“In this world you will have trouble.” John 16:33
Jesus wasn’t kidding when he said this to his disciples shortly before his arrest and death on the cross. This world for Jesus, the disciples, and you and me alike, has vast trouble.
“But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Proclaims Jesus in his very next statement. Such a drastic switch of concepts! It causes me to pause and wonder what Jesus is trying to convey to us in just a few sentences. I don’t believe it’s a minor thing, honestly nothing Jesus ever said was!
Present Danger
Throughout history, we have witnessed and recorded an unsafe world. It’s a universal existence the human race encounters. It’s a set of emotions that follow us around settling deep within our bones. We all long for our safety to look different than our reality. The assurance that our homes are secure at night, our finances are enough, our kids will never be hurt or let down, our marriages are pure and lasting, and the deep levels of our being are protected from harm.
I don’t want anything to do with insecurity, neither does the next person. Yet we live in a world that teaches us there is something to fear.
Safety is a big deal in my life personally. I search it out like I would search out chocolate on any given day. I want to know everything will be alright…right down to the smallest detail. If there is a present danger, a hint of danger, or an illusion of danger, my mind is like a bouncy ball frantically pinging around trying to find a safe place to land. Asking how I fix it, where I turn, who can help, do I fight this or flee this, what’s the outcome, and how I prevent injury to myself and the ones I love.
This internal mayhem plays out as we look for security through the muddy lens of the experiences of our lives and others. We don’t have to live long to discover that life experiences and true security don’t easily coincide. And, we also don’t easily forget what happens internally and externally in our world.
Where is our safety then?
If we’re always looking for it, and it’s an ingrained desire of our heart and mind, birthed as a part of our being, shouldn’t it be somewhere to obtain?
Looking Elsewhere
What if in the biblical text of John 16:33, Jesus is telling us that there’s more than pain and fear for us? There’s more than what we physically endure, emotionally feel, and mentally think. Also in existence is a beautiful heavenly truth available to all humanity that counteracts this world.
That truth is this:
Even in trouble, fear, pain, sorrow, anxiety, evil…whatever your mind continues this list with–Jesus is more. In fact, He becomes everything, because He overcame everything. He creates an easily accessible rock-solid place of REFUGE for us, away from the troublesome list above. A refuge completely untouchable to any enemy force, so safe it can never be destroyed or even harmed.
Refuge, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is such:
1.) A shelter or protection from danger or distress
2.) A place that provides shelter or protection
3.) Something to which one has recourse (turning to someone or something for help or protection) in difficulty
Our Call
Mixed into the message of worldly trouble and Jesus’ victory, Jesus calls us to “take heart”: to gain courage and confidence in Him. In His statement, and within life, we have been placed smack dab between the world and our Savior. There is a reason–We have a job to do, a direct calling, a part to play in Jesus’ great rescue.
We are commissioned to take control of our minds and alter our emotions. To direct the course of our lives, by aiming ourselves in His direction. Showing us that only by the power of Jesus given within ourselves, coupled with our drive and determination, and produced through actions of our choice, can we find what safety is and what we truly need.
Jesus overcame all trouble and evil for us. Through His death, resurrection, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, He gave back access to the entire Kingdom of God that we lost in the fall. He places this access and power within us when we choose Him, boldly pronouncing and reclaiming God’s plan for humanity from the start of creation.
So again, I ask the question, where is safety? Where is refuge? Where exists the bounty of everything needed and searched for? The answer becomes quite simple:
It is within us.
Spirit Led
Human beings or dark spiritual forces can ransack our minds, physical bodies, and all emotions. But there is another aspect of us that’s greater than these, and it’s our Spirit. Our God-breathed spirit is untouchable to all things of this world.
Living from our spirit is where we must position our lives if we are to exist in security.
Nothing can touch the deep spirit part of us. No one can infiltrate, and nothing can harm or destroy. This is an eternal safety; far better than this world could ever offer up for us. You and I may not be able to find a complete and secure physical fortress in this world. However, if we tap into our spirit, and park our mind, body, and emotions there, we find true refuge.
Functioning within our spirit we grasp safety is not an earthly place– it’s a heavenly person.
It’s inside us, built from and on God Himself. We further realize that safety isn’t something we have to find or keep by our caution and strength. Safety is freely given to us with complete assurance it can’t be taken away. No second guessing or second opinions needed—our trustworthy Father says it to be so.
Jesus understood this fully. He became our incredible example of how to live this out and desires we live by this assurance too.
