Day 85 | I Have Overcome

January 3, 2015 - WEEK THIRTEEN

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi, Christ in the Wilderness, [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

DAILY READING

CONSIDER AS YOU READ

As we near momentous times in our lives (even death) do we, like Christ, focus our attention on what impact it will have on others?
What joy do you think Christ felt knowing that the fears of his followers would be resolved by the Comforter?

SUPPLEMENTAL READING

When, just prior to the great intercessory prayer in Gethsemane, Jesus told Peter, James, and John to “be of good cheer,” such an attitude was certainly not justified because of immediate circumstances. Instead, it was possible because Jesus had “overcome the world.” Contemplate, however, the grim experiences that then lay immediately ahead, scarcely justifying an attitude of cheerfulness. Gethsemane was imminent. So were Judas’s betrayal; the capturing of Jesus, who was Peter, James, and John’s beloved leader; Peter’s disheartening disavowal; and Jesus’ unjust trial. The populace’s chilling preference for Barabbas rather than Jesus would soon echo in the air. The Shepherd would be smitten and the sheep scattered. Then there would be those awful, final moments on Calvary.
Therefore, what, pray tell, was there to be cheerful about? Yet in the face of all of this, Jesus told them to “be of good cheer”!
The glorious, irrevocable, and long-awaited Atonement was about to be accomplished. The adversary had failed to stop it. The resurrection was assured. Death was soon to be done away. Christ had overcome the world—not the reverse….
It remains for us, therefore, to be of good cheer even when, as was the case with the original Twelve, current circumstances seem hopeless. In fact, seemingly sad circumstances may actually reflect implementation, not disintegration. Indeed, the unfolding of God’s purposes may require the collapse of other things….
Someday, when we look back on mortality, we will see that so many of the things that seemed to matter so much at the moment will be seen not to have mattered at all. And the eternal things will be seen to have mattered even more than the most faithful of the Saints imagined (Neal A. Maxwell, Even As I Am, Salt Lake City, Ut.: Deseret Book Co., 1982, 99–101, 104).

ADDITIONAL MEDIA

True Vine

FOR YOUNGER DISCIPLES

To This End Was I
Born—Last Supper

QUESTIONS FOR YOUNGER DISCIPLES

Have you ever thought how it would be to be served the sacrament by Jesus?
In what way does Jesus wash your feet?