How to Overcome the World

Greetings friends!
The scripture I would like to focus on today is 1 John 5:4-5 where the apostle writes,
“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.”
Man, doesn’t that sound good! If you’re born of God, you overcome the world!? What does that mean? You overcome sin, fear, worry, even death! You overcome all the evil schemes and the natural disasters. You overcome the coronavirus and the lies of the devil – you overcome the world! Some of us feel encouraged by this – but for some of us we are certain we are not good enough, that this applies to someone else. 

This is why we desperately need to finish this verse and find out where our victory comes from: “And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” Listen, you do not overcome the world through figuring it all out, or knowing enough, or always doing the right thing, or never doing the wrong thing. You overcome the worldthrough faith! The next verse defines faith for us:

“5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

There it is, the only one who can overcome the world is the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. That’s all, faith in Jesus. Now faith is more than just believing right? It is belief that results in trust. The writer of Hebrews tells us that it wasn’t Abraham’s actions that made him righteous it was his belief, his faith.

So, my message for you today is this: believe Jesus. The more you trust in Christ, the more focused you become on Him the less fear, worry and exhaustion will rule your day. 

Remember when the disciples were on the boat with Jesus when a storm hit. They believed they were going to die and Jesus asked them that silly question, “Why are you afraid? You of little faith.” and then He calms the storm. Jesus was saying, “You shouldn’t be afraid, I am with you.”

I want to tell you that Jesus is asking you that same question today. “Why are you afraid (or worried or exhausted or proud or angry)? You of little faith.” He is saying, “Don’t you know who I am? What I’ve done? The only way you overcome this is by relying on me.” 

So spend some time today reading 1 John 5:4-5 and every time you feel overwhelmed or fearful – choose to believe Jesus. 

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