Encouragement for Your Week: August 17-23
This Week’s Verse
“All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.”
—Revelation 21:7 (NLT)
Devotion
In this week’s verse, the Apostle John tells us that those who are victorious will receive the blessings described earlier in the chapter. These include living with God in the New Jerusalem, a city on the new earth under a new heaven. It will be a place with no more death, pain, or tears. People there will also be able to drink freely from the water of life. These blessings don’t cover everything about this new future, but they give us enough to know that it will be completely different—and completely good.
But who are the victorious? In John’s writings and throughout the New Testament, spiritual battle is a common theme. The victorious are those who have overcome the evil one. As 1 John 2:13 says, they have “won [their] battle with the evil one.” Revelation 12:11 explains that they have conquered “by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony.” This means they overcame through their faith in Jesus Christ.
In this renewed heaven and earth, God will fully be our God. That doesn’t mean He wasn’t our God before—He has always been God and always will be. But in this new world, our relationship with Him will be fully complete. There will be nothing standing between us and God.
As believers, we are already God’s children. But in the new creation, everything that separates us from Him will be gone. Our identity as His children will be fully realized, and we will never again live as if we don’t belong to Him.
The battles we face in life aren’t pointless. Through Jesus, our victory brings us into the perfect world described in Revelation 21—a place of lasting peace, joy, and closeness with God.
This Week’s Challenge
Each day this week, take a few moments each morning to thank God for one specific blessing that comes from being His child (like His love, forgiveness, or presence). Then, ask Him to help you live like someone who truly belongs to Him—victorious through faith in Jesus. Let that truth shape how you face temptations, challenges, or doubts this week.