also secured our new identity. Instead of forsaken, we are redeemed. Rather than rejected, we are now chosen. We get to exchange our old nature for a new nature, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here,” 2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV. Our identity finds its roots in what Jesus accomplished, not in our mistakes, struggles, or mental battles. Resurrection hope means we live as redeemed, loved, and chosen sons and daughters.

Easter may be a day we celebrate once a year, but Jesus’ resurrection is meant to influence every day that follows. The empty tomb is the victory shout, “Jesus wins.” Living in resurrection hope means our stories aren’t finished, our struggles aren’t final, and our pain isn’t wasted. Let’s remember Romans 8:11, “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.”

Where in your life do you need to believe that resurrection is still possible? We’d love to hear in the comments below.