THREE ESSENTIALS FOR AN UNTROUBLED HEART!

THREE ESSENTIALS FOR AN UNTROUBLED HEART!

John 14:1-3

14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

Even the most faithful of God’s servants are subject to occasional troubled hearts. What troubles us is our own sin, the sin of others and the feeling that God is absent. Many are the tangled knots of circumstance that seem to defy solution and our hearts to be troubled. In our text the disciples had just been told that Jesus was going away and that they could not follow. Peter specifically was told that his faith would fail.

John 13:33-38

33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

36 Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards.

37 Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.

38 Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.

Now Jesus offers three essentials for an untroubled heart.

1. A FIRM FAITH IN GOD! “Ye believe in God…”

I am told that this can be read either in the indicative mode or the imperative and that it is best to read it in the imperative. As such it is a strong urging to not abandon one’s faith in God. Untroubled hearts are firmly convinced in the existence and goodness of God.

2. AN EQUAL FAITH IN JESUS! “Believe also in me…”

If we read the first indicative and the second imperative we read it this way. “Since ye already believe in God you must also believe in me.”

John 10:30 I and my Father are one.

3. A CONFIDENCE IN JESUS’ PROMISES! “I will come again…”

Samuel Goldwyn said, "A verbal agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on." No promise either verbal or written is of any value if the one making the promise is not a person of integrity. We can trust the promise because it is Jesus who makes it.

Ps 56:3

3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

Dear Lord, my only safe refuge is in you and your promises. When I am afraid let me trust in you. AMEN