Here on earth you will have many trials and troubles. John 16:33 NLT
Jesus was not the balance of grace and truth. He was completely grace and completely truth. Jesus was not a wonderful blend of mercy and grace. He was 100% mercy and 100% grace. There was never a hidden agenda, never bait and switch. Jesus never promised what He couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver, and He never led anyone to believe that the wonderful life He invited us to live was without cost. In fact, He assures us straight up – life in this broken world will provide us trouble and disappointment. From failed relationships to physical problems and all kinds of derailed and unfulfilled dreams, faithful followers of Jesus also experience sorrow and loss. “In this world you will have trouble,” He said. As my dad used to say, “No one gets through this life without being wounded. And eventually, no one gets out alive …”
That’s the bad news. But there’s incredibly good news too. EVERYONE experiences the troubles and disappointments of life here. No one is immune. But facing them with Jesus makes the ultimate difference. That was the rest of Dad’s sentence: “No one gets out alive without Jesus.” Our perspective is altered when we face them with Jesus. Yes, we can be temporarily disappointed. But it doesn’t change our goal and direction. Jesus followed up HIS sentence with this statement: “But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” No loss, no disappointment, no failure, no grief can ever revoke or rescind what Jesus has done for us. Isn’t that incredible? When we know Him as our Savior, when we choose to follow Him, He is irrevocably committed to us. Nothing will separate us.
Paul definitely knew troubles and trials. But hear his witness:
If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below – indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31, 35-39 NLT
What a perspective! And it’s true. Nothing will ever be able to separate us from Jesus!
- Whatever situation is robbing you of peace and joy today, rethink it through the filter of these verses.