Don’t be troubled

Pastor Mike Novotny

What are you afraid of? Fear is the feeling that something will stop you from getting what you need to be happy. If you need a lot of money or a fulfilling job or a significant other or a healthy body or a prosperous country or anything else to be happy, fear is what you feel when something threatens those blessings.

And that’s a legitimate feeling! In this broken world, God has not guaranteed that every Christian will be early retirement rich, perfectly employed, in love and loved, disease free, and blessed in the U.S.A. Every day, God’s people lose their savings, their jobs, their marriages, their health, and their freedom. So, why wouldn’t we all be afraid?

Jesus’ answer? Because none of those threats can take away God. He told his quivering disciples on the night before he bled, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. . . . My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:1,2).

Why not be troubled? Why not be afraid? Because God’s house has plenty of room. A spot in the glorious presence of God is all you need to be blessed, to be eternally happy. And guess what? Jesus went to a cross and left a grave empty to prepare a place there for you. Tell that to your fears, and maybe your heart will be a little less troubled than it was before.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org