Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Apr 20 - 33 - John 14:1

"Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Trust in God; trust also in me."

John 14:1

Bible Rank: 33

I am a pastor. In part that means that I am a counselor. And that means, I deal with a lot of trouble hearts.

At the heart of much guilt, doubt, worry, and despair is the fact that many good Christians don’t really trust God. Wait. Let me clarify that. Many good Christians, I should say, trust God with their head … but not with their hearts. Intellectually they know the promises, but when life gets hard and disappointments mount, their hearts are painfully troubled.

Have you ever been there?

The antidote is trust. If we really believe God is powerful and personal, that he loves us and wants the best for us, trust is easier. But in a world that contaminated so profoundly with sin and death (sin’s consequence), we sometimes struggle to see God’s goodness when so much pain surrounds us. Thus, we believe with our brains, but we guard our hearts because we don’t want to be disappointed again … and again … and again.

God knows this. And he doesn’t judge us for it. Rather, like the Son of God did in this passage, our Triune God yearns to encourage us. Lighten us. Bless us. And set us free.

Thus, heaven screams, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God.” Why? Keep reading. Jesus, while prophesying his death, talks about heaven, saying, “I am going away to prepare a place for you … And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”

And here’s the question? Do you believe this? Do you trust that no matter what this world can throw at you, something better is coming?

When we truly believe that God is in control and he has a plan to conquer even death, when we believe (as the next verses suggest) that Jesus is truly “the way, and the truth, and the life,” then the troubles of this earth get remarkably smaller.

I know, I know. This life is hard. And from time to time (and sometimes for weeks and months and years and even decades) your heart is troubled. The antidote is trust.

And I know … that’s hard … especially when you’ve been knocked down. But the alternative is worse, isn’t it? Bondage. Darkness. Despair. Please God, help my troubled heart trust in you.

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who knows trouble

(and has caused some too)

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