Overcome.

Life is an interesting thing. It's full of beauty and goodness, but also full of great misery and sadness. And everyone of us will go through each of these seasons in our lives on earth.

Somehow, we tend to focus more and place a greater emphasis on the difficulties we face than on the beauty we experience on an almost daily basis.

In John chapter 16, Jesus is about to face one of those moments of great misery. The hour for which He had come was here, He was to suffer incredible humiliation and pain cumulating in His execution through one of history's most innovative ways of killing, crucifixion.

And as His last moments are approaching, He begins to tell His disciples His last words. And in this chapter, He tells them the things they're to expect to happen to them after He left, the persecution they would face, the grief they were feeling because He was leaving, and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

“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

He told them about the things they were to experience so they would know to draw their peace, not from their circumstances, but from Him.

Because we live in a fallen world, we should not be surprised when unpleasant things happen to us.
But Christ expects us to draw our peace from Him, from the knowledge that He has overcome the world, and if this is true then we have too.

And we should take solace from this.

Life hack for this week: Regardless of your circumstances, draw peace from Christ and His victory.