“..In this world, you will have trouble. But be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

You’d think Jesus is going to encourage his disciples with some happy-feely slogans, after all, a gruesome death is hours away.

Yet he adds a ‘but’ inbetween sentences for a reason, because he knows reality.

If you never read this article to the bottom, I would understand, because ours is an age of ‘positive confessions’ the hurricane of a fallen world has hit us so hard that we no longer want to think anything terrible.

By default, we are designed to respond with optimism, and fine, it’s our natural reflex, God “has set ‘eternity in the hearts of men.” (Ecc 3:11)

Question is, whose ‘positivity’ shall we embrace, ours, or the God who stretched the heavens? Our version is simplistic, look away and sing, ignore your sin, your repentance, your responsibility, just sing a loud good song, and basing on the ‘volume’ of your song, your woes will vanish.

Jesus thinks otherwise, he gives one reason for humming away while troubles abound, ‘for I have overcome the world.’ This is offensive to our humanistic postivism- the kind that encourages us to simply ‘confess positively.’

Even though we would never know what ‘thinking positively’ is if there was no ‘thinking negatively’, that’s why Jesus uses a ‘but’ here.

Because negativity is real, cancer is real, advice to use your seat belt isn’t negative-its reality, funerals and fibroids are real, faithful believers are breathing their last every minute, some with a Bible by their bedside. Thank God some die hoping in Jesus and a resurrected body!

In fact, our entire salvation is received after a highly negative confession “that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. ” (Romans 6:23)

God’s optimism is majestic, if you are Christian, anticipate the best, especially at the end of the age.

If you experience anything great around here, count it as privilege, not entitlement (Ps 115:3), your sin deserved worse.’…Endure hardship like a good soldier..’ (2 Tim 2:3) exercise “…patience in affliction…” (Romans 12:12)

The worm in our ultra-modern apple is that no matter how long we look away and hum, disease and pain and loss will still abound this side of heaven, some good night wishes will still end in heartache, the latest of model phones will still fall and crack, night will still come.

And don’t hear me beautifying suffering, suffering is not good, that’s why we ‘mourn with those who mourn’ (Rom 12:15), but suffering has value, value our finite eyes we rarely see, ‘count it all joy’ (James 1:2)

It’s near-sighted to only pronounce ourselves about the ‘day’ and pretend the ‘night’ won’t come, because the sun will still set anyway, no matter what precedes out of our mouth. God is sovereign, and we are not.

Of course we are to think whatever is ‘purely and lovely and good’ (Phil 4:8) , but let us not over-rate ourselves by assuming we are in-charge, because only he who has “overcome the world” is, and unlike our reasons, his basis for “good cheer” is better, much better.

‘In this world, you will have many troubles,’ is not unnecessary negativity, it’s a foundation of our ‘good cheer’ – based on the one who has overcome the world.