Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 15:57).

The victory is yours…in all circumstances.  So claim it!  It’s your birthright.  This doesn’t mean that the Christian can never suffer defeat or experience difficult times in life.  But it does mean that Jesus is with you no matter what the situation.  The peace of victory comes in the midst of problems and in spite of them.

The strength for overcoming and gaining victory continually comes from Jesus.  The Bible does not teach that sin is completely removed from the Christian in this life, but it does teach that sin shall no longer reign over you.  So when some temptation comes upon you and you falter and give in to it, bring it to the Cross.  You may not always immediately feel the joy, but it is always available to us.  Remember, Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)

Haydn, the great musician, was once asked why his church music was so cheerful.  He replied, “When I think upon God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap, as it were, from my pen, and since God has given me a cheerful heart, it will be pardoned me that I serve Him with a cheerful spirit.”  I’ll bet Haydn had some difficult times.  But he let the joy shine through his work.

Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled…Believe in me.” (John 14:1)  It was this kind of comfort that enabled a devout Englishman during WWII to look at a deep, dark hole in the ground where his home stood before the bombing and say, “I always did want a basement, I did.  Now I can jolly well build another house like I always wanted.”  Bad circumstance…joyful reaction.

John Wesley had it right when he spoke of how to avoid temptation and become joyful:

Do all the good you can,

by all the means you can,

in all the ways you can,

in all the places you can,

at all the times you can,

to all the people you can,

as long as ever you can.

Billy Graham often mentioned the two shortest verses in the Bible.  He would then combine them to point out that Jesus wept (John 11:35) so that we can Rejoice evermore (I Thessalonians 5:16).  Enough said?