This past Sunday, my pastor preached on the life of Solomon, but focused more on a passage in John that blew my mind.

Sometimes, you read things, and you don’t understand and instead of digging deeper, you accept them and move on.

In my life, I’ve read John as a whole and in different sections many times. Did I ever notice what I’m about to talk about or dig deeper? No. But at the same time, I’ve come to realize lately that God reveals things when we need them, not just in the times we’re seeking to know more. I needed this, and maybe you do, too.

In John 14:1-6 Jesus says. “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

“Let not your hearts by troubled.” But what happened before this?

In John 11, Lazarus died. He died and Jesus raised him. What happened? In John 11:33, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.”

Jesus was troubled!

Again, in John 12, Jesus’ time is coming near. He says in verse 27, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.” He was once again troubled at what He must do.

After Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet, preparing them for what was to come, he was again, troubled. In verse 21 of John 13 it says, “After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”

Oh my goodness… Pastor said some people see this and think Jesus is contradicting himself. He was troubled and he’s telling us to not let our hearts be troubled? Double standards, buddy.

I was sitting in my pew thinking about 1) how I hadn’t even thought of this before and 2) how is this going to be explained? How can He be troubled, but then tell us not to be?

The thing about all these scenes where Jesus was troubled is that… unlike us, He could do something about them.

Lazarus dying? Raised to life.

Jesus crucifixion? He did it.

Jesus being betrayed? He went anyway.

Us? We couldn’t raise someone from the dead and our deaths wouldn’t save mankind.

The thing about this is it just reestablished our need for Him in our everyday lives and asking ourselves, why worry about these things that we can’t do anything about and why not take them to the One who can?

I was so moved by this. Even days later, I’ve been thinking about it.

How do I hold onto things that I can’t change, but still hold onto rather than giving them to God? We aren’t here to hold the world together, that’s not our purpose. God is the only One who can hold it all together – the world, us, our troubles, etc.

I know it’s easier said than done, but our call in our troubledness is to give it to God to handle and accept the things we cannot change. When we need a miracle, why are we holding onto it when we can’t perform those?

I’ve been feeling stressed lately, kind of anxious and my body is telling me I’m stressed, and I don’t know why because I have nothing to stress about, but apparently, I’m holding onto something. It’s a lot of fun. I’d really like to not overthink and stress, so I’m still working on giving those reins to God.

When your heart is troubled, you’re fretting over something you can’t change.

How are you troubled today?

What can you do about the situation?

Have you subconsciously thought that this was outside God’s control?

What’s holding you back from releasing this?

I pray that whatever you’re going through that you talk to God and release a hold on it. God’s working it out for your good, He promises!

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Have a great Friday and weekend!