Keeping a Good Spirit

Keeping a Good Spirit
Robert Wurtz II

I have spoken these things to you so that you might have peace in Me. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. (John 16:33 MKJV)

As we look around we see this present evil world growing darker by the day. Not that darkness has not always been here because it has. But over time the measures that God has put in place to slow the progress of evil have been circumvented and it seems we are on a fast track to Genesis 6. Jesus has told us plainly; In the world you shall have tribulation. When we think of this passage it is easy to think that He is referring to beatings, stonings, imprisonment, etc., but have you ever stopped to consider that any situation that has the potential of challenging our Christian witness is a tribulation. The Greek word simply means ‘pressure’ and comes from a root meaning ‘to crowd’. 

Challenges to Our Witness 


I have said in the past that no matter how deep the nails went into our Lord’s hands or how deep the tears from the lashings, there was never a point when the probing did not find love. When He was challenged with the silly hypocrisies of men, He responded in a measured way. Even under the most intense challenges, you could still find an undercurrent of love. This is what Jesus meant in part when He said, “I have overcome the world.” Our word here for overcome is the perfect active indicative of nikaō, meaning to be victorious, to conquer. It is always used of spiritual victory in the New Testament. This is what God’s Son does and it is what His ‘sons’ do as well. This is what we are told in 1 John 5:4, For everything that has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. We are not overcome of evil, but we overcome evil with good. e are not brawlers, but gentle. We do not render evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrarywise blessing. In other words, we keep a good spirit in all things.

Keep Smiling
I must say that we all go through difficult and trying circumstances, but we must maintain our love in those times. Paul was thrown into prison but yet could write to the people to rejoice! How? He always burned for God and never allowed circumstances to put down that flame. People are watching us. They want to see our reaction in circumstances. If we act like any other person that has not the Spirit, what does it profit? What is our witness. When things go wrong or we don’t get our way, how do we respond. What does our disposition, tone of voice and facial expression reveal? People won’t always remember why we got upset and acted ugly, but they we generally remember the ugly part. We must always remember this. The enemy wants to prod us into these type of memorable events. We have to be careful.
 Peace in Christ

I have spoken these things to you so that you might have peace in Me. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. (John 16:33 MKJV)

Our Lord wants us to have His peace. He wants us and has called and equipped us to overcome the world, just as He overcame. This is a daily thing. If we wait around for some great tribulation to come we risk missing the daily victories that God has designed for us. How will we ever stand before a Nero or a Pilate if we can’t keep the victory in the workplace or on the internet? What about when we are driving the highways and roads? Do we somehow feel an exemption then? There is never a time for ‘ugly’. The election is coming up as well. How will we act? Can we take a stand for righteousness in the person of Christ or will we make excuses for our so-called righteous indignations? The wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God. (James 1) We have to keep a good spirit. It is our witness and the light we shed on this ever increasingly evil world that makes the difference.  

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Powered by WordPress.com.

Up ↑

Discover more from The Girded Mind

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading