Beloved,

I was recently reading through several letters that Martin Luther wrote to people who were mourning the death of a loved one. One line, in particular, caught my attention. It was from a letter Luther wrote in 1528 to a woman whose husband had attempted suicide and then died later on. He wrote to the widow, "It should comfort you to know that in the hard struggle in which your husband was engaged, Christ finally won the victory."

We too face many hard struggles: death, health, finances, relationship issues, and, of course, our own sin. And the devil will use these struggles to attack our faith. He will point to our current situation as evidence that God's promise isn't enough, and try to put something other than Christ in our hearts. But that's a bald-faced lie. All the devil has, after all, is a lie. You have Christ's word, "Take heart, I have overcome the world," and Christ cannot lie. Even if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself (1 Timothy 2:13). You, who are baptized into Christ, have the certain hope that Christ has already overcome sin, death, and the devil for you. It should comfort you to know that in every hard struggle you face, Christ has already won the victory for you. Grace and peace to you, Pastor Raleigh