The doorway to an untroubled heart.

Someone asked me today "What's your favourite verse in the bible?".  That's an easy question; it's John 14:1, which says "Let not your heart be troubled".  

 I have loved this verse for many years now.   It's a great verse, but living out of that place isn't always easy.   I am sure Jesus knew that when he told his disciples.  He was just a few chapters away from being hauled off for his crucifixion. He knew they would face plenty of emotions and trials in the coming days.  

 'Troubled' here refers to being agitated, stirred up.  It speaks of having inward commotion; of losing your mental calmness.   Of being disquieted or restless, to of something that brings fear and dread or makes us anxious or distressed (Strong's G5015)

 It's easy to see how, when things don't go our way, someone comes against us unfairly or the general messiness of life comes our direction, our peace could be distinctly absent, but that's what makes this verse so precious to me.  

 Jesus didn't say "Ok everyone, just try not to let your heart get all stirred up", He said LET NOT.... That means don't allow it!  He implied that the responsibility for LETTING NOT was with us.   Jesus never told us to do anything that was not possible when we factor him into the equation.   

 Later in the chapter in verse 27 Jesus tells them again HOW it is possible:
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

 I love one of the definitions given for peace in Strong's:
...of Christianity, the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content..

 Jesus was telling us we can stop our hearts from being troubled by tuning into the kind of peace He offers. 

The regular definition of 'peace' is "freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility".   While this may be partially true, the difficulty is, that would require our circumstances to come together in such a way to produce peace.  Let's face it how often does that happen?

 No, Jesus said the kind of peace he was offering wasn't going to be like that.  His peace doesn't come from everything lining up 'just so'.  It comes from having that complete assurance that you are loved by God; that he is on your side, and that he will never leave you alone.   

 There are no promises from God that say everything will go the way we think, but His promise is that we can have perfect peace in the middle of any circumstance if we keep our hearts fixed on him. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teabags and Popcorn!

Image
So, I was eating popcorn yesterday and drinking a fruit tea and I started wondering what makes a popcorn pop! (As you do). With a little help from Google, I found out that inside the kernel, the hard shell, there is a little bit of moisture and when it heats up inside, it turns to steam and as you keep heating it up, the pressure from the steam builds and builds until it cracks open the hard exterior and makes a yummy snack. And then I thought about my teabag (I do promise there will be a spiritual application to this, not just information on my food and drink habits).  The label had come off the teabag, so I didn't know exactly what flavour it was, until I poured on the boiling water and tasted it! As promised... the spiritual bit!  We are like teabags and popcorn!  This is a deep spiritual truth!  Really it is!  Read on and I'll explain why! Firstly we are like popcorn because when heated up, whatever we stir up inside us will burst out.  We're also like teabags too.  We
Read more

Take it!

Image
This week I have been thinking about the 10 spies that they sent out to view the promised land.  You probably don't remember the names of 8 of them!   The other two were of course Joshua and Caleb.    In the book of Numbers we see that Moses sent out these 10 men off to spy out the land that God had promised them.  They were to check it out and see what kind of place it was, what kind of people lived there and bring back some produce from the land. Well, if you know the story they brought back some figs, pomegranates and a bunch of grapes so big it had to be carried between two men!   It was a good land (no surprise there, seeing as God had told them it was good).  But when they got back 8 of the spies told the people "Well, it's a good land, but the people that live there included giants and all sorts of people that are really strong' I can imagine that all Israel gasped in horror or shock. Each person murmuring to his neighbour about how awful the situation was. In t
Read more

Looking back

Image
This week I was listening to a message and I was reading the verse in Luke 17:32 which simply says " Remember Lot's wife ."   This is a really interesting statement. When Jesus tells us to consider something or remember something we should pay attention. So what do we know about Lot's wife?  Not a lot really.  But what we do know is that an angel of the Lord took her by the hand to lead her out of the city before God destroyed it.  She was told to run for her life and not look back.  According to Genesis 19, she ran but she turned and look back and as a result, turned to a pillar of salt.  This short verse really spoke to me for a number of reasons.    The Apostle Paul tells us " I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead. "  (Phil 3:13 TPT) Since 2020, it's like we have a new category in history BC now stands for BEFORE COVID! People a
Read more