Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

John {16:33} These
things I have spoken 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.

******* In Christ alone there is peace- no where else. As soon as we begin to believe that we have peace in any other way we'll be proven wrong. Maybe we won't be proven wrong in that first moment or even that first day or month, or even year but any peace built outside of Christ is temporary. When we are caught up in that peace we've manufactured outside of Christ it's deceptive and powerful in that deception because when it slips away whether gradually or in the space of mere moments, we are left despairing, our hearts aching and desolate and we turn around and blame the very one whose peace we are to cling to and not any of our own. Christ didn't lie, He couldn't lie. He told us we would have tribulation in the world.

Dict. tribulation (trîb´ye-lâ´shen) noun
1. Great affliction, trial, or distress; suffering: the tribulations of the persecuted. See synonyms at trial.
2. An experience that tests one's endurance, patience, or faith.

Excerpted from The American Heritage® Dictionary

He told us we'd have tribulation in the world- we'd have great afflictions, great trials, great distress, great suffering. That doesn't sound very pleasant does it? It sounds rather uninviting if you want to be truthful. Christ isn't trying to deceive us, He couldn't there is no deception in Him. It's Satan who likes us to blame God for life and it's many horrific hardships. Christ tells us that we will have these horrific hardships but we are to be of good cheer? Why? Because He overcame the world. Christ overcame Satan and the hardships and because He overcame we too will overcome through Him and Him alone. So while we may be buffetted about by all the heartache and pain the world has to offer, our only hope is found in Christ's overcoming- not ours but His and us through Him.


John {14:27} Peace I leave with
you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid.


Christ's peace is left with us, not the peace of the world, but Christ's peace is given to us- it's only in Christ's peace that we can let our heart release the trouble in it, only in Christ's peace that we can let the fear in our hearts go.