I remember one particular time when I was jumping waves at the shore. I was a boy at the time. I was having a good time when something on shore caught my attention.  (I don’t remember what it was.) While I had my back to the ocean, a large wave hit me from behind. I was totally unprepared. Suddenly, I was swirling underwater with no air in my lungs. I will never forget the feeling of instant panic. I wanted to swim for air, but I couldn’t tell which way was up.

That experience reminds me of the panic we often feel when life’s trials hit us hard. When we don’t know what to do next, a problem turns scary in no time at all. That’s when we need someone who has the power to rescue us.

Easter is a great time to think about God’s greatness because the resurrection of Christ from the dead displays more power than anything else we could imagine. Jesus was not only raised from the dead, He actually raised Himself from the dead. Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus said, “… I lay down My life so that I may take it again” (John 10:17).

Think about Christ’s empty tomb for a minute. Even the way it was made underscores God’s power. It was cut out of solid rock at ground level. The entrance was covered by a large round stone weighing a ton or more. The stone was set in a groove to guide it so that it could be rolled over the opening.  Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell us that after Jesus came out of the tomb this stone was “rolled back.” John, though, adds two fascinating words to describe what happened. The first is a Greek word translated, “taken away.” It means to lift, carry, or bear. The second word is translated “from.” So we know that someone had lifted the stone out of its track and carried it away from the tomb. The door, so to speak, had been “torn off its hinges.” What power! As one man put it, “The heavy, ponderous stone that sealed Jesus in the confines of that rock walled tomb was but a pebble compared to the Rock of Ages inside.”

But how can that resurrection power be used in our everyday lives? One example of a man who used that power is William Booth, the man who started the Salvation Army.  J. Wilbur Chapman, an American evangelist, told the story of how he met General Booth in London when he was past eighty years of age. Dr. Chapman listened carefully as the old general spoke of his trials and the conflicts and the victories in his life. The evangelist then asked the general what he thought was his secret for success. “He hesitated a second,” Dr. Chapman said, “and I saw the tears come into his eyes and steal down his cheeks, and then he said, ‘I will tell you the secret. God has had all there was of me. There have been men with greater brains than I, men with greater opportunities; but from the day I got the poor of London on my heart, and a vision of what Jesus Christ could do with the poor of London, I made up my mind that God would have all of William Booth there was. And if there is anything of power in the Salvation Army today, it is because God has all the adoration of my heart, all the power of my will, and all the influence of my life.’” Dr. Chapman said he went away from that meeting with General Booth knowing “that the greatness of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender.”

If the key to experiencing God’s power is surrender, then Easter should remind us to be completely surrendered to Christ who conquered death for us. My “ocean panic” experience taught me that all I had to do was trust the ocean. It only took a moment for the sea to lift me up to safety so my panic was over. Trusting Christ will lift you to spiritual safety and give you access to His amazing power that will help you through every trial life throws at you. “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

I hope the Easter finds you fully trusting and committed to the One who paid for your sins on the Cross and who conquered death itself. Have a glorious Easter celebration.