“Let Not”

“‘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, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.'” John 14:1-7

Jesus has drawn nigh for final intimate moments with His inner circle of disciples. Preparing them for His imminent death and all they could not yet imagine, He lovingly, firmly commanded what not and what to do. Let not your hearts be troubled. It’s up to you- you are the gatekeeper of your emotions and responses, and you’re not to allow your hearts to go to a place of turmoil, fretting, and fear. And His command included the how and why in the all-sufficient antidote: Believe in God, and also in Me. We are your peace, your hope, your reason. Knowing Him was enough defense against all that would transpire. (Joshua 1:9; John 16:33)

And so troubled our hearts can be! What if I fail? What will my medical report say? How can I ever forgive her? What do they think of me? Why didn’t he call? How will I manage? What if I lose my job? We do not know the specific answers to these questions, and most often the Lord does not intend that we do. He wants us to know His answer: Believe in God, believe in Jesus.

In order to ‘let not,’ we need to let go of our earthly thinking about things. We weigh and compare, fuss and what-if, and we get all tangled in the indescribables and undecipherable of the here and now. But the Lord on high wants to elevate our mental meanderings. He turns us from the immediate to the eternal, the uncertain to the sure, the mortal to the immortal and divine. What keeps us from taking His way?

His way to peace and unlearned fear is that He is the Way. The truth we need to cling to is that He is the Truth. The life we struggle with here below is actually eternal life He’s implanted at our moment of belief, and sanctified- His Life within. In what ways are we by choice failing to live as we say we believe?

What particular fears- about loved ones, health, finances, the future- can we release into His hands? When anxious or alone, what promises of His presence and constant abiding will we recite as a defense? How can our whole mindset about troubling things be transformed to confident trust in the ever-present One who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow? (Hebrews 13:8)

Lord, give me the will to ‘let not’ all You identify, and glorify You by faith, and as You deserve, instead.