JOHN 14:1-6 – ““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.”
THEME OF THE DAY: LIVING IN THIS WORLD LOOKING TO THE NEXT. In today’s scripture, Jesus is in the Upper Room with His disciples. It is a solemn and intimate time. Jesus has washed the disciples’ feet. The Lord’s Supper was observed. Judas, the betrayer, has departed the group to complete the betrayal of Jesus. Now, it is just Jesus and His true men, and they are afraid, full of emotional turmoil, anxiety and confusion.
What does Jesus tell His fearful men? He gives the instruction not to allow their hearts to be troubled, then the command to exercise faith. . . Believe in God but that is not all. He draws their attention away from this world and the trying circumstances they are facing and points them to their future . . .
“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.”
When facing intense trials, challenging circumstances, and deep sorrow, the ease of becoming fearful and anxious is high. It is in those times we are to remember this world is not our home and direct our minds and affections on heaven – our real home. Doing so fills us with the power of hope and enables us to rejoice in the most difficult of situations.
The Apostle John would not only pen these encouraging words from Jesus, but he gave us further insight to our future in the last book of the Bible, the Revelation.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away”” (Revelation 21:1-4).
So, the next time we feel like the disciples – fearful and swelling up with anxiety, stop and remember the words of Jesus and the glorious future we have because of Him and with Him. Such thinking will drive away our fears and anxieties to be replaced by the joy and peace from our soon-appearing Lord.
PRAYER: Father, draw me to focus on the blessings in the next world more than the difficulties in this world.
REFLECTION: Let the promised joys in the next world sustain us to live above the pain and sorrow in this one.