Jesus said in John 14:1 that we should not let our hearts be troubled. First of all, look at the way He said it. He didn't say don't let your spouse trouble you. Or, don't let your job, employers and co-workers bother you. He didn't say don't let the news bother you. I'll admit that all of these things can weigh heavy on our heart a pretty good bit of the time. He specifically said, "YOU don't allow YOUR heart to be troubled." Take control of yourself. Think and act those things that bring you peace and joy.
In John 16:33 He said--KJV--These things I have spoke unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. Here we are again....peace and joy.
Jesus didn't sugar-coat it. He said, No, it won't always work out the way you want it to. As a matter of fact, there's a lot of things that just won't go your way at all. And, it'll probably hurt and last longer than what you really want it to. BUT, cheer up. Don't let your heart be troubled. Don't let fear control your thoughts and emotions. I have overcome all these problems for you by My blood and resurrection. Yes, you'll have to go through it. But, stick with Me. Ride on my wings like a little eaglet. I'll take you THROUGH this storm and show you the beauty of it before it's over with. If you'll trust Me, you can have peace through every minute of it. (That's the AHV, the Authorized Henry Version)
Your thoughts control your actions either good or bad. Your thoughts control your emotions either good or bad. Therefore, your thoughts control your destiny either for the good or for the bad.
Take, for example, your spouse. You didn't wake up one morning and have him/her sleeping in bed with you. You didn't get mysteriously teleported to a different city and a different house watching kids run through the living room and a baby pooping all over you.
It was a process that started with a thought. You started with, 'Boy, he's/she's cute.' From there it went to thinking about a date to thinking about a kiss to thinking about marriage. In each one of those thought processes, you always thought about how happy it would make you.
Nobody that I know of every went on a date and/or got married with the sole idea of being miserable, arguing, cussing, divorcing, etc. Absolutely not. Your thoughts were about how happy you were always going to be.
Then some circumstance came along that rubbed you the wrong way. And it happened again and again and again. Then the thought started running through your mind about how good it would be to tell them off. Then you thought about what you were going to say the next time you argued.
In either of these situations, your thought life made you feel either glad, sad, happy or mad. And those thoughts and emotions brought on actions either good or bad. Then those good or bad actions brought on deeper thoughts and emotions because of those actions.
What Jesus was instructing us in John 14:1 and John 16:33 was to bring our thought life into line with what the Word of God says. Why is that important? Because God invested the life of His only Son, Jesus Christ to die on a cruel cross so His blood and resurrection could bring us into a victorious lifestyle. A lifestyle that honors Him and shows others how they can live victoriously. And those others can live victoriously so that their friends and family can see the power of Jesus Christ manifested in an every day life.
Honestly, your future depends on your thought life and not your circumstances. I have time for this one example. I'll have a lot more in subsequent blogs.
As I mentioned in previous blogs, Jesus knew (His thought pattern) exactly Who God said He was. That's important because we often judge ourselves by what people think of us or circumstances make us look like. Jesus thought that He was everything God said He was and He thought about doing everything God said He could do. (See previous blogs)
One day, His best friends, Mary and Martha sent Him a message that Lazarus was sick and dying. They asked that He come quickly to heal their brother. However, Jesus stayed where He was for a couple of days. In the process, Lazarus died.
When Jesus finally decided to Bethany, He eventually told the disciples that Lazarus was dead. He also said that He was glad that He was not there to heal Lazarus from his sickness because He wanted them to believe in the power of God.
Yes, this was hard on Mary, Martha and Lazarus' friends. Yes, Jesus could have come immediately and healed Him. But through this hard and emotionally draining time, Jesus was wanting to display the depth of God's love and power that would soon be available for all of them to enjoy. Because of Lazarus' resurrection, many of the Jews believed on Jesus and received a greater revelation of Who God really was. The end result was, everybody was happy and God got the glory.
Understand, through all of this, Jesus never lost His cool, He never feared, and He never lost sight of the power and goodness of His Father. He never once doubted that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. That thought controlled His actions, His conversation with the disciples and His conversation with Mary and Martha.
When Jesus got to the tomb and they opened it, Jesus said this, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. And I knew that Thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me."
Why did He wait and cause so much pain and agony of their heart? Like the centurion, Jesus could have just spoken a word and Lazarus would have been healed instantly. However, a child of God goes from one learning plateau to the next higher one as long as he or she desires to be effective for Him.
We WILL have tribulations. He WILL help us overcome them. He told us to cheer up and don't allow our heart to be troubled. Therefore, the opposite of that is what we need to strive to obtain. We need to think about and talk about those things which make our hearts glad and be at peace.
We'll get into that in the next blogs.
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