Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

What Jesus said in John 14:27 is a command. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. The construction in the original language is imperative. He is not describing a state He hopes they will stumble into. He is instructing them to do something with their hearts, to exercise a deliberate, willed refusal to surrender to fear and agitation.
This surprises us because we tend to think of peace as something that happens to us when conditions are right, a by-product of good news, favourable circumstances, or relief from pressure, but Jesus places peace in a different category entirely. He speaks of it as something that can be chosen even when the circumstances have not changed, and even when the worst is still coming. The disciples would face arrest, scattering, and grief before the week was out, so He was not promising them an easy road at all. Jesus was commanding them not to let their hearts be governed by what lay on that road.
Paul, writing from prison to the church at Philippi, describes the mechanism by which this becomes possible. "Be careful for nothing," he says, "but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." The word translated keep is a military word that means to garrison, to stand guard. The peace of God is not passive, but stands watch over the heart that has brought its burdens to God in prayer, actively holding back the anxiety that would otherwise take up residence there.
The troubled heart is a sign of a heart that has not yet brought its trouble to the right place, and Jesus is not rebuking the troubledness but bidding you come. "Come to Me, lay it down, and let My peace stand guard in its place."

REFLECT
What is troubling your heart right now that you have not yet brought to God in prayer?
In what area of your life are you allowing circumstances to govern your inner state rather than the peace of Christ?

Prayer: Father, I bring my troubled heart to You now. I will not hold onto the anxiety. I lay it before You with thanksgiving, trusting that Your peace, which is beyond my ability to reason my way into, will stand guard over me. Amen.