Don't you love it when you are having a really hard time, and someone says to you, "Cheer up!" Often you don't even want to hear it things are so bad for you. We have all been there. We are so far down that the only way left is up. Things have to get better, well that is what we tell ourselves and each other anyway. We have a tendency to want to tell the other person, "You just don't understand, and you have no idea how bad I have it.
For Jesus and his disciples things could not have been any worse. Jesus was about to be put to death, and His disciples were under great presecution, and they were going to be dispersed because of that persecution. In that horrible situation, Jesus said, "Be of good cheer!"
John 16:32; "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone, because the Father is with me. 33; These things I have spoken untio you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
Jesus has overcome the world, and we through Jesus will overcome the world also! Isn't that wonderful news!