By Jordan Wheeler, 4.12 Leadership Training Program Coordinator
1 John 5:4 ESV
“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. “
I have needed faith recently to overcome the world. 2020 has been a year that has challenged everyone in almost every way: financial struggles, hope in politics for the soul of the nation, a global pandemic that has caused unrest that has not been seen in years. Though these are only a few things that have happened and are taking place, there has been a huge question of, “where does faith belong in all of this?”
Faith is a word that can have many meanings, but for the Christian, a true follower of Jesus Christ, it is the very hope of the victory that we live in each in every day.
I usually am one to worry about paying for the semester of college but over this past summer when I served at camp the Lord provided in amazing ways to be able to pay for this semester in full! Recently, as well, my mom had a health emergency and I found that it was my faith that kept me looking to a time where death and sickness are no longer present.
My faith is found and grown in each of my quiet times with the Lord, as I go into my classes at Moody, as I engage with those closest to me in these tumultuous times. My faith in God is what has given me the ability to look beyond the façade of this world and grant me the confidence of overcoming the hopelessness. I take my confidence in my faith as a motivator to not grow weary but as a continual living hope of Christ. Therefore, if Christ has overcome the world, and I have Christ indwelling in me, then it would stand to reason that the faith in Christ I have overcomes the world as well.
This is not the faith that I can boast of finding it myself, but it was solely the working of the Holy Spirit that has given me the faith through the work of regeneration. We then glory in the work of the Lord.
Let us then as Christians be bold in our daily lives understanding that because we are born of God that the victory is ours through Christ. Be not worried saints, the Lord who calls you will not leave nor forsake you. He is the author of our faith, that has indeed overcome the world. I have found that some applications to this can be really easy, one is to not let oneself be overcome by the worries of this world.
I am thankful that I have the privilege of serving at the 4.12 Leadership Training Program Coordinator. I regular get to help students move from fear to faith.
