“ And Saul was consenting unto his death. On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.”
“That day” referred to here is the stoning of Stephen. After Stephen’s death, the persecution of Christians really picked up. But something good came out of this persecution. People, who had been converted on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2-3, and after, were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Until that point all of the action of the church had taken place in Jerusalem, but now the witness was spreading. This fulfilled what Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:8: “But you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth.” I’m sure that when Jesus gave them tha charge that they did not know how it would be carried out. Here is what I really want us to see in this text: Persecution did not kill the church, rather it scattered it and began a movement that would be worldwide in a few short years. Let’s go back and look at something that happened as Stephen was stoned. They laid their robes at the feet of a man named Saul. Then we are told that he was “consenting unto (Stephen’s) death.” Who would have thought that in a short time this persecutor of the church would be a part of it and be one on the main characters in carrying out Acts 1:8? God does, indeed, work in mysterious ways. If we planned it out, it would not be like this. We would appoint committees and discuss being “witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth” to death. We would ask, “Exactly what did Jesus mean and how can we plan this thing out to everybody’s satisfaction?” This is not how God did it. He used the stoning of Stephen as the catalyst for scattering his church beyond Jerusalem, then, on the Damascus Road, converted Saul and turned him into “the Apostle Paul.” In order for the gospel to reach“the uttermost part of the earth” Gentiles would have to be converted. Again, if we had planned it out, we would have appointed committees, asked for resumes of good Gentile Christians, discussed it to death and come up with someone to witness to the Gentiles. This is not what God did. He found the meanest Jew that He could find, converted him on the Damascus Road, and sent him to witness to the Gentiles. Paul’s witness and the witness of Peter and other apostles enabled the gospel message to reach all the way to Rome and beyond, thus carrying out Jesus’ command. What lessons can we derive from this? First, we can understand that bad things that happen to us can turn out to be used of God for great purposes. Who knows but what some suffering that you have encountered has blessed someone else’s life in ways that you could not have planned out. Second, we can understand that when the Lord gives a command He means it, and He will see that it is carried out. If we didn’t send missionaries into the world, God would see that some were sent anyway. Perhaps, until the stoning of Stephen and the ensuing persecution, converted Jews were reluctant to leave Jerusalem. God had different plans and scattered them to other places. Third, God might want you to “scatter” from where you are in your life today and go and do what He wants you to do. (I’m not necessarily referring to location as much as I am referring to lifestyle.) At least give it some consideration. Bro. Joe
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“And (Jesus) said unto them (disciples), Why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?”
The context of this verse is Jesus’ appearance to His disciples after his resurrection. Verse 37 tells us: “But they were terrified and afraid, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. ”The tone of verse 38 is that Jesus was aggravated with His disciples because of their fear and their doubts. “And why do thoughts arise in your hearts” is otherwise translated as: “Why do doubts arise in your hearts.” They had been with Jesus three years and heard Him say on several occasions that He would be tried, crucified and that He would rise again. With the evidence that Jesus had given them, He wanted to know why they were troubled. This is a good question for us to ask ourselves if we are troubled. It is certain that all of us are troubled at some time or other, but we need to remember that we do not need to constantly be troubled, or let our troubles make us afraid and doubtful. I want to reveal some reasons why we might be troubled, and what we can do to rise above our troubles. I do not mean to be overly negative here, for I understand that the Christian life is not always lived victoriously, but we need to be aware of things that can keep us from being overrun by our troubles. I think that we sometimes let our troubles get the best of us because we fail to believe, or remember, the promises of God. In John 14:1, Jesus said: “Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.” That was a promise that because of our faith, we do not have to be overcome by our troubles, or wallow in them. The Bible is alive with promises that God will be with us in everything that we go through in life. Jesus took the time to tell His disciples, and through scripture, us, that He would always be with us. He promised in John’s gospel