Let not your heart be troubled

 (John 14:1)
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14:27)
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John Chapter 14 is of significant importance as it records the last conversation Jesus had with His disciples just before He was arrested for crucifixion.We realize the importance of not letting our hearth be troubled as Jesus has repeated this advice twice in John Chapter 14.

Although we have read and heard this advice so often in our life, we still find ourselves getting troubled whenever we have to go though a problematic situation. 

How do we really keep our heart free from troubles when we go through troubles?
Is this something which cannot be achieved practically?

Well, if you carefully examine whenever your heart gets troubled over any situation, you can observe the fact that the root has always been a negative or unpleasant thought that we have entertained in the mind. A negative or unpleasant thought can spring up in our mind based on any unpleasant occurrence, which happened in the past or which is happening at present or which is going to happen in the future. Such a thought would always end up by making our heart troubled especially whenever we find no way out of the problem.

However, there is something in between a negative or unpleasant thought and a troubled heart. Guess what?

Yes, a negative or unpleasant thought cannot hit our heart straight. It always does it though EMOTIONS. Emotions are of two kinds as Good or Positive Emotions and Bad or Negative Emotions. Feeling SAD is the initial negative emotion we receive based on a negative or unpleasant thought in our mind. But a single negative or unpleasant though is not powerful enough to bring about a significant troubled heart because of the low level of the negative emotion that could be caused by it. But unfortunately, when we entertain more and more similar negative thoughts in our mind, one on top of the other, our negative emotions become stronger and stronger in order to cause a troubled heart in us.

What is the final outcome of these negative emotions?

Well, when our negative emotions reach the peak point, we are forced to manifest them through different actions. These actions are mostly destructive or harmful or wrong (where truly there is no way out at the moment) as they are backed by negative emotions.

However, in