By: Jack Wyman

A congressman, campaigning for re-election, encountered an irate voter.

“I wouldn’t vote for you if you were Saint Peter,” he angrily sputtered to the politician. To which the congressman replied, “Well, if I was Saint Peter, you wouldn’t be living in my district.”

Tis not yet the season to be jolly. It is, instead, a season of discontent. Our national election hurls down the track of unpredictability, with tight polls swaying side to side, in a country still deeply divided, except on the overwhelming belief that America is headed in the wrong direction.

We live in a world aflame with war. The Middle East is a boiling caldron ever on the edge of a wider conflict, while in Europe, Russia and Ukraine see no end in sight for their struggle between dominance and freedom. Terrorists seem everywhere.

The American people are anxious, angry, and uncertain over many things. No matter what the statistics report, most of us don’t like the economy. We worry about prices, interest rates, and jobs. Are we better off than we were? Will we be better off a year from now?

We wonder what kind of a nation our children and grandchildren will inherit. It concerns us. In a shallow and selfish culture of confusion and expediency we wonder where virtues like truth, honor, and courage have gone.

How is it, many ask, that what was once considered the customary strength of our collective social fabric is now dismissed as obsolete and old-fashioned?

Hope seems a mirage.

You and I are being tested. Our faith is being tested. Our determination and perseverance are being resisted by powerful forces. Doubt and despair assail us. Christians have faced all this before. It’s nothing new. For followers of Jesus Christ, it is the same challenge in every era and for every generation: in difficult days, how can we live with joy and strength?

Throughout the stormy centuries, for the Christian Church, the tension has remained—to be in the world but not of it. Jesus knew this.

“My prayer is not for the world,” Jesus asked his Father, “but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. . . I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. . . Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.” (John 17:9, 15, 18)

Jesus did not pray that you and I would somehow find a way to escape this world, with all its troubles and pain. He asked God to give us the wisdom and courage to live faithful to him in this world.

Being faithful in hard times isn’t easy. We must not let the world squeeze us into its mold. “Be not conformed,” Paul told the Christians living under brutal Roman reign. Instead, they must be transformed. How? Through the renewal of their minds. (Romans 12:1-2)

Clear thinking leads to right living.

You and I are transformed the same way today. By the renewal of our minds. By the power of God’s Holy Spirit within us we must slay the robbers of our souls. Fear, hate, worry, and envy are the fiery arrows the devil flings at us. He takes this fallen world, with all its twisted and vile thinking—with all its inverted corruptions and anguish—and he seeks to wrap it around our minds.

To fear is to question God’s love and guidance. To worry is to question God’s power and protection. To hate is to deny God’s love. It is to deny the faith we profess. To hate is to invite the world to call us haters, which we then become when we choose to hate our enemies.

We begin to think like the world thinks. To fear like the world fears. To worry like the world worries. To hate like the world hates. When we should be thinking Christianly. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)

This is our hope. It is our only hope. It is the only way you and I can live virtuous and victorious lives in these turbulent times. Only by letting the mind of Jesus Christ dwell in us and control us can we successfully, and even joyfully, navigate these dark waters.

Only by following our Savior’s steps, living by his example, obeying his words, and yielding to his purpose can we live triumphantly. Even here, even now.

Jesus told us that in this world we would not have an easy time of it. We would face difficulties, sufferings, trials, and opposition. Knowing this, we might be tempted to give up in futility. But our Lord did not stop there. He told us to cheer up. Why would he say such a thing after warning us of the troubles ahead?

Because he said, “I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) He wants us to have joy and to remain joyful. (John 15:11) No matter what happens. Because Jesus has already won. He has overcome sin, Satan, and this fallen world. The devil still seeks to steal our peace, kill our hope, and destroy our faith. It is his concerted and active agenda.

You and I must remember, and never forget, the evil one is a defeated foe. In sharing this glorious conquest with our risen and living and omnipotent Christ, you and I are victors over the dark domain.

Jesus compared our present trials of this world to birth pains. When the child is born, there follows the joyful celebration of new life. The pain is gone, forgotten, and powerless.

So it is—and will someday be—for all those who have trusted and believed in Jesus. A new heaven and a new earth. A new life. Forever. Cultivate eternity in your heart.

You and I are not defeated. We are victorious.

Let’s live like it.

To order Jack Wyman’s book, “Everything Else: Stories of Life, Faith and Our World”, go to amazon.com, Christian Book Distributors or barnesandnoble.com. It is also available on Kindle and eBooks.

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