more than one time that He would send the Holy Spirit to lead and guide His followers. Jesus’ last promise to his disciples was that He would send them the Holy Spirit to empower them for witnessing to the world. The promise still holds true today. There might be some reasons that we can convince ourselves that our troubles should constantly overcome us, but biblical promises of God’s love, care and presence with us through all of the things that we face in life is a good reason not to be overcome by our troubles. I think that we sometimes let our troubles get the best of us because we fail to realize the blessings of God. If we believe in Jesus, and if we believe what we read and hear about Jesus, just knowing Him is a blessing. Having Him alive in us through the Holy Spirit, and having Him intercede for us from the right hand of the Father is a blessing. We don’t have to look far for the blessings of God. When we feel that we are not blessed, it is because we are not thinking in faith but in doubt. Like the disciples, we are troubled and doubtful because we have been overcome by some situation. Just being forgiven for our sins is a blessing from God. When we are going through troubles in our lives, we have to remember that everyone has troubles. No human being has smooth sailing every day. No human being wins all of the time, nor do they realize all of their plans and dreams. We are often troubled because we think that we are not blessed anymore. I have seen people blame God because life didn’t go like they wanted it to. They are either not Christians, or they are in a terrible backslidden condition. Our troubles should not cause us to forget the blessings of God. Why are you letting your troubles overcome your victory in Jesus? It might be that you have forgotten the promises and blessings of God. At least think about it. Bro. Joe “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.”
“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation: and uphold me with thy free spirit. 13. Then will I teach transgressors your ways; and sinners shall be converted unto you.” This psalm was written after David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had been confronted by the great prophet Nathan. Nathan told David a story about a wealthy man who owned a lot of sheep and took away the one sheep that belonged to a poor man. When David heard that story, he was irate. Nathan answered back to him, “You are the man.” Of course, David was conscience stricken and this psalm was a result. We don’t have room on this page for the whole psalm, but I have quoted four verses that give us the gist of the meaning of the psalm. Verse 3 gives us the clue as to how we should react when we know that we are not right with God: “For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.” Acknowledging our sins is absolutely necessary in getting right with God. After Nathan’s story, David came face-to-face with the murder of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, and his adultery with her. David had to stop denying that he had sinned and that he needed to acknowledge what he had done. We will get right with God when we acknowledge our own sins. Like David, it is so easy for us to see the sins of other people, but we whitewash our own sins. Until we acknowledge our sins, we cannot be right with God. God is willing to forgive us for any sin, but He wants us to admit that we have sinned. Verse 2 shows us what it was that David wanted from God in relation to his sins. When we realize that we have sinned, we feel unclean. There is no uncleanness like the uncleanness of our souls, for this is what sin does to us. The realization of the greatness of his sins left David feeling guilty and dirty. Being “a man after God’s own heart,” David was not accustomed to feeling that way. The sad thing is that many people come to feel at home with feeling dirty and they are satisfied with it. If you want to be cleansed of guilt, you need to repent, confess and ask God to cleanse you from sin. There is no need for sin to rob you of the joy that you can have in your life. God is ready and willing to forgive you and cleanse you. Come to Him like David and ask God to cleanse you. Verse 12 shows us what David really lost when he sinned and did not seek God’s forgiveness. He said: “Restore unto me the joy of your salvation; and uphold me with your free spirit.” Overt sin caused David to lose the joy of the salvation that God had given him. Jesus died on the cross to cleanse us from sin, and He wants us to enjoy the salvation that He has given us. Sin has a way of coming between us and our joy. If you are not joyful now, perhaps you need to look deeply within your heart and discover the source, if you don’t already realize it, and rush to God for forgiveness as David did. Verse 13 gives us the result of being forgiven and cleansed. Until he confessed, David could not “teach transgressors their ways.” David was accustomed to being the one right with God, and felt comfortable helping others see the right way. But until he confessed, and was cleansed, he knew that he was in no position to witness and minister to other people. If you want to be an effective witness for Jesus, follow David’s example and repent, confess and ask for forgiveness. Bro, Joe “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
