Take Heart

Take Heart

Read: John 16:31-33

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

“This world is our passage, not our portion.”

—Matthew Henry

IN WORD Jesus has no illusions about human nature. He who came to redeem a fallen race knows that race’s capabilities. He who set His mind on the Cross knows the violence men can do. And nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus promise to shelter His disciples from the brutality of this world. Nowhere does He suggest that they can escape suffering. He offers something infinitely better than escape. He offers an overcoming peace.

All human beings will suffer sometimes. It’s part of living in a fallen world. Disciples of Jesus will have an additional aspect to their suffering: persecution and rejection. Yet Jesus promises peace. How can He do this? How can He say, on the one hand, that His disciples will grieve and know the same rejection that He experiences and, on the other hand, tell them to be encouraged?

IN DEED Seeds are buried in the ground. Caterpillars are confined in a cocoon. Grain is pummeled into flour. But each one has a higher purpose and another world to experience or function to fulfill. So do we. We can easily make the mistake of thinking that God’s primary purpose for us is a matter of our lifetime on earth, while His heavenly kingdom is an afterthought. But the kingdom is the main event. Like the seeds, the caterpillars, and the grain, we are in an elemental form, being shaped by the Father for greater, lasting purpose.

The world is the arena in which we are trained. As God shapes us for His kingdom, He uses many means. One of them is the tribulation that our world naturally dishes out. But our trouble is not meaningless; we can take heart. Peace is found in seeing beyond the training ground that so often distresses us. It is found in placing all hopes in the One who overcomes the world.