Terry’s Take… May Week 1: Troubled Hearts
In the next few articles I’m going to focus on: Worry, Anxiety, Depression…basically “troubled hearts.”
Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John: “Do not let your hearts be troubled, but believe in me.”
Well, for me at least, that’s often “easier said than done.”
Jesus says these words to his disciples. And you might be thinking…”well they saw Jesus in the flesh.” I can understand why THEY might be comforted. But we don’t see him with our eyes…only with our hearts.
You might even think Jesus’ definition of peace is different to the peace you need right now. How would you define peace right now? Is it happiness, contentment, or feeling complete? You might even think the opposite of peace is trouble. But Jesus defined it differently.
He reminds us peace is keeping our eyes on Him in the middle of adversity. In the middle of all circumstances. He tells us we can keep from feeling troubled by keeping our eyes, fully and squarely, on Him.
The greatest tool we have to keep our hearts from being flooded with chaos and trouble is His Word. If we believe the Bible is the revealed Word of God given to us to show us how to keep our eyes on Christ, then we should not only read it often, but hide His Word in our hearts like today’s verse; “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”
The greatest defense against anything that unsaddles our hearts is His Word because it is through His Word that our minds are renewed and settled into His perfect peace. That’s why God called His people to put His Word in their hearts and to imprint it into their minds.
- His Word is power.
- His Word is active and living.
- His Word provides peace, hope, justice, love, and mercy.
In addition to hiding His Word in our hearts, meditating on it day and night, He invites us to pray and pray often. One of the healthiest ways to ease our troubled hearts is through talking to God. People tend to think prayer is talking to someone invisible in heaven that might or might not hear us. Others think that prayer is a form of putting Jesus in a genie’s bottle, asking for wishes to be granted. Prayer is none of these things. It is literally just like talking to your best friend. He is there in your midst.
He hears every word you say, and He wants you to hear what He has to say to you, too. He wants to keep the conversation going when you are rejoicing and grateful and especially when your world seems to be spinning out of control.
You might find yourself going back to pray over and over with your Bible in hand. This is what He wants. This is how we keep our hearts from trouble!
Our problems will not go away. Fear will still stalk us. Worry will still show up unannounced like an unwanted house guest. But so does God. As we acknowledge His presence, His promises, and His Word, He trades our troubled hearts for peace.