365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 210: Overcomer

Overcomer

“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)

It may seem strange, but one of my favorite sentences in the entire Bible is this one from John 16:33: "In this world you will have trouble."

I find it comforting because it reassures me that if I'm feeling like I'm "having trouble," it's not just me being my usual over-reactionary self.

You cannot get a more credible confirmation than the Word Himself, so if Jesus says, "In this world you will have trouble," it's not just my imagination if I'm feeling the truth of that.

But..

Of all the tide-turning, circumstance-shifting "buts" of Scripture, this has to be one of the most powerful. "In this world you will have trouble." Jesus minces no words here. "But take heart!" With these words, He shifts from acknowledgement to action.

To "take heart" means to derive courage from some fact. Some fact. Not some wishful thinking or some possibility, but from a fact. And the fact from which we derive our courage in the face of certain trouble in this world is that Jesus has overcome it. Overcome.

For many years at family Sunday dinners and celebration meals, we used my parent's wedding china: white with gold edging. (I promise: this really does relate to the name of God at hand.) The silverware set that went with this china came with a fancy gold candle snuffer...a long-handled object with a somewhat bell-shaped end that could be put down over a candle flame to extinguish it. We were not the sort of family that burned candles on a regular basis, so the snuffer rarely got used. One year, though, on my birthday, I took a proactive stance against YET ANOTHER picture of me blowing out my candles, my cheeks puffed out in truly humiliating fashion. That year, after my family sang to me and someone waited to capture the (in)famous shot, I whipped the candle snuffer out from its hidden position behind my back and calmly and rather smugly put out each candle.

The Overcomer does not just puff on the flame of trouble and make it flicker a little; He snuffs it out entirely.

I know that and love that, but maybe I'm not alone in this nagging question: how does the fact that Jesus has overcome the world do me any good? Why should that help me "take courage"? I mean, good for Him, but I'm still living on this troubled earth. One answer, maybe, is because when we are in relationship with God, we get in on His power. We get in on His strength. When we die to ourselves, He lives in us. He moves into our hearts and brings His overcoming power with Him.

"In this world you will have trouble." I don't have to work very hard to hear in my mind some of you saying, "That's for sure." But—"but"—here's what else is for sure: God's story never ends with trouble. And the day when it's over for good is coming. Hold on, and take heart.