graphic quote: Give God your weakness & He will give you His Strength

Trials &
Tribulations

“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.”

Can you have peace while being in the midst of turmoil?

Jesus made many statements that are paradoxical to the reasoning of man of which John 16:33 is an example:

“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.” 1
‘…in Me you may have peace’ is that which we readily embrace if it were not for the subsequent, ‘In the world you will have tribulation’ which smacks of being the opposite of peace. But the demarcation is that ‘in Me’ versus ‘in the world’. Jesus emphasized this division when He was praying to the Lᴏʀᴅ in John 17,
While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. 2

In Jesus, we are not of this world system even though we for a time live in the world. Our eternal residence is in the heavenlies where God dwells but for a brief time, we live among the temporary. Ever since mankind decided to rebel against God, the temporal has been a battlefield of Darkness against Light, Evil against Righteous, chaos against order and in the sense that we live in the world, the battles rage around us. We are touched by the chaos, tempted by the deceptions, drawn away by the appearances of desirability. Yet, the One we are committed to and who has purchased us from the penalties of sin, has overcome that which conflicts against the Lᴏʀᴅ. Jesus is the eternal victor but until the end of this age, the world is corrupted by the Fall and the presence of sin and evil continues to struggle against all that is Good and True. Satan has been defeated but continues to deny that reality and works to deceive all mankind as to the nature of the fallen world and the righteous God.

Paul in his letter to the Romans expresses the truth that all the embodiments of evil work to deny:

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 3
Paul is a realist and is not saying that everything is good but rather for those in agreement with God, the ‘called according to His purpose,’ God works for the good of His even in spite of the ‘all things’ we may be touched by in our lives with Him. This is that ‘in the world but not of it’ split where we may have the experience of conflict around us but it is not our battlefield and we are not the field general. God uses the trials and tribulations as benefits to bring us through the process of ‘being conformed to the image of His Son’. ‘Image’ is the imprint of the One we are in contact with being impressed into who we are. Trials and tribulations can be used of God as the pressure to fix that imprint into our core being. In ancient time rulers used a signet ring to place the stamp of authenticity onto royal decrees which by its presence showed it was in the image of the owner.
All things are not good unless God is given the rights to use them to bring the outcome of His determination, to imprint His image upon and in the one subjected to the chaos. He is fully able to be our Peace no matter what the chaos around us. If we allow Him full rights to the entire process to accomplish His perfect will.
FOOTNOTES:
1 John 16:33 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/jhn/16/33/t_conc_1013033
2 John 17:12-19 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/jhn/17/12-19/s_1014012
3 Romans 8:26-30 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/rom/8/26-30/s_1054026
 
John 16:33 (ESV) - https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/jhn/16/33/t_conc_1013033
All Scripture references from the Blue Letter Bible, ESV
at https://www.blueletterbible.org
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016, 2025 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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