“Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). You can have peace when there is no conflict, but peace when you’re in conflict is difficult. When things are swirling all about, when you're shaken, Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
Unending controversies from Washington, the world, and in our communities can rob us of a feeling of security. What news reports can we trust? Does it make a difference anyway? Even though governments are supposed to be servants to us for good, Romans 13:4, every day we see partisans and power-players promoting their own interests. Can “God save the state,” as we sing? “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
Maybe your heart is burdened with family problems. Home should be a secure place, a safe place, but there may be conflict in the closest relationships, perhaps financial pressures testing love, wayward children, emotional health… You literally feel the weight. “Oh, blest the house whate’er befall”? “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
Thomas Friedman in Thank You for Being Late, says, “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.” Change disrupts dependable routines. Everything becomes a choice, a challenge. “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. Faith is trust hanging onto the promises of Jesus, hanging on for dear life. “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.”