Do You Have a Troubled Heart?

Do you have a troubled heart? Are you worried–or can I spiritualize it–concerned about what’s happening in the economy of your life right now? I know that I have a troubled heart now and then and it’s so hard to find relief at times. But if there is one thing that I have found, and I believe it’s the right thing, if I turn to Jesus Christ when my heart is troubled, I tend to see my troubles slip away and calmness, a peace that passes all understanding, comes upon me. I turn my attention to what He says in John 14:1-6 which says:

“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.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

How are these verses supposed to help us calm a troubled heart? Notice first of all how Jesus says we don’t have to have a troubled heart because of who He is. He says very clearly believe in God, believe also in Me. He is equating Himself with God the Father. In other words, because He is of the exact same substance, same essence, He can speak to us and tell us to not have a troubled heart. Now this is not a mere suggestion on His part either. Jesus gives us a command by saying do not let your heart be troubled. There is a decision that we need to make to allow our hearts not to be troubled. But this decision is very exclusive because Jesus says to believe in God, believe also in Me. This means that our decision is to believe Jesus is who He says that He is: Jesus is God–in essence, in substance, holding every perfection that God holds without limitation.

Jesus Christ then says that once we make the decision to believe Him to be God, then we can believe that He is going to have a room for us in that He is preparing. Now it generally takes anywhere from six months to two years to build a house, depending on the size of the house. But He has been preparing our dwelling place for over 2,000 years at this point! Can you imagine what type of place He has prepared for those of us who have believed Him? And then He qualifies His statement by saying that if it were not so, I would have told you. This means that He is speaking the truth to us. He doesn’t lie because He is God and God cannot lie because there is no variation with Him. There’s nothing that He would say that is false or has error. What He says IS and SHALL BE–no ifs, ands, or buts about it, satisfaction guaranteed!

Then He declares I will come again and receive you to Myself. We need to understand that this is both a time of rejoicing and a time of grief. It is a time of grief because when Jesus Christ returns He will be coming in judgment. Now I understand that people don’t like to hear about judgment and that today’s mantra is don’t judge me, you don’t know me! But we need to understand that He knows us perfectly well–even better than we know ourselves! Let’s not be so foolish as to think that we can get away with our sin, whatever sin in which we find ourselves or have done or are doing or will do. There is a wage for sin and that wage is death according to the Scriptures.

But the good news is that Jesus Christ is also coming again and will receive those who have believed Him for who He is! He will come again and when He does, He will receive us unto Himself. What a glorious thought! We will be with Him and He will be with us in physical form. We will see Him in all of His glory, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. We will hear the throngs of those who have believed and gone before us singing their praises to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We will hear the multitudes of angelic beings who are also praising Him with the saints. It will be a symphony like no other saying, Worthy is the Lamb! You can think of those that you know that have believed Jesus Christ unto salvation who have gone on before, and you can imagine what it is that they are seeing and hearing, can’t you? I can. I think of my twin sister, my grandparents, some friends, fellow church members, and others that I have heard or known who are now gone from here and are present there. The Bible says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. What glory! What grace! What mercy!

Thomas, however, says that he is unsure about all of this. I like Thomas because he is the person that represents all of us. All of us have wondered about the validity of all that has already been said by Jesus Christ. We all wonder if this is the truth, and if it is, we wonder how we might be held to account for either believing or not believing. Some will even deny the existence of the Lord but that doesn’t change the fact that He is who He is or that He exists. Whether one believes or not, He is.

Now Thomas is not questioning whether or not Jesus Christ is who He claims to be, rather, He is wondering where He is going and the way that He is going. Jesus Christ has already told his disciples that He was going to have to suffer death–a cruel death  upon a Cross. But Thomas apparently hasn’t gotten His message as of yet. Sometimes this is just like us. We hear these things and sometimes they don’t click right away. But there is a time in our lives when our own mortality comes to our minds and we begin to wonder if there is a way for us to live eternally. We want to leave a legacy or continue living. It’s innate because God placed eternity in the heart of every person. The problem is that man has exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Man has worshiped the creation rather than the Creator. This is evident with climate change enthusiasts and secular humanists as a whole. Thomas is revealing us as these people who look everywhere else except to Jesus Christ. We think we know God, but in reality we don’t because we don’t look to where He is nor do we seek Him out.

I’m so glad that Jesus Christ doesn’t leave Thomas–doesn’t leave us–to fend for ourselves when it comes to our eternity. He says very clearly I am the way, and the truth; and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. Thomas received his answer. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Notice that He uses a definite article to boot. He’s not merely a way, a truth, a life, but rather, He is the way, the truth, and the life. In other words, He is the only way, the only truth, and the only life that leads us to the Father. I cannot work my way to Him, I cannot have “my truth” or “your truth” or anyone else’s truth. He is truth because He cannot be anything but true in all that He says and does because He is God. Do you believe this? I do! Without any shadow of doubt, I believe Him! He is the only way to Heaven where the saints who have gone before us are. He is the only truth that helps us to understand who He is and how through Him we can go to Heaven. He is the only life that we have so we can not only leave a legacy here, but have everlasting life.

And this is why we don’t have to have a troubled heart today…or any day.