Scripture – ““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
Observation – Jesus tells his disciples that the Father loves them because they love him (Jesus). He tells them this, so that in spite of all the trouble they will face in this world they can still have peace because Jesus has overcome the world. In other words, they know how this ends, in heaven with Jesus ““Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God ; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.””
John 14:1-4 NIV
Application – One of the major sources of anxiety, stress, fear and disappointment in this world is we have false expectations about how things should be for us. We expect God to fulfill promises that he never made. We have this tension of reading “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future in Jeremiah 29:11 and the verse above that tells us we are going to have trouble in this world. Well, which one is it?? If our hope is that everything will always to well for us we will be disappointed. There are Christians playing on each team in the World Series, there has to be a winner and a loser. You may say to yourselves, that is a terrible example, they are both making millions of dollars and playing in the World Series. I agree, that is a bad example. The point is that God didn’t promise that player a World Series ring, he did promise that when a righteous man falls seven times he gets back up again, he promised that he would never leave us or forsake us, he promised that if we live a Godly life in Christ Jesus we will be persecuted, he promised that if people hate him they will hate us. Take your troubles to God because he also promised that he is close to the broken hearted and he saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Prayer – Lord, help us to get to know you so much that when we do experience trouble we run to you. Amen.
What are you doing? Do it better 