Triumph

 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

“Now have come the salvation and the power
    and the kingdom of our God,
    and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
    who accuses them before our God day and night,
    has been hurled down.
They triumphed over him
    by the blood of the Lamb
    and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
    as to shrink from death.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens
    and you who dwell in them!
- Revelation 12:10-12

The kind of triumph that Jesus promises his people is not an easy one. As this passage from Revelation shows, that triumph comes only at great cost. We are accused by the Enemy. We face suffering to the point of death. And yet, there is indeed triumph.

Jesus himself suffered the accusations, the sufferings, and the death. And he secured the final victory - which is why the first thing this passage says about triumph is that it’s “by the blood of the Lamb.”

Today, pause and reflect on the challenges, sufferings, and sadnesses that you face in your life. Remember your Savior and how he’s experienced those as well and ask him to help. Pray for others - here and around the world - who are facing trials, that they might experience Jesus’s triumph in their circumstances.