Don’t Let Your Heart be Troubled

John 14:1-4

Jesus made this statement to His disciples the night before His crucifixion. Even in circumstances like they would experience, Jesus was telling them not to let their hearts be troubled. That's amazing. And that reveals the authority we have over our emotions. The Lord would have been unjust to command His disciples to do something they were powerless to do. Therefore, we can control our emotions regardless of how things are going.

It's up to us to control our heart. It's God's power that makes that possible, but we have to make the choice and draw on God's ability. How do we do that? This verse goes on to say, "believe in God..." Faith is how we conquer our emotions.

The fact that Jesus mentions controlling our emotions first in this list of all the things we should do is also significant. If we let our emotions run away with us, then it's nearly impossible to reign them in. It's easier to hold them at bay than it is to stop them once we have let them go. Harnessing our emotions is the first thing to do in a crisis situation. Most battles are won or lost in the first few moments according to the way we allow our emotions to go.

Now Jesus begins to speak about heaven. What does heaven have to do with us keeping our hearts at peace? Well, even if everything in this life looks terrible, the Christian always has the promises of total victory in heaven. If every time we think we see light at the end of the tunnel but it turns out to be another train, then we can know that our great reward is heaven. That will keep our hearts from being troubled.

It only took the Lord seven days to create the heavens and the earth. He has been working on our mansions for 2,000 years. These mansions must be something great.

Jesus was saying these things about heaven to keep the disciples' hearts from being troubled as they were about to enter the darkest periods of their lives. Jesus was also revealing how He kept from being discouraged during the darkest period of His life. It all centered on thinking about eternity. He had His attention focused on the joy that was set before Him (Heb 12:2-3). It can only be done when we put things into their proper perspective in light of eternity.

This world is not all there is. There is eternity and the time we spend in eternity; the benefits we receive there will far outweigh all concerns that happen here on earth. If we only have hope in this world, then we would be the most miserable of all men (1Co 15:19) To have the positive faith that Jesus exhibited and which He is commanding us to have here, we have to be heavenly minded.