Jesus said in John 16:33 (NIV), “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.”
Jesus had just finished telling His disciples some things that, at that time, they could not fully understand. But, He didn’t leave them clueless. He made a statement of fact: “In this world you will have trouble He tells us to, “take heart,” or, “cheer up.”
So, when we are lonely or depressed, have doubts about our faith or feel the weight of the world pressing down on us, we are to “cheer up”? This makes no sense until we read our Lord’s last statement: “I have overcome the world.”
We win our battles when we surrender to Jesus who has already fought them for us. We free ourselves when we lay them at the foot of the cross and leave them there. We find peace, in the midst of life’s storms, when we rest in the One who walked upon the water and said, “Peace! Be still.”
1 John 5:4
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.