A Facebook memory popped up, showing me a picture of my triumphant five-year-old when she’d won a fun and competitive game of Snakes and Ladders. I’d tagged my brother and sister in the post because we’d often played this board game when we were kids. Snakes and Ladders is based on a game that’s been played for centuries, helping people learn to count and providing the thrill of being able to climb a ladder and win the game by getting to 100 the fastest. But watch out! If you land on spot 98, you slide far down a snake, delaying—or even prohibiting—victory.
Isn’t that just like life? Jesus lovingly prepared us for the ups and downs of our days. He said we’d experience “trouble” (John 16:33), but He also shared a message of peace. We don’t have to be shaken by the trials we face. Why? Christ has overcome the world! Nothing is greater than His power, so we too can face whatever comes our way with “the mighty strength” He’s made available to us (Ephesians 1:19).
Just like in Snakes and Ladders, sometimes life presents a ladder allowing us to happily ascend, and other times we get tripped up by something slippery. But we don’t have to play the game of life without hope. We have the power of Jesus to help us overcome it all.
By Katara Patton
REFLECT & PRAY
What challenges do you need help to overcome today? How can focusing on Jesus’ power in overcoming life’s trials and troubles encourage you?
Dear Jesus, thank You for the reminder that You’ve overcome the world! Help me to rely on Your power to handle the ups and downs of life.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
John 13-17, commonly known as the Upper Room Discourse, contains a detailed recounting of what took place as Jesus shared His last Passover meal with His disciples. In the upper room, Christ revealed a great deal about His own mission, His relationship to the Father, and particularly what would happen in the next few hours of His life. He predicted both His betrayal by Judas (13:18-30) and Peter’s denial (vv. 31-38). Perhaps most significantly, Jesus told His disciples that He’d be going away and returning to the Father, but He would send a Comforter, the Holy Spirit ( 14:25-27). Amid stress and turmoil, Christ offered comfort. He said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (16:33).
J.R. Hudberg
Our mission is to make the life-changing wisdom of the Bible understandable and accessible to all.
