From Edie: Discover how the resurrection of Jesus brings hope, healing, and new life to writers. Learn how to rise from creative darkness and trust God with your words and calling.
Jesus the Word of God: The Power of Resurrection for Writers
by Audrey Frank @AudreyCFrank
He is not here, for he has been raised, just as he said. Come and see the place where he was lying. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead. He is going ahead of you into Galilee. You will see him there.’ Listen, I have told you!” So they left the tomb quickly, with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. But Jesus met them, saying, “Greetings!” They came to him, held on to his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee. They will see me there” (Matthew 28:6-10, NET)
There is a stage of spiritual formation in the Christian journey that some have called the Dark Night of the Soul. Mine started with my son’s suicide attempt about halfway through my first manuscript and stretched forward over eight long years. In the inky blackness, I sometimes thought my words were dead and gone. At least the ones I could say in the light. But the Word of God is also the Light of God, and He brings life out of death.
He is risen! He is risen, indeed.
And because Christ is risen, we can rise too.
When Jesus the Word of God was nailed to a cross, shame seemed to have won the day. Shame says, there’s no hope. But shame did not realize that He who is the Word is a word transformer. He changes words like death into life, despair into hope, and sorrow into joy. He is the Word! Transfiguration is His unique, inexplicable power.
If Jesus could surrender His life in order that we might live, can we not, as writers who follow Him, surrender our words? Surrendering our words to the Word comes with a guarantee: He is risen, and so we shall also.
When the One on whom they had hung their hopes and dreams was sealed in a tomb, the disciples responded in many different ways. Mary went into fix-it mode, and Simon Peter went back to work. Thomas huddled, doubtful, in a locked room with other disciples as they wondered what to do. Have your writing dreams been sealed in a tomb lately? How are you responding?
Jesus prepared His disciples for what was to come.
“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” (John 16:33, NIV).
What is to come is overcoming, beloved. Place your hope in Him and you will overcome, as He did. Does the stone hang heavy over the door of your writing dreams today? Wait patiently for the Lord, for His rising is as certain as the dawn.
Lord, I will wait for You, for surely You are risen indeed. Amen.
TWEETABLE
Don't miss the other posts in this series!
Audrey is the author of Covered Glory: The Face of Honor and Shame in the Muslim World (Harvest House Publishers), an outpouring of Audrey’s heart to introduce others to the God of Instead. Shame is not unique to the developing world, the plight of the women behind veils, young girls trafficked across borders; shame is lurking in hearts everywhere. Through powerful stories from women around the world, Covered Glory illuminates the power of the Gospel to remove shame, giving honor instead. Available at favorite booksellers: BARNES & NOBLE, BOOKS A MILLION, AMAZON.
Thank you for a prayer worth praying each day: "Lord, I will wait for You, for surely You are risen indeed. Amen."
ReplyDelete