Bible Society of South Africa
Carina Francke

Your 24/7 Companion – Day 12

He in You … You Conquer in Difficulties

Bible text(s)

19If you belonged to the world, then the world would love you as its own. But I chose you from this world, and you do not belong to it; that is why the world hates you. 20Remember what I told you: ‘Slaves are not greater than their master.’ If people persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours too. 21But they will do all this to you because you are mine; for they do not know the one who sent me.

John 15:19-21GNBOpen in Bible reader

As believers in a broken world, we too experience disappointments, sorrow and persecution. Yes, some of us even lose our jobs, houses and loved ones. In times like these, we tend to question and wonder why our 24/7 Companion does not hasten to rescue us.

Trials should not be foreign to us because Jesus, our leader, also experienced crises: “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” (John 15:20)

Jesus gives a few reasons: He himself was persecuted and because believers belong to the Lord and confess His name, they too will be hated and persecuted. Why? Because the world does not know God or Jesus (John 15:19,21). As seen in the trials mentioned above, life also gives us its (big) share of problems. However it may be though, one of the purposes of trials is to test the genuineness of our faith (1 Peter 1:7). Therefore, the sooner you and I accept the inevitable and learn to handle trials, the sooner we will be able to live victorious lives, despite our struggles.

You see, victory over problems that knock us down is possible. “Yet in all these we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). The Spirit in you and me guarantees that his power will be available to us 24/7, in every circumstance. He is the Light in us who shines even in our darkest hours, who already won the victory for us and who has compassion for us. Our responsibility? To stay put in our faith in him and radiate the light of his word, thus resisting every attack of the enemy on our spirit and sound mind.

Marcelle Auclair said, “If you have to sit in a dark room you do not blame the darkness of the night. No, you take care to have a lamp available. Light a lamp in every dark corner of your heart.”

Jesus is the Light that shines through us and enables us to put the darkness to flight, so that worries and insecurity about today and tomorrow will not blur our vision of victory in him.

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