The Helper
Jesus never leaves us wandering trying to figure things out alone. He knows we need help. What does Jesus do for us? (besides dying for us and saving us!) He does the best thing He could ever do: He prays. Don’t miss that–the Savior of the world prays to the Father of the universe on our behalf! Jesus continually prays we would receive a life of wholeness and with that, safety: fulfilled by God’s will, protection, and love.
In John chapter 17, right after Jesus’ strong statement in John 16:33 about trouble and His overcoming, a powerful prayer flows from Jesus for our benefit. His prayer here gives us an understanding of the inner direction we are to go in our spirit, to find the safe and abundant life worth living for our body and mind.
Two considerable things are highlighted throughout chapter 17:
1.) Through Jesus’ royal connection and by His shed blood on the cross, we become perfectly one with the Father.
2.) With fully gained access and authority to and with the Father, we receive all glory, power, perfection, and love.
If we are one with the Father and receive all of Him in oneness with us, there becomes nothing left to want, need, or fear!
Safety
When we become adopted into God’s family by the blood of Christ, there’s a separation that happens from the world. We still exist in the world physically, but we are not of it any longer. We no longer belong to the darkness but to the light of heaven. God needs us in this world a while longer yet for His purpose and glory, but there’s a security built in for us while we are asked to remain here.
Jesus wisely prays to the Father, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” John 17:15-16
Spiritually, a royal guardianship is placed over and within our awakened spirit. It is protected. Evil cannot harm, because it is God Almighty Himself manifested in us. Royal guardianship, and oneness with our Father, are there in full authority, we just have to come to understand it, and take hold.
It’s a hard concept to grasp-just how safe we are WITHIN ourselves when we have the All-Powerful, God-breathed Spirit living in us.
I’ll admit I struggle and wrestle with understanding. It wasn’t long ago that I couldn’t understand it at all, and the confusion haunted me. But our great God never stops chasing after us and finding ways to teach us through our biggest perplexities.
By His grace, every day things become a bit clearer.
Truth
The process to take hold of this knowledge of safety lies in knowing God’s truth.
Jesus came to bring this truth to the world and make it known. We are called to search for it. It’s all there in Jesus’ prayers, teaching, example, and life. It’s all there in the entirety of the Bible, every page echoing our Creator is our refuge. The more we search, the more we find. The more we find, the more we feel safe. Our minds, emotions, and feelings begin to align with God in us and stop aligning with the lies and fears of the world around us.
A great mystery unfolds as we search out God. His truth and love that we find inevitably bring about the beginning of knowledge in us. Knowledge of Him brings a relationship with Him. The relationship then fuels trust for us and we turn toward Him. Turning toward Him readies us to seek and find His shelter and refuge. And we are safe. All igniting great respect, awe, and love for our God, as well as the life He gave us here on earth and the life awaiting us in heaven.
Simplicity
The longer I live, the more I realize, that life is quite simple. I’ve tried to complicate it WAY too much. When I stop striving and worrying so much and learn to glean from, and rest in God’s word and mostly His love, then life changes; in every possible way. Safety is built. It’s not in any changes from the physical outside world, but in my spiritual inner being.
Power is within me.
That’s a mighty statement, but an even mightier truth. Power is within all of us who choose Jesus. As the bible states, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one [power] who is in you is greater than the one [evil] who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4
With an eternal matchless power, comes eternal unending safety in the arms of God.
Even if something physically unsafe comes my way this side of heaven, even if evil penetrates this life, the perfect guardian is there to protect the most precious part of me–my spirit and soul, and my eternal life in heaven. He puts up a mighty fortress I can run to, hide in, and know He surrounds and protects. I don’t need to do anything except rest and breathe. To look into the face of my creator, my refuge, and feel the peace of His embrace and protection. Once there, genuine calmness is easy to find and sustain, and the fears of this world melt away.
TAKE HEART!
We can live unafraid, and as overcomers, when we live outwardly beginning from our spirit. We can live safely as we function from the perspective of our spirit. And we can live free to explore, adventure, and go out into this world because it is not our own and therefore cannot own us.
We can because of Jesus. We can because of the Holy Spirit in us. And we can because of our great God who loves us enough that He could not stand to see us live without His safety and refuge.
Come live the powerful life of refuge under shelter and in God’s arms!
It’s not a journey to miss!
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Note: Another man of faith, King David in the Old Testament, understood and lived this before Jesus came to shed light and life to all. David was a man who experienced great trouble on this earth. Psalm after Psalm is written about his place of refuge, inner safety, and place of peace in the worldly storm. It’s worth checking out and applying for further study. It’s worth asking, how did he find this for himself, believe this for himself, and sustain himself within this fortress of refuge? And then dig into it for YOURSELF.
*All scripture reference is NIV version
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