“Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). You can have peace when there is no conflict, but peace in the midst of conflict is difficult. Amidst things swirling all about us, disturbing us to the core, to that Jesus speaks. “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
Unending controversies from Washington shake our trust and feeling of security. What news reports can we trust? Does it make a difference anyway? The government is to be a servant to us for good, Romans 13:4, but partisans don’t agree on what’s good and what’s to be punished. Can God save the state? “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
Maybe your heart is burdened with family problems. Home is to be a secure place, a safe place, but it may be conflict in the closest relationships, perhaps financial stress, maybe emotional health… You literally feel the weight. “Oh, blest the house whate’er befall”? “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
“The rate of technological change is now accelerating so fast that it has risen above the average rate at which most people can absorb all these changes. Many of us cannot keep pace anymore.” (Thomas Friedman, “Thank You for Being Late,” 31) Routines are disturbed by change. We cannot envision the future for ourselves or our children. “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
Let faith be your calm. “Believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1). Things troubling you are things of sight, of sense, of flesh. Faith is different; it’s heart hanging onto the promises of Jesus. “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3). “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
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