This is a question that we all need to ask “What ‘Centers’ You?” First, I need to define what I mean by “centers.” What is it that calms you, emboldens you or gives you a feeling of completion? This is not a real good definition, but I think you get what I mean. We have something, or someone, that we can fall back on when life seems to be getting out of control, or when we just feel down and depressed. When we center ourselves on that, we can see things more clearly. There are people and things that encourage me and help me in life, but when the going really gets tough the main thing that centers me is my faith in Jesus Christ. Everything else just falls at His feet. I pray that you can say the same thing. What I have found is that I am more easily centered on Jesus when I stay in close fellowship with Him through prayer and Bible reading. Jesus cannot be the center of things for us, if we do not take advantage of the intimate, personal relationship that we have with Him. The question then becomes: “Who Centers You?” Paul stated it succinctly in the text: “I live, nevertheless not I, but Christ lives in me.” That is the most important relationship that we can have in our lives. Relationships with family and friends are certainly important, but even those relationships are stronger when Christ is the center of our lives. We can be glad that Jesus is not just a religious figure, or statue, like Buddha. Jesus is a real living person, who loves us and wants the best for us. He lives in us through the Holy Spirit, and is available all of the time for us to fall back on. The Bible even promises us that He loves us enough to discipline us if we get out of line. Pause now and ask yourself if Jesus is the One who centers you. Paul added something to this testimony about Jesus: “And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Now we can turn to the “what” of what centers us. The cause of our personal, saving relationship with Jesus is “by grace through faith” in Jesus. It is faith in Jesus that helps to center us in our daily lives and in all of the bumps and bruises of life. I imagine that you are like I am when I really get in a bad situation; I turn to Jesus in faith and He gets me around or through whatever it is that is troubling me. This will not do a whole lot of good if I ignore Him when life is going smooth, and then call on Him in faith when life gets rough. Our faith in Jesus is meant for every situation in our lives – the good and the bad. You know: “The God on the mountain is still God in the valley…” We need to understand that the Lord, who is the center of our faith and our lives, honors our faith in Him. This is true throughout the whole Bible. The Old Testament does not stress the word “faith” like the New Testament does, but faith is implicit in its teachings. Hebrews 11 tells us about the faith of Old Testament saints. They had faith in the promise of God, and that faith enriched the lives of people like Moses, David, Elijah and Daniel. Their faith in God and in His promises centered them and helped them to serve Him effectively. Like us, they stumbled and fell from time to time, but all in all their lives reflected their faith in God. In the New Testament we have men like Peter, Andrew, James, John and Paul to show us what it means to center our lives in faith in God/Jesus. You just need to ask yourself if it is faith in Jesus that centers you as you face all of life? Think about it. Bro. Joe "For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. 5. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God."
We cannot overcome the world by ourselves. Why? Because we can't overcome Satan by ourselves. He is much too strong for us and he is in charge of the world. We need help in overcoming the world - if we want to. There are millions of people who enjoy the world, and they see no need to overcome it. We who believe in Jesus, though, find a great tension with living in the world and living for Jesus. Even to us the world is awfully attractive, but we know, because of the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives, that the evil things of the world can destroy us. This does not mean that everything in the world is evil, but a lot of it is. John warns in 1 John 1:16-17:"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." The attractions of the world are temporary at best. As we say, "nothing lasts forever." Consequently, when we want to live eternally while in the world, we have to put our faith in Christ. It is faith in Christ that saves us, and faith in Christ that sustains us through life. Bottom line: "....and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith" - faith in Jesus Christ. We are in the world but not of the world. We were not saved to fulfill the world's purposes, but the purposes of God. We have faith to enable us to overcome the world and to fulfill God's purposes. Let's use it. Bro. Joe “Sing to the Lord, you saints of His, praise His holy name. 5. For His anger lasts only a moment, but His favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night but rejoicing comes in the morning.”
