We don't have to let our hearts be troubled; if we keep our hearts and minds fixed on God and we trust in his promises then we can overcome anything. Our first reaction to tragedy or to negative news should not be one of panicking but of trusting God.
John 14:1-4, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me, in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so I would've told you, I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, you may also be. And where I go, you know the way…”
Jesus is speaking to his disciples the night before his crucifixion and he's really just giving them the low down on how to deal with his crucifixion, which is about to happen. He’s preparing them and he's sharing with them significant keys on how to deal with a challenge or a tragedy. The first thing he says is to “let not your heart be troubled”. You don't have to allow yourself to panic. You don't have to go with the flow of the negative feelings. Rather, you can trust in God – have faith.
John 14:1, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me…”
As believers, we have faith but need to exercise or use it! 1 John 5:4 says, “whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” Because we are born of God we've got world overcoming faith, which means nothing that comes against us should get us down. We should not be overcome by anything, but we should overcome everything. Amen. That should be your default setting.
Then Jesus goes on in verse two and says “in my father's house are many mansions…”, What he's saying is that in a negative situation, in a tragedy, one of the easiest ways to deal with it is to put things into perspective. Your situation might be really, really terrible but you don’t need to focus on it and indulge in the natural associated emotions. If you want to overcome the situation and the negative emotions, and roller coaster of emotions that you might go through then trust God and change your perspective! If you want to go with the flow of the emotions that are associated with any tragedy, then don't listen to this podcast but you need to realize that you do not have to fall apart like the world falls apart. You can live in victory! You can live like the happiest person on the face of the earth.
John 14:2 says, “in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so I would've told you I go to prepare a place for you.”
In a tragic situation, put things into perspective. He’s saying, “I'm going to go to my father's house where there are many mansions and I'm going to prepare a place for you.” Even if things are really, really bad here and there's nothing to rejoice about, you can focus on eternity and experience joy and peace! Yes, you may have lost a loved-one, even more than one loved-one in a short space of time. And that is tragic. That's difficult. And I understand, things might be falling apart and bad things might be happening everywhere. But if you just think about it, one day you're going to die and you're going to be in eternity with Jesus if you're born again and that is going to last for eternity. You're going to be in paradise. And in 10,000 years time, you're not gonna be worried about what happened today because whatever happens today is going to be forgotten, even in 10 years time, maybe even next week. Put things into perspective. Don't focus on the negative, but focus on God. Focus on eternity. If you've got nothing good to focus on in your life right now, just focus on the fact that you're going to be with Jesus forever and that should help you to overcome now because it pulls the focus off of the now and puts your focus on the future and then it helps you to be able to deal with the now because there isn't as much pressure. But be encouraged that there is victory, you can experience victory right now in your situation, but even if the challenging circumstances are prolonged for however long, you don't have to fall apart. You don't have to be depressed, you don't have to lose joy. You can rise up and enjoy life even in the midst of challenging circumstances.
Just put things into perspective and be like, “well father, I thank you that even though I'm suffering and there's so much pain in my body right now, one day I'm going to be in perfection.” And it's not saying that you want to get there quicker. All you're doing is putting the “right now” into perspective so that it's easier for you to deal with it. That's the key. When you put things into perspective, it makes them easier for you to deal with because you realize that in light of eternity, the “right now” isn’t so bad. Whatever you’re going through right now, I hope that this is encouraging you and that it's an enabling you to realize that if you just change a few thoughts, and change your focus, you'll be able to get through anything and live in victory.