Queensland closed their borders to South Australians on Monday night at midnight because of our new COVID-19 outbreak, and it’s hard to believe that just two weeks ago I was officiating a wedding at Surfers Paradise, and celebrating with my family and friends.

Have you ever noticed how quickly life can take a turn for the worse?

Jesus and his disciples had just experienced an amazing week that started with a great parade on Sunday, where large crowds of people were praising Jesus and calling him the King of Israel, and now, on Thursday night, Jesus is telling them that he is going to be killed.  Not only that, Jesus also goes on to say that his disciples would all abandon him, and that they would also be persecuted because of him.

This would have shaken the disciples to the core, but Jesus encourages them in John16:33 with these words:

“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.”

Peace is something that we normally experience in direct inverse proportion to the troubles that we have in life.  In other words, the more troubles that we have in life, the less peace we experience.  And the less troubles we have in life, the more peace we experience.  But Jesus promises us, that no matter how many troubles we face in life, we can always find peace in him because he has overcome the world.

God bless,

Roland Talamaivao-Amituanai