Thanks for all the insights. This passage is as rich and deep as any and I like the focus on prayer. FAith is sustained by the Spirit in the midst of all that could erode our faith. Faith transcends circumstances and as a faith grounded in God's love is indestructible. The Kennedy and Bessette tragedy is a contemporary point a sermon can tie to as it shows that a faith overcoming every power is not a faith lived in in a protective bubble, but a faith confronting death.
All death is an occassion to reaffirm the faith that overcomes.
This is so fundamental that we can only attempt in words to speak to its truth and leave its actual benefit to the Spirit. More than a conqueror- only by God's power and through God's Spirit.