Easter

I was reading a devotion from Angie Smith. It was about Easter. 

The empty tomb. 

The women who went back to the tomb to to treat Christ's body with spices to find him gone. Telling the disciples that He is no longer in the tomb, but has risen from the dead. 

Some believed, excited that it was true. 

Some were skeptical and needed to see Jesus to believe He was no longer dead, but alive. They didn't trust that it could be true. 

They didn't trust. 

I think about where on that spectrum would I be. I am so quick to pray for miracles, to ask God for things, but when they happen, do I remember to give Him the glory? Do I believe it's truly Him that works these things out in my life, or just a "coincidence"?

 I like to think that if I were a disciple, I would have cried tears of joy! Screamed out and celebrated. Believed with every fiber of my being. 

Truthfully, I don't know that I would. 

Sometimes, I'm quicker to distrust than to trust. I'm quicker to search for an explanation than have faith and believe. 

I used to be better at it. Death and heartache has changed me. Changed the way my mind thinks, the way my heart feels. 

I've let it change me. 

I changed. God didn't. 

God didn't change.

 I"m working on trusting God more. I'm working on taking every thought captive. On praying and believing. On seeing the hand of God in everything in my life. 

The pain, and the joy.

 I'm working on changing my heart back, to have that trust, that faith. I want to hear of miracles and answers to prayer, and not just wonder if it was truly God, or someone just exaggerating a little, but TRUST. KNOW.  BELIEVE. 

Easter means so much more to me than it ever did. 

New life. 

Redemption. 

Hope. 

Promises of heaven. 

No more sorrow. 

No more pain. 

No more tears. 

No more death. 

Never again will an infant live but a few days. (Isaiah 65:20)

Easter. I tear up every single time I think about what Easter is. How can you not? (bunny trail.....I may be the only person I know that doesn't do Easter Bunny, Easter baskets, etc. I really noticed that this Easter. But I just want my children to wake up and be excited it is Easter. Wake up and think "Oh My GOODNESS, this is Sunday! This is the day Jesus wasn't dead anymore! Death was defeated! The tomb was EMPTY!!!!" Not, I wonder where my basket is and what chocolate I got, and if there's any fun gift in the basket, etc. I don't want ANYTHING to take away from the power Easter has. The significance Easter is! I fail. Daily with my children. Showing them, teaching them, focusing them. But I know I am trying my hardest at keeping Jesus the center. That He is the reason we have this life. We live this life, and we can have eternity too I like chocolate just as much as the next person. Actually, probably more. Ask my husband. I just give it to my kids all the time. So a basket of it on Easter isn't significant to them. I'm happy about that. My ways aren't right or wrong, just my ways. So please don't take this as "condemnation" or "judgement". This is what works for our family. And this is the way I desire and feel led to teach my children....told you it was a bunny trail.)

I trust that God will do a great work in my heart. That He will complete a great work He started in me when I first trusted back in 1997. Trust will be my first reaction. My instant reaction. That my unbelief will be less and less. I'm so thankful for all He's done in my life and will continue to do. I'm so thankful that all my sins, all my unbelief, were nailed to that cross with Him, I'm so thankful that "it is finished" (John 19:30). I'm so thankful for Easter.