“Be of good cheer”, He said. [John 16:33]; “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Who is this, a man; a human being, that can command the wind to be still, and it obeys? A Son of Man, Who one day will defeat the amassed armies of the world with the tempest of His breath. He is our only Path to salvation, to peace in troubled times.
He came to the earth in the guise of a lowly Son of a carpenter, an itinerant preacher with a new message, to which only a select few would ever listen and heed. He brought a Gospel into a sinful and wicked world and open to all, but meant for a precious few – a people He knows well, to whom He referred as His called, chosen, and faithful. They would come to Him to hear His beautiful message of peace, of eternal life in unimaginable paradise, a place where we can believe angels sing with voices that transcend human senses, piercing the veil of emotion, with sounds that reverberate through a universe unknown to any but those to whom God has given furtive glimpses. They come today as they did when He spoke inspirational messages with a human voice. They are rewarded with a powerful promise that, if accepted, shall carry their human experience and guide their souls through their entire journey here.
Why is it so important to Him that those to whom He so generously and graciously endowed with an earnest curiosity of – and attraction to – His Way, as though drawn by a great celestial magnet towards an incomprehensible eternity? Why? Because He is graced by the Father, the Creator of all, with an iteration of love we scarcely imagine. Would that He in His abundant grace allow us, His chosen, to learn, to know, to feel but a tithe of His love? For after all, He IS love. Thus it is only when we know Him that we can know love. How so? [Matthew 5:8]: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
We know from His word that we must strive toward a spiritual love for Him [John 4:24]: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.“, a love only reserved for those who might wrest away from this human condition which restrains, such love as shall come endowed to manifest in our very souls. But only when we decide to lift our eyes from the vanities that ever threaten to obstruct our promise. The table dressed for carnal satiation cannot appeal to the appetite of the chosen. His Celestial love ever eludes the hearts of those with worldly eyes. We must resolve to pursue the Nazarene, the carpenter’s Son wherever He directs our path and never doubt His Word.
When He admonishes us to be of good cheer, then it becomes our objective to strive with every fiber of our heart and soul to be of good cheer. Although He understood well the malevolent world of seemingly endless tribulation we find ourselves striving to overcome, the much beloved Son of God would not have wasted His precious breath telling us to do something beyond our ability. Even in a world full of wickedness with dark talons of despair clawing at our very hearts, we can yet be of good cheer – but only in His blessed Presence. Only with that tithe of His incomprehensible (for now) love – for Him and for our fellow travelers. Only with the assurance that He indeed overcame this same evil world that we must find the courage to overcome ourselves, possible only because He overcame it first. When we obtain this incredible victory, when we have trudged up to the crest of the seemingly impossible mountain, then rest assured – we can and will be of good cheer.
As one of His called, chosen, and faithful, you can do it. Believe.
May the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us.
MK