These verses remind us of what our response should be to God no matter how trying life has become. When things are not going well for us, we have a tendency to blame God. We might not consciously admit this, but in the back of our minds we think that God owes us more than we are getting. Blaming God for hardships will get us nowhere. We live in a fallen world and that is the way life is in a fallen world. Trials and tribulations are part of living, and they can be tests of our faith. The question is what is our response to God when things are tough? These two verses from Psalm 30 will tell us what our response should be – regardless. “Sing to the Lord, you saints of His, praise His holy name.” What God wants from us at all times is to praise Him. Praise was not always easy for David and other psalmists. The psalms are full of complaints to the Lord because of what life was handing them at the time. Yet the psalmists also remind us time after time that we are to praise God. In psalm 35:28 David wrote: “And my tongue shall speak of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.”If we praise God “all the daylong” we will surely, at some point, praise Him in the midst of trouble. Asaph wrote in psalm 50:15: “And call upon me in the day of trouble; and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify (praise) me.” I looked up “praise” in my Strong’s exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, and I found passage after passage about praising God. The Bible is full of the praises of God. I know that life can be hard, and that some things that happen to us are awfully hard to overcome, but it does us no good to give in to self-pity or grumbling and complaining. What we need to do during these times is to “sing to the Lord…praise His holy name.” You will be a better person for it, and you will feel better about yourself. “His anger lasts only for a moment, but His favor lasts a lifetime.” This is a good reminder for us that God is not against us. He might be against the way we are living at a given time, as we are told: “His anger lasts only a moment,” which does mean that He gets angry with us. That anger comes because He knows that we can do better. When you feel God-forsaken, and think that God is not doing anything in your life, remember that you have His favor. We need to be careful with this word “favor.” We can get the idea that when things are not going our way, we have lost God’s favor. Read it again: “But His favor lasts a lifetime…” There are times when we feel God’s favor more than at other times, but God always wants the best for us, and when we forget that fact we stray from what the Lord Jesus wants of us. We do well to remember His favor, especially when we are going through difficult times. “Weeping may endure for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” There are four words that have come to mean a lot to me over the years, and they are: “this, too, shall pass.” That is what David meant when he wrote: “Weeping may endure for a night…” We need to remember that nothing lasts forever. Whatever you are going through right now will come to an end, and at the end of it there will be joy and rejoicing. Sometimes it seems that woes will never end, but they do. What we need to focus on is not the weeping but the joy and rejoicing. The choice as to how we will respond to the “weeping” is really up to us. We can pout and simmer, but that will only prolong the weeping. We just need to remember that when “morning” comes there will be joy and rejoicing. Grab a hold of this truth, and make it a way of life. The right response to the Lord is to praise Him, remember His favor and accept the joy that He sends “in the morning." Bro. Joe “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25. Thrice I was beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep….”
I used the two verses above to illustrate some of the stress that Paul was under every day of his life. (To really appreciate it read verses 23-33.) Living under a death threat is not our idea of the good life. In fact, it takes much less than what Paul encountered to stress us out. Yet in his letters Paul wrote about joy and rejoicing. We can learn from Paul how to overcome stress by some of the things that he wrote. From 2 Timothy 1:12 we discover that Paul really believed: “For the which cause I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” He believed in Christ who can do anything. If we really believe what we read in the New Testament, we can also know that. In Philippians 4:13 Paul wrote: “I Can do all things through Him (Christ) who strengthens me.” He was “persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” Paul’s faith was strong, and helped him deal with stress, because he exercised his faith every day. His was not a faith exercised only in crisis, but it was exercised in all of life. Just as we have to exercise to develop strength physically, we need to exercise faith in order to develop strength spiritually. From Philippians 4:6-7 we discover that Paul really prayed: “Be careful for nothing (do not be anxious about anything); but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Paul wrote: “Pray without ceasing.” The man really believed in the power of prayer, because He really believed in the power of Jesus. Nothing can help us overcome stress like prayers of faith. When we pray in faith we can have great peace with God that will help us through any kind of stress that we might face. From what we read about Paul in Acts, we discover that he really served. He traveled all over his part of the world telling people about Jesus. The great faith that Paul had and a great prayer life helped him to be a profound servant of God. Paul was not a self-serving person. His view of life was not “what’s in it for me?" He reached out to others and through his writings taught us to do the same. Nothing can help us overcome stress like serving Jesus. Why? Because we know that we are doing the right thing when we serve Him and because we are not doing anything wrong when we serve Him. (It’s a great way to stay out of trouble.) All Christians should consider themselves servants of God. Try these three things from Paul’s life to help you overcome stress in your life: faith, prayer and service. Bro. Joe (I brought this one out of the archives from August 28, 2014. Presently the old Couch Potato has a bad case of writer's block. I hope that you will enjoy this article from the past. It encouraged me today and I hope it encourage you.)
