“I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace.
In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
(John 16:33)
Tornadoes, like the one that came through our neighborhood earlier this year, can cause major destruction in a matter of minutes. How do you find peace when the tornadoes of life come?
(Photo cred: Katey Hearth)
Jesus spoke these words to His disciples in one of their last meetings together. In the hours that followed, Jesus would be severely beaten, mocked, humiliated and ultimately hung to suffer on a Roman crucifix. The disciples’ world was quickly turned upside-down and sideways, simply because they followed a humble carpenter from Galilee.
The same is happening today to hundreds of thousands of Christians around the world.
- In Iraq and Syria, Islamic jihadists known as “ISIS” are forcing Christians to pay up, convert to Islam or die. They’re even spray-painting Christian homes in Mosul, Iraq, to show which buildings can be attacked.
- Evangelical Christians in Ukraine are being targeted for violent attacks by pro-Russian separatists.
- In Nigeria, the Islamic terror group “Boko Haram” has been trying to purge the country of Christians since 2009. Remember those schoolgirls they kidnapped? It looks like they might be using some of those girls as suicide bombers.
The list goes on and on; persecution of Christians is taking place on a worldwide basis. Check out this list our friends at Open Doors USA put together. It’s called the “World Watch List”, and it shows you which countries have the most violence against Christians.
Peace may seem hard to find in this chaotic and often-violent world. When peace is elusive, at least in my case, anxiety is quick to set in. When situations and circumstances spiral out of control, my knee-jerk response is to worry and fret.
“In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
These simple statements a two-fold promise: you will face trials, but you will also overcome them. We often don’t know how the Lord will help us get through a hardship, or when we will see Him act. But, the end result is promised: we will overcome.
When you know how a story ends, it often provides peace to “ride out the storm” and endure whatever challenges come your way. Please join me today in praying for peace and endurance for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.
How do you find peace in the middle of life’s storms? Let me know in the Comments section!
