Jesus knew He would face the cross and His disciples would be left behind, lost, heartsore, and confused. Consequently, He did His utmost to prepare and encourage them. His statement, “Your heart must not be troubled,” is so powerful and requires so much faith to receive. We all know what a troubled heart feels like. It aches. It brings a weight of worry and sorrow. It’s a human reaction to any kind of difficult situation, and of course Jesus knew that in our humanness we would experience times when our hearts felt troubled. But He gave us the antidote to remaining bound up in a troubled heart: Believe in God; believe in Me. Do we believe that God is sovereign and has our best interests at His heart? Do we believe Jesus’s death on the cross means those of us who have received Him have also overcome death? Do we believe that this walk on earth is temporal but our time with Him is eternal? Those beliefs sustain us in the midst of heartache and despair. Yes, as humans we will face times when our hearts will be troubled, but we need not remain there because we know Who holds our now, our tomorrow, and our forever.
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