Let not your Heart be Troubled

“Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto” Jn14:1-4

   The world in which we lives is certainly a world embroiled in trouble with countless conflicts among nations, politics, and peoples. This includes the natural disasters, diseases, poverties and other hardships that assault the daily lives of all those who live upon this earth. Jesus warned of this saying “In this world you will have troubles”. These troubles which have been common to man since the fall in the Garden of Eden will continue on earth until His return.

         What He does however provide a remedy for in this present life is the impact of those troubles upon the hearts of men.  When He says “Let not your heart be troubled” He is saying that there is “a way” in which the natural troubles of this life do not have to daily weigh down on the hearts and minds of men. The “way “He came to proclaim begins with the simple call of “believe in God” (I like the New Living Bibles wording here of “trust in God”). 

    The remedy He both provides and proclaims is then further accomplished when those who believe next set their hearts upon the promise of a heavenly home. In our text in John 14, He speaks of this saying “In my Father’s house are many mansions”, reminding the believer of that heavenly promise.  He is encouraging His followers to set their minds on the reality of a heavenly existence, an existence that clearly from this text includes some very tangible realities.  He describes “Mansions”, calling them “many” to convey that He has provided a heavenly abundance to accommodate each and every soul who puts their hope in His eternal reward.  In other places in scripture, this reward includes streets of gold, gates of pearl, jeweled walls, glorious heavenly fruit to eat, and a city in which a river of living water flows through it. Clearly there is a physical reality to the promises of Heaven. In the late 1800’s, Joseph Seiss wrote “A spiritualized earthiness is simply a whitewashed sepulcher; and an incorporeal and immaterial eternity for man is equally aside from the teachings of God’s Word.”

         Have you ever asked yourself why scripture describes such seemingly corporeal realities concerning Heaven when we know the true rewards of Heaven consist in their being “no more pain or sorrow”, and in its being “the home of righteousness”. Even these glorious promises pale in comparison to it being a place of continual fellowship with the Lord. Yet the promises of its physical amenities still occupy the pages of our Bibles.

      The reason for these seemingly corporeal promises regarding the attractions of Heaven is this.  The Lord wants us to allow our hearts and minds to be occupied with the rewards of Heaven. He wants us to wonder, ponder, consider, all that He has promised, so that in doing so we might forget the troubles and trials of this life.  He wants us to envision a world (albeit an eternal one) in which we will experience the glorious and yes even material abundance of which all who truly “trust in Him” will enjoy for eternity.

      In his letter to the Colossian church, Paul instructed them to “sets their hearts and minds on things above” (Col.3). With similar purpose he admonishes the Philippians to “think on these things” (Php4).  Here in lies the remedy to the troubled hearts of men that leaves so many in despair and misery.  We must not only believe in the promises of God regarding the glories of a heavenly home, we must allow those promises to occupy our thoughts throughout the day.  A heart and mind that ponders Heaven is the remedy to a troubled and burdened heart.  How much time do you spend each day pondering the glories of Heaven promised for all those who have put their trust in God?  As Paul has instructed “think on these things”.