Because this is the season that we think of snow, Christmas trees, jingle bells, and joyful music, it is also a time of sorrow for many people as they try to maneuver through the holiday festivities both financially, mentally, and time-wise.

The Lord has laid it on my heart this morning to encourage you. We all need this encouragement from God’s Word, and to be reminded of just how much He loves us. We are not alone, He has prepared us for living in this world where troubles abound. I was reminded as I attended Bible study, a worship service, and on another occasion, a worship-in-song service of just how much God loves me and has provided all that I need to live in this troublesome world.

My attention was drawn to the last day Jesus had with His disciples before He was led to the cross. Meeting with His disciples this is what He told them: “In the world, you will have tribulation. ” But He also gave an answer to overcoming the troubles of this world: “In Him we can find peace.”

”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.” John 16:33

To set the stage for this scripture, Jesus spent the last night with His disciples before His crucifixion. He related to them that He would be taken, persecuted, and killed. This is not what His disciples wanted to hear because they had walked with Him and knew His power and presence. They believed He had come to save the world in the physical sense of the word. After spending three years seeing His miracles and walking with His teachings, how could they understand that He was going to be put to death by His own Jewish nation? Jesus not only prepares them for His death but also about His life after death with God, His Heavenly Father.

Along with the knowledge of the coming death of Christ, John records that the Lord gave them hope through the knowledge of a Comforter or Helper. I wonder how they grasped hold of all the instructions and assurances that He told them that night.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.” John 13:34, 35.

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me….If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:1-3

John records that Jesus explained to the disciples that He was in the Father and the Father was in Him and that whoever believes in Him will do greater things because He is going to be with the Father and He assures them that if they ask anything in His name that they will receive it. John 14:12-14

Sometimes we take that particular verse and use it to go to the Lord in prayer for our needs, but this isn’t what the Lord was talking about. He was submissive and committed to doing God’s Will, God’s Way. He was telling the disciples that whatever God wanted them to do, Jesus would see that the Father gave them what they needed to accomplish God’s Will, God’s Way just as He was submitting to the Father.

Then Jesus tells them that if they love Him, they will keep His commandments and that He would ask on their behalf that the Father provide them with a Helper.

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” John 14:15-17

You can use the following scriptures to see all the ways in which the Helper, The Holy Spirit, has been provided for you and me to equip us with the ability to move through this season, this world, or any given situation. We can know that we have the tools and the assurance from the Lord that we can overcome because we know the Overcomer.

(To know God’s Will, Ezekiel 36:27; Leads according to God’s will, Psalm143:10; Our Advocate, John 14:6; Our teacher and reminder of the Lord, John 14:26; A witness and testimony of the Lord and God, John15:26; He is given as a promise of our inheritance, Acts 5:32; He is the channel through which God’s love is poured into us, Romans 5:5; He gives the power of hope, Romans 15:13, He helps us to know the thoughts of God, I Corinthians 2:11, He abides in us forever, I Corinthians 6:19-20)

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” I Corinthians 10:13

That way to that Peace is through Jesus Christ, His Son who is the propitiation for us from unholy to holy before the heavenly Father. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'” John 14:6