Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” John 14:1. This is an amazing statement when you think about the fact that just in the last chapter, verse 21 John describes Jesus this way, “When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit…” At the tomb of Lazarus the Bible says that “when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.”
Why can Jesus tell us that we should not let our hearts be troubled and yet within the last few chapters Jesus is described as being troubled in His heart? I think a partial answer can be found in the fact that Jesus is described in Isaiah 53:4 as having borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. We are told to cast our cares on Him for He cares for us. First Peter 5:7. He has promised to be with us and to meet our needs. He has carried the burden of sin for us so that we would not have to.
I don’t mean to imply that if we could apply our Christian faith properly we would have no troubling of heart and no cares. I can’t conceive of that situation. Maybe my faith isn’t as great as it should be. But I think we should take comfort in the fact that “we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” As a result, we may “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:15, 16.
The personal mission which God has given to my wife and me is to glorify God in His Church by ministering to others for their progress and joy in the faith. We will focus on ministry which teaches others so that they may teach others also. This blog provides one forum for helping to accomplish that mission.
