Yielding to God’s wisdom means yielding our ideas to God’s.

You have probably heard someone invite a person to church saying, “Your life will be so much better if you just get involved.” Maybe you’ve heard someone say something like, “God wants you to have the best life possible. You need to come to church with me.”

Truthfully, I’ve probably said things like that to people in the past. Sometimes our good intentions or personal experience stand against the truth of God’s promises.

I often use John 16:33 to teach people that the actual promise of Scripture is that our earthly lives will have troubles—tribulation. Those words were spoken by Jesus to his disciples, and they are just as true for his disciples today. Sometimes our faith brings trouble to our earthly lives, with children, spouses, and friends. I’ve known people whose friends said, “I liked you better before the whole church thing.”

There are two great truths of John 16:33 that are sometimes missed in the reading. Jesus taught his disciples some hard truth in the upper room. He told them he would die, but that a Helper would come. He told them one of them would be his betrayer, and he said many other things about what would happen to their lives after his death. Then he told them, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.”

John is the only Apostle believed to have lived a long life and to have died a natural death. His life was full and blessed, but it was also very difficult at times. When John authored the gospel that bears his name, he made certain we would have these important words from Christ. John knew the truth.

Jesus came so that we could have peace in this world because we could live our lives “in Christ.” Jesus came to be the sacrifice for our sins so that we could live each day confident of our forgiveness. The Spirit of Christ came to indwell our lives so that we could know we had been saved; we are “in Christ.”

John wanted us to know and have great hope, even during the trials of life. If we are in Christ, we have hope eternal because Jesus promised, “I have overcome the world.” We can offer people the great hope of eternal life if they are “in Christ.” We need to be cautious about offering them anything but “the peace that is ours in Christ” and the eternal hope that is ours when we leave this life.

The best earthly life is a blessed earthly life, whatever those blessings turn out to be. Our ideas and experience may not be someone else’s story. The most profound comfort is found in the truth of Christ’s words to his disciples in the upper room. Jesus said we would have troubles in our lives but that we can always trust the promise of our lives eternal.

Yielding to God’s wisdom is our spiritual strength. Yielding our words to God’s biblical wisdom will equip you to share his truth with others.