Why Do I Keep Looking for God in a Place He Already Moved Out Of?

By Angela D. Thomas, DrPH, MPH, MBA

You keep looking for God in the tomb because you're still living in Friday when He already moved you to Sunday. He isn't in the dead thing you keep going back to. He is risen, He is already ahead of you, and the first step is to stop grieving at a grave He already walked out of.

Let me talk to the woman who is still standing at a grave. Something died. A marriage, a dream, a version of your life you were sure was coming. And you keep going back to that spot, bringing your spices and your oils, tending a body, mourning a thing that is already over. I understand it. But I need to tell you what the angel told the women that Sunday morning.

Come with me to the tomb.

What Really Happened on Resurrection Sunday?

Jesus was crucified on Friday. A believer took His body, wrapped it in expensive linen, and laid Him in a brand new tomb nobody had ever been buried in. The Sabbath came, everybody rested, and early Sunday morning some women got up while it was still dark and went to that tomb. They came loving Jesus. They came with spices and oils to care for His body. Their hearts were in the right place. But their hearts were pointed at the wrong day.

Because there was an earthquake, and an angel rolled the stone away, and the guards shook and became like dead men. And Luke 24:5 (NKJV) says, "Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, 'Why do you seek the living among the dead?'" Sit in that question, because it is being asked over your life right now. Why are you looking for something alive in a place that was built for the dead?

Stop Camping Out at Friday

Here's what got the women stuck. It was already the third day. It was already Sunday. But they were still emotionally parked on Friday. They were still operating off of what they saw at the cross instead of what He promised them at the table. They came to manage a corpse when He had already told them He would rise.

That is so many of us. God has moved. The season has already turned. It is Sunday in your life and you are still setting up a chair at Friday's tomb, because Friday is what you saw with your own two eyes, and Sunday requires you to believe something you have not seen yet. So you keep tending the dead thing. You keep going over and over the details of what happened to you. And all the while, the living God is standing behind you asking, why are you still here?

What Does the Bible Say About Getting Unstuck From the Past?

It says remember. Luke 24:6 (NKJV) says, "He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee." The angel did not hand them some brand new revelation. He reached back and reminded them of an old promise. The word they already had in their hands was the very thing that could pull them up out of that graveyard.

That is your way out too. When you are stuck at the tomb, the enemy wants you rehearsing the death. God wants you rehearsing the promise. What did He tell you before it all fell apart? What did He speak over your life back in your own Galilee, before the disappointment, before the diagnosis, before the papers got filed? Go get that word. Because the same God who allowed it to be Friday already scheduled your Sunday, and He does not lie.

And hear me clearly, I am not asking you to pretend Friday did not hurt. It did. Those women were not silly for grieving, they loved Him. But grief was never meant to become your permanent address. You are allowed to have loved the thing you lost and still refuse to move into its tomb and set up house.

And hear me, our whole faith is built on this. 1 Corinthians 15:14 (NKJV) says, "And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty." Everything we believe hinges on a tomb that came up empty. If He can walk out of a grave, He can walk your dead situation out too. So quit decorating a tomb He already vacated.

The Reveal Is Still Happening

Here's the beautiful part, and it sets up everything we're going to talk about this week. After He rose, Jesus did not just disappear up into heaven. Acts 1:3 (NKJV) says He "presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days." Forty days. And in the Bible, forty is the number of testing and transformation. He spent forty whole days revealing Himself, over and over, to person after person, because He was determined that they would believe.

He is just as determined about you. He is not done revealing Himself in your situation. But you cannot receive a Sunday reveal while your face is still buried in a Friday grave. So lift your head. Stop seeking the living among the dead.

Take this to the Word yourself. Matthew 28:1-10, Luke 24:1-12, 1 Corinthians 15:14.

What This Means for You

What dead thing have you been going back to tend, when God has been trying to show you He already moved you to Sunday?

This is the first post in a five part series called The Awesome Reveal, where we walk through the forty days Jesus spent revealing Himself after the resurrection and learn what it teaches us about seeing Him today. Next up, why God can still use you even when you are scared out of your mind.

I teach God's Word weekly inside the SheShed Community, and this is exactly the kind of teaching that hits different when you're in the room for it. The replay of this teaching, “The Awesome Reveal,” is available inside the community as well. Come sit with us.