We pause another day on: “in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Being in Him we are in One who not merely will overcome the world, but has overcome it. That means that He has met everything which we have to face—the world of the mind, the world of the emotions, the world of the will. Not once did He cave in. If He overcame that inner world, He overcame the outer world—the world of relationships, of misunderstanding, of hate, of misrepresentation or murder. He overcame the world of group relationships—the world of small-mindedness, of bickering and jealousy, of denial and betrayal. He faced everything, and He overcame everything.
No matter where I turn in this business called life, I face a defeated foe. I do not have to defeat the foe. I simply remain in Him Who has defeated the foe, and I accept His victory as my own. This wipes out all sense of inferiority as I begin. I’m on top in His “on-topness.” It saves me from a sense of pride, for I know that apart from Him I can do nothing; in Him I can do everything. I find myself a surprise to myself. I find myself doing things I can’t do, undertaking things I dare not undertake, and undergoing tests I have no right or possibility to undergo. I am calm when I ought to be agitated. I am joyous when there is nothing to be joyous about. I thrill to this business of living energized by life. I am surprised at Goethe, at seventy-five, saying of his life, “It has been nothing but pain and burden,” and at Luther, when he had grown old, confessing, “I am utterly weary of life.”
THE PRAYER
O Jesus, my Lord, how can I say that while I am in Thee? In myself—yes. In the world—yes. But in Thee—no! I can only dance and sing and praise. If not on account of, then always in spite of. In Thee I overcome in Thy overcoming. Glory! Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY
I am in love with life, for I am in love with Thee.
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