"But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Peace, in my mind, is having no trial, no hardship, and no pain.  It is what I seek after.  I desire to make it through this life peacefully, without too many hiccoughs, and to die in peace.  It is what I pray for; health for my body, a good day, and God's protection over my body, family, and our lives.  My prayers often sound like this:

Dear Heavenly Father, I love you so much and I thank you for this beautiful day.  Help me to have a good day and to get done all the things I have to do.  Help us to get along with each other and for the children to have good attitudes.  Thank you for protecting us and for giving us good health.  In Jesus Name, Amen

It is a good prayer in and of itself and covers all of the things to which I gauge whether a day has been blessed and good.  However, where does a prayer like that leave me when I don't get everything done, Rob and I don't get along, I endure bickering children, and find out that I have some health issues.  It leaves me in a place of doubting God and His ability to protect me.  How can He love me so much and yet allow hardship in my life?  A prayer like this is missing the point.  It is focusing on my physical life and not on my spiritual life. 

I love to read those verses in the Bible that have such awesome promises, such as:

Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

and

Romans 8:31 "What, then, shall we say in response to this?  If God is for us who can be against us?"

I love those verses!  However, I have been understanding them through the eyes of the world, physical eyes, not through the eyes of Jesus.  I misinterpret them to say,

"And I know that because God loves me, He will not allow anything bad to happen to my body, my family, and my home."

and

"God is for me, so I should never be hurt or suffering.  No one should ever do anything bad to me."

Oh, how short sighted I have been!  But praise God, that He has the ability to change my perspective to His!

Jesus never promised us a life free of pain, turmoil, sickness, death, grief, insults or hardships.  (John 16:33) 

By the way, when I looked up this verse, I went back a couple of chapters in John and read those too.  It is awesome what leads up to this passage, and probably is the point to all of my ramblings!  In the chapters prior to chapter 16, Jesus is talking to His disciples about His peace and abiding in Him.  And that is the whole point here!  When we abide in Jesus Christ, fixing our eyes on Him, resting in Him, trusting Him, listening to Him, obeying Him, then it does not matter what happens to our physical bodies anymore.  Why?  Because of what comes at the end of John 16:33, "But take heart!  I have overcome the world."

Jesus says that in this life we will have many troubles.  Jesus also promised life and life more abundantly!  (John 10:10)  This is one of those verses again, where I read the Bible through the foggy glasses of world perspective.  I have assumed that abundant life, meant no hardships here.  But that is not what Jesus is talking about at all or what He is promising.  He did not come to give us life to these mortal bodies, but to give our souls eternal life!  It is not our physical bodies that Jesus and Satan have fought over, but our souls.  If we are not abiding in Christ, our minds and hearts steadfast on Him, following His voice, instruction and movement, then yes, the physical pains, trials, and tribulations will overcome our heart and soul causing us to doubt and question the goodness of God.  Possibly even cause us to turn away from God all together.  But, if our minds are stayed on Him, then we will have perfect peace.  (Isaiah 26:3)  Peace that passes all understand.(Philippians 4:7)   Peace that Jesus can only offer.  It is not like the peace that the world offers us.(John 14:27)  It is a peace that causes us to no longer be affected by this physical world.

Our souls and our lives, are held in the palm of Jesus' hand.  If He holds us, then there is no fear of this world or the pain that it can bring.  The pain that comes from living in this fallen world will affect our physical body, but it does not have to affect our spiritual bodies.  Our physical bodies will perish, endure hardship and pain, but what does that matter when I have been given eternal life!  There is nothing in this world then, that can separate me from the love of my Jesus (Romans 8). 

The question that we often face, is if Jesus loves us, how can He allow bad things to happen to us.  There could be many answers to this question.  I know for me,  it is through the tough times, that Jesus is often teaching me. So maybe, that is why bad things happen to us Christians.  However, I think it is beyond that.  The question in itself is focused on our physical life and is a self-centered question.  It is not looking deeply into the heart of what Jesus has done for us.  The truth is, bad things are going to happen because we live in a fallen world.  But that should not be our focus anyway.  Our focus should be on Jesus Christ.  When we focus on Christ, then we can be like the Apostle Paul and say "I have learned to be content no matter what the circumstances" (Philippians 4:12) and he went through some pretty miserable circumstances!  I always thought he was some sort of saint!  He could rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice no matter what!  Paul was just like you and me though.  He felt pain, rejection, sorrow, sickness and dealt with persecution that most of us will never have to deal with.  But he got it.  Paul understood that when our eyes are fixed on Jesus, we can endure anything on this earth and even rejoice through it, because we know the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.  The things of this earth are temporary and the trails and struggles we face are momentary compared to the eternal life we have in Jesus. (2  Corinthians 4:16-18) Praise God!

Therefore, we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."  2 Corinthians 4:16-18