33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
How different might one’s outlook on life be if one had absolute confidence that God was with em’...? How differently might one respond to difficulties, temptations, and ‘all’ tribulations if one knew with certainty that God was with them in all of it and was going to walk with them through it...? The first century followers of Jesus had a seemingly irrational faith in the face of random acts of violence, tragedy, persecution...I say irrational because when bad things happened they turned to God for comfort even though they were confident that God could’ve kept those bad things from happening in the first place. Like us, they wondered “why...?”, but they kept believing, and they kept praying...things didn’t always add up, things didn’t always make sense, but...they maintained hope even when they didn’t have explanations. Peter, to whom many bad things had happened, assured them that their hope was not in vain because their hope was anchored to an event, the resurrection of Jesus. And as an eyewitness of both Jesus’ crucifixion and His resurrection, Peter’s words carried weight. They carried weight then, and they carry weight today. Their death-defying confidence in God, fueled by this teaching of Peter, is why while there is no more Roman Empire, there are a great number of Christian churches in many major and minor cities and towns and villages all over the world today. And to the degree that our faith is anchored to what their faith was anchored to, I believe that we too can live with hope that even though we don’t always have good explanations, there is still reason to believe.
