March 4: Take courage…

I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage—I have conquered the world.”  (John 16:33  NET)

To understand the full meaning of what Jesus is saying here you will have to read chapters 13 to 16. But the main points He made in the previous chapters concerned His resurrection from the dead and triumph over evil, His sending of the Holy Spirit as a Comforter and Helper, and how they were to use the name of Jesus when they prayed. Because of all this, today’s passage tells the disciples that they should be at peace. Though trouble and suffering were all around, they were to sense the peace of Jesus Christ within. Courage should be their response, no matter their feelings or the situation, because Jesus had already conquered the world. He had faced and experienced the worst that the world and the devil could offer, and had still overcome.

The peace that really counts is the peace that exists between us and God. When we have a clear conscience, when we are clearly heading in God’s direction regardless of the mistakes we make along the way, we have the peace and confidence to cry out to God for justice and help. Whenever that peace is damaged by sin and disobedience, whenever we are not heading in God’s direction, but living for ourselves or for the world, there is no peace between us and God. Our prayers are weak; we have no certainty of God’s answers; we experience trouble and suffering on the inside.

Remember that the flipside of peace is war, just like the flipside of love is hate. Peace can only exist when we are ready to go to war to defend it at any moment, and love can only exist when we hate whatever tries to interfere with that love. If we try to be peacemakers all the time, even with the devil and sin, whatever peace we achieve will be ungodly and weak. That is not true peace at all.

Do you have the wonderful peace that the Lord Jesus speaks about in this passage? His peace will make you strong and empower you to conquer all enemies and situations.