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him; but I will maintain my own ways before Him.” I do not want to leave the impression that Job went through all that Satan put him through with no complaining at all. He was a good man, but, like all men, he was not perfect. But one thing is clear in the Book of Job, and that is that Job did not deny God, nor did He waver in his faith. If we put ourselves in Job’s place, we can’t even imagine how we would react. Of course, Job was not happy during his trial. He did not face it, always smiling, always positive, but he did face his trial in faith and trust in God. He teaches us to trust. What do I mean? Job trusted God in spite of personal loss. Think of all Job lost. He lost possessions. He lost all of his children. He had been proud of his children and was concerned that they live good lives. Now they were all dead. He lost the respect of his wife who told him to “curse God and die.” That was hardly a statement that showed that she supported Job in his predicament. What would be worse than losing the respect of the person with whom you had ten children and a seemingly happy home– until tragedy struck? Job lost the respect of his community. He had been a leader among the people, and the people had great respect for him and hung on his words. Now even the youth were making fun of him. Worst of all, Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, lost respect for him because they thought that he had committed some great sin and was being punished by God. They were never told that Satan was doing all of the nasty work. But through it all, Job held on to his trust in God. Job 23:10 is a good example: “But (God) knows the way that I take: when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job trusted God in spite of personal afflictions. Today we would say that Job had lost his health. I guess one of the most painful things that can happen to us is to lose our health. When we are afflicted we will react either positively or negatively. An old cliché reminds us that when we lose our health “we will become bitter or we will become better.” In the final analysis, Job became better. If we will put ourselves in Job’s place, thinking of all that he lost and of the pain and misery that he went through, we will say that we do not know exactly how we would react. Either one of the things that happened to Job would be traumatic, and that’s putting it mildly. We can’t put ourselves in Job’s place, but we can stay close to the Lord, pray and read His word, etc. in order to prepare ourselves to face the contingencies of life. Job trusted God in spite of the fact that God was silent. Throughout most of the book of Job, God did not intervene in Job’s difficulties. In fact, God never explained to Job what had occurred between He and Satan. Through it all, Job had to hear the false accusations of his great sins. God did not come to Job’s defense. He did in the end, and his friends had to pay for their cynical advice, but not until Job had come through the worst and had “come forth as pure gold.” We need to learn from Job that though God is silent, He is not absent. He has promised to go with us through all of the things that we encounter in life. He will not shout, but He will be present and He will do what we need for Him to do. Rejoice! Bro. Joe 34:18: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” 73:26: “My flesh and my heart fail: but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous” is true. Think about Joseph, Moses, David, Paul, Peter, etc. All of these great men of God had all kinds of troubles. Joseph had to deal with his pesky brothers – a vast understatement. Moses had to deal with his fellow Israelites through forty years of traveling through the desert, then because of their stubbornness, Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. David had to deal with King Saul and various other people during his life, not to mention his own weaknesses. Paul’s problems and troubles are well-documented in Acts and in most of his epistles. Peter had more than his share of problems as he took a place of leadership in the fledgling Church. So if you are a Christian and you are having problems, take heart, you are in good company. