"I hear what you're saying about overcoming trouble, but it sure looks like things in my life are getting worse instead of better! What's happening here?"
Well, what's happening is exactly what Jesus said would happen. Remember, He said in John 16:33, "In the world ye shall have tribulation."
When Jesus speaks of "the world," He is referring to the world's system of values and the world's way of doing things. And He says that as long as you are living in the world, in the world system, you are going to have trouble.
Don't be surprised when trouble shows up, because according to Jesus, as long as you are in the world—and particularly as long as you are operating according to the world's system—trouble is going to come.
But Jesus also says in that same verse: "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace" (John 16:33). Now, what is He speaking? He's speaking words.
He says, in effect, "The words I have spoken unto you have given you peace." So I submit to you right now that peace comes from hearing the words that Jesus has spoken. Peace comes from the Word of God, from the Word system, from God's way of doing things.
Jesus makes it clear in John 16:33 that in the world system, you're going to have tribulation. But in the Word system, you're going to have peace.
Therefore, you have to choose which system to operate in while you are living in this world. As born-again believers, we are in this world, but we are not of this world. We live physically in this natural world, but we don't operate according to the system of this world. We operate according to the system of the Word of God, which produces peace.
But if, according to Jesus, we are going to have tribulation and trouble as long as we live in the world, how are we supposed to deal with trouble? How are we going to have peace when all this trouble is coming against us? What did Jesus mean when He said, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).
That seems like a strange thing to say, doesn't it? Right in the middle of telling us we're going to have trouble, He says to be of good cheer—or as we might say, "be joyful" or "get happy," because I have overcome the world.
What's the significance of Jesus' having overcome the world? Well, if Jesus has overcome the world, He has given us, His children, everything we need to overcome the world.
Jesus expects us to learn how to overcome trouble. In Matthew 24, He tells us that even in the midst of the worst kind of trouble, we are to see to it that we are not troubled:
Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers