"The Weekly Word"

June 23, 2025 Edition

In me, you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. John 16:33

Jesus offers us this verse of comfort. And on the day, I was typing this, boy did I need it! ON my usual worship planning day, things just were not coming together. I was struggling through planning a worship order, something which normally seems to come naturally to me. I was dealing with Jill having an unsettling morning as she was facing a tough appointment with the doctors and needing to figure out how to best support her through that by phone. On top of that, it came to my attention we needed to make some changes to shorten the worship service I was leading that week.

Gosh friends, my head was spinning. And hey, those weren’t even tribulations, so to speak, they were all things which I would eventually come out on the other side and be okay. I think we all can feel those times when there’s so much demand, one thing after the other, we feel things closing in around us.

Yet no matter how busy or hard things get, I love this verse which reminds us how the peace of Jesus is always with us. Jesus has told the disciples his life will end brutally at this point. Yet he also says, I will be with you and my peace will guard you. And let’s not forget the other part. He says, even as he’s facing death, no trouble in the world can overcome my presence.

So friends, it is so easy to overcome, that word caught me this morning. It can happen for so many varied reasons, and in many different avenues. Yet we are not to let the world, even good things, even work for the Lord, wonderful things! We are to not become so overcome with stuff we or others expect from us, we become so overwhelmed and forget God’s presence encircling, enfolding us.

So be aware friends, the world will never be overcome. Feel the peace of God with you clenched in the life and death of Jesus. Yes, we too will experience many moments of life and death on earth as we prepare for heaven. But through it all let us remember, nothing we experience in a horrible or beautiful light can surpass the perfect presence and pure peace offered by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In him truly, it is well with our souls!

To God be the glory!

Pastor Brandon