Troubled Hearts Should Trust In Jesus

Bad news can stir up our hearts with fear. Jesus had told His disciples that He would leave them, and they knew it meant trouble. So the Lord took command of their hearts. ‘Do not allow your hearts to be stirred into fear’, He said. He then commanded them to put their trust in God and in Himself – a clear statement about His divinity. Then He set their minds on the future. The cross was not the end of their close fellowship with Him, because He would see them after the resurrection; He pointed them further forward to His ascension and to His second coming.
 
Jesus was teaching them how to manage their expectations of the future without Him. As apostles, they would need to teach the church to look beyond their present circumstances to His glorious return; even though they might go through many hardships. Jesus, although physically absent from the world would not be ‘gone’; He would be with His Father. He would not be inactive or uncaring of His people, but would be preparing their eternal home with Him. And He would return in person to welcome them into His Father’s home in heaven. This teaching was embedded so well into the hearts of the trainee apostles, that their teaching about the Second Coming gave great boldness to the church under persecution. They knew that they were not left alone and not forgotten. Instead, they should dare to trust the Lord, believing that He would bring them justice in the end, and the rich reward of a welcome into His presence.
 
Faith in God, the God who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, is the only answer to fear about the future. He does not forget His people, He is actively working for our good (Romans 8:28), He is preparing a perfect future for us, and He will personally come again to take us to be with Him for ever. Yet Satan’s tells us lies which fuel our own doubts and the world’s scepticism. When we listen to evil thoughts we begin to believe that God has forgotten us, that He does not care, that His apparent silence is hostility and that we have no future. But all that is simply untrue, because Jesus said so. Whatever your present circumstances, trust in God’s loving care and provision because you have put your trust in Jesus to save you. Reject evil lies by believing the truth until He comes or calls. Do not allow your heart to be stirred into fear. Hold onto Jesus because He is holding onto you.