faith unfaded

There’s a word in Scripture that hits me different lately: quickened.

It shows up in Ephesians 2, tucked inside a passage about how we were spiritually dead — not weak, not struggling, not “trying our best” — but dead in trespasses and sins until God made us alive with Christ.

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2:1

But here’s the part most people skip over:

Yes, He makes us alive….but we have to want to breathe.

And that truth didn’t land for me in a churchy way…it landed in a movie-scene way.

I saw this picture in my mind — a scene where someone has been buried alive. You know the kind: trapped, suffocating, pounding their way upward until one desperate hand pushes through the dirt.

Spiritually, that was me.

The enemy doesn’t just tempt us…he buries us — slowly and subtly:

A little compromise here….a little approval-chasing there…a vice that starts out harmless…a desire to be cool…

And before you know it, you’re not just off track —you’re buried alive under an identity the world handed you.

Then comes the moment — the one God had been waiting on all along.

Not the moment you fix yourself…not the moment you clean your life up…not the moment you “finally get it right.”

Just the moment you move…the moment your hand breaks through the dirt.

The smallest inch of surrender.

The slightest “Lord… I can’t stay buried anymore” because THAT is when He quickens you.

Not when you’re strong…not when you’re impressive…not when you’re “doing better.”

But when there’s even the faintest sign of life. Because resurrection is something God offers, but never something He forces.

And when He sees even a fingertip reaching up out of the grave, He grabs hold with resurrection power and pulls you into life.

That’s exactly what happened to me. That’s why “quickened” sits so deep in my spirit.

And maybe — just maybe — it’s happening to you. Maybe you’ve felt buried under expectations, or mistakes, or old identities you’ve outgrown. Maybe you’ve been trying to claw your way out in your own strength and wondered why nothing shifts.

You can’t resurrect yourself….but you can reach.

And the moment you do — the moment your hand breaks the surface —

He’ll meet you there.

He’ll do the pulling. He’ll do the raising. He’ll do the quickening.

Because dead things stay dead…until Jesus walks toward them.