00:04Let not your heart be troubled. What Jesus said in John 14 verse 27 is a command. Let not your
00:13heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. The construction in the original language is
00:18imperative. He is not describing a state he hopes they will stumble into. He is instructing them to
00:26do something with their hearts, to exercise a deliberate, willed refusal to surrender to fear
00:32and agitation. This surprises us because we tend to think of peace as something that happens to us
00:38when conditions are right, a by-product of good news, favorable circumstances, or relief from
00:45pressure, but Jesus places peace in a different category entirely. He speaks of it as something
00:52that can be chosen even when the circumstances have not changed, and even when the worst is still
00:58coming. The disciples would face arrest, scattering, and grief before the week was out, so he was not
01:04promising them an easy road at all. Jesus was commanding them not to let their hearts be governed
01:11by what lay on that road. Paul, writing from prison to the church at Philippi, describes the mechanism
01:18by which this becomes possible. Be careful for nothing, he says, but in everything by prayer and
01:25supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which
01:31posseth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The word translated
01:38keep is a military word that means to garrison, to stand guard. The peace of God is not passive,
01:45but stands watch over the heart that has brought its burdens to God in prayer, actively holding back
01:51the anxiety that would otherwise take up residence there. The troubled heart is a sign of a heart that
01:57has not yet brought its trouble to the right place, and Jesus is not rebuking the troubledness but bidding
02:03you come. Come to me, lay it down, and let my peace stand guard in its place. Reflect. What is
02:11troubling
02:11your heart right now that you have not yet brought to God in prayer? In what area of your life
02:17are you
02:18allowing circumstances to govern your inner state rather than the peace of Christ? Prayer. Father,
02:25I bring my troubled heart to you now. I will not hold on to the anxiety. I lay it before
02:31you with
02:31thanksgiving, trusting that your peace, which is beyond my ability to reason my way into, will stand guard
02:39over me. Amen.
