Devotional Blog - Sunday, January 1st

Daily Devotional for Sunday, January 1st

In Tribulation, Trust the Overcomer

John 16:33

“If you make this commitment, do you understand what you will lose? And besides, what will we do if you go? Are there not people here who need you? So, you’re wanting to be a missionary and you will ask people to support you? Let me wrap my mind around what you’re saying you’ll do. It’s like if I say, I’m going to buy hamburgers for everyone so they need to pitch in the money. If they do, then I go. If they don’t, then I don’t go. Is it like that?” —Memoirs of a Missionary, Glen Knight

It hasn’t been easy and it still isn’t. Being a missionary, I mean. From the earliest of my time overseas, I have often wondered how things might have been if I’d not made the decision to go and the commitment to stay on the job. Not only would my life have been different, but so also would the lives of my family. My children grew up, being missionaries. My wife lived and ultimately died a missionary. And I, now well into retirement age, can see no end to the work. Thankfully, The Lord has provided yet another blessing in my second family who, like my children before, have joined the missionary effort, bringing new gifts and energy as well as young children once again into the work. I am blessed.

Jesus spoke of tribulation in the world, which we understand as trials. We view that as a “testing of faith,” James 1:2-4. But what is important to understand are the things Jesus said before and after the fact of tribulation. Essentially, trusting in Him we have peace and thus, through His overcoming power, we can be happy!