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous” is not the end of the story. Read on: The verse continues with good news: “But the Lord delivers him out of them all…” Sometimes that deliverance comes immediately, and sometimes it takes longer, in some cases many years, but deliverance comes. When I think of this, my mind turns to Psalm 13, which begins with a lot of woe and self-pity, but ends on a victorious note. It begins: “How long will you forget me O Lord? forever?” He goes on to bemoaning that he has “sorrow in his heart daily.” He bemoans that it seems that his enemies are exalted over him. But he begins to pray and to draw closer to the Lord and his moaning turns to rejoicing: “But I have trusted in your mercy, my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.” I want to suggest that you read this psalm, memorize it, and adopt the last two verses for your own life. Christians will have good days and bad days, like all other human beings, but Christians have a resource in the Lord, who can deliver them from, or through, the bad days. Needless to say, I have to remind myself of this quite often when I seem to be sinking into a deep funk for one reason or the other. It is true that the Lord will deliver us from all of the afflictions of life. One day He will deliver us from it all and take us to heaven. Psalm 73:26 is another reminder of our theme: “My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.” Asaph, who wrote this psalm, wrote that “my flesh and my heart fail.” “Flesh” has a tendency to do that doesn’t it? As long as we are in the flesh, we will encounter troubles of some kind, whether illness, bad relationships, or just bad days. Thank God that “flesh” is not the end of the story. If all we had was “flesh,” life would be woeful indeed. Paul stated this in 1 Corinthians 15:19: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” But the great truth that “God is the strength of my heart” breaks through and gives our “failing hearts” a boost. Asaph realized that his own strength could not sustain him through the difficult times in life, but that he had a resource in the Lord to deliver him through them. Further, he declared that the Lord was his “portion forever.” Through Christ and the Holy Spirit, the Lord is always a part of our lives. He is our “portion forever.” Psalm 73:23-24 gives us further insight: “Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. 24. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.” (NIV) If this was true of Asaph in his day, it is equally true of us in Christ. What you have to do now is to adopt these verses as your own, realizing that you have an eternal resource to get you through the difficult times. Bro. Joe “Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me.”
There are three important words in this verse that can make a difference in the quality of our lives. The first word is “heart.” The Greek word Kardia is used here for heart. Literally, it refers to the muscle that keeps us alive. But it is also used to refer to the heart as the center of emotional, intellectual, spiritual and moral activity. Proverbs 4:23 warns us about being careful what we let into our hearts: “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” This can also be translated as “guard your heart.” What we let into our hearts decides the quality of our lives – or the lack thereof. We need to be careful what we see, what we think, and what we do, for if we are not careful our hearts will be led astray. We also need to be careful that we do not become “faint of heart” and spend our lives worrying and fretting. It is to this that Jesus refers in our text.. The second word is “troubled.” Jesus says “let not your hearts be troubled…” Jesus is warning His disciple’s, and us, to not let our hearts be troubled, disturbed, or afraid. Our lives can be literally ruined by letting the troubles of life make us faint of heart. Jesus knew what His disciples were about to encounter in serving Him. It is also a warning to us that we are going to face things in life that will cause us to fret and worry if we are not careful. Also, if we are not careful we will live in fear. Jesus warns us here not to be ruled by our troubles, and let them ruin our lives. Your life should not be defined by your troubles. The third word is “believe.” Jesus said: “Let not your hearts be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me.” Jesus gives the key to keeping our hearts from being troubled in the word “believe.” The word means more than to just believe that there is a God, and that Christ is really alive. It means to entrust our hearts to God, to Christ, and let Him control what we let into our hearts and let Him keep us from being controlled by our troubles. We will encounter troubles in this life, but we will never face them alone if we truly entrust our lives to Jesus. I do not know what troubles you are facing today, but I do know that they do not have to rule your heart. We will never live trouble-free lives, but we can live beyond them by entrusting our lives to Christ and to really believe that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) Do you really believe this promise? Then, “let not your heart be troubled….” Really believe in Christ and not just about Him. Bro. Joe |
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