John 16:33

"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."

It has been a long time since I have written on this. I will admit, I don't have anything particularly epic or profound to say. I also don't feel any specific urging to write a specific piece like I would normally feel to write a blog post or whatnot. Instead, I just feel like it would be good for me to write something, and maybe something that I need to hear myself. In essence, I am the intended audience of this piece. Maybe you can get something out of it too.

Christ died for our sins. That much I believe. Those who believe that are promised eternal life. This too do I believe. Where does that leave us in this life though. What about right now? For right now, Christ promises us trouble. It is not that we might have trouble, we WILL have trouble.

Most of the time when I think about this I think of external trouble, someone dying, being faced with a tough decision, being hurt by someone, etc. Over the past little while in my life though, I am beginning to look at it as not just external trouble, but also internal trouble. Not just for the trouble that others cause us, and circumstances cause us, but the trouble that we cause ourselves.

We are all sinful and unclean and all fall short of the glory of God, so we are told many times in the Bible. I think what Jesus is also telling us here, is not only will we face persecution and struggle from the outside, but we will also face it on account of our own sin. Think of 3 mistakes you've made, not just in your life, but in the past month, the past week, even the past day. How did these mistakes negatively affect your life? Did they get you into a difficult situation? Did they cause you heartache and pain? Did they harm you in any way?

I feel like in this passage, Christ is offering us peace. We will not always have this peace, because sometimes we reject it. But when we allow Christ to put himself into our lives, and when we take the focus off of ourselves and place it on Christ, he can fill us with His peace in any situation we create for ourselves. Any situation. Any situation. I feel like I need to just keep saying that to myself over and over....

Not only do we have peace though, we can take heart, that Christ has overcome the world! We are baptized into death with him, and so also experience new life with him and we too overcome the world! We conquer the world. In fact, we more than conquer the world! "In all things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." (Rom 8:37) (video coming soon, check back)

Grace, and PEACE to each of you through Christ our Lord, regardless of what you face, of what you do, of how bad it is, Christ loves you, and His is a love that really does triumph over all.