Healing for Troubled Hearts by Stephen Davey

Healing for Troubled Hearts
2019-10-22
Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going. John 14:1-4 On the way to my parents’ home in Virginia is a little community made up of small homes and old cars. Just off the highway is the home of a fortune teller.  For years, the place looked the same: a small wooden house; a broken-down screened porch; and a hand-painted sign that advertised sister Maria’s ability to read palms and tell the future.  When I drove up to Virginia recently, however, the place had changed drastically. The broken old house had been torn down and replaced by a large, beautiful brick home. Fancy cars now sat in the driveway, and the quaint sign had been replaced with a large sign that lit up.  As I pondered the changes, it occurred to me that Maria’s success had less to do with her ability to tell fortunes, and more to do with the fact that so many people are troubled, fearful, and anxious about the future.  We as believers are often no exception. We become fearful when we receive a life-threatening diagnosis. We become frightened about losing our job or our financial support. We become anxious when our marriage is on the rocks. We become fearful over past mistakes and fearful over future failures.  Many of us are even anxious about the economy and the moral collapse of society.  The truth is that there are thousands of unknowns facing us every day, and they are all out of our control. That’s why Jesus’ simple words of comfort here in John 14 will never lose their relevance: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (verse 3).  Our hope in the midst of trouble isn’t some assurance of good fortune in this life, and it isn’t even golden streets or a heavenly mansion in the life to come. It is being with Christ. Jesus effectively says, “Heaven is My Father’s house. I’m going to be there—and you’re coming with me.” That, by the way, is a distinguishing line between Christianity and every other world religion. In other religions, heaven is the final fulfillment of our base, sensuous desires. Only in Christianity are we offered the final fulfillment of our greatest desire, which is to be reconnected with our God and Maker.  I love the words of Aristides, the Greek scholar, who noted during his day the joy Christians had even in death. He wrote: When a member of the Christians passes from the world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God, and they escort the body to burial with songs and thanksgiving, as if he were setting out from one place to another place nearby! Do the things of the world trouble your heart today? Do you have unanswered questions and doubts that are leaving you discontented? Look again to the hope we have in Christ.  Put yourself in the sandals of these confused, fearful apostles who were having to wave goodbye to the One who had led their every step for the past three years.  God brought them through severe trials, troubles, and persecutions, and He has promised to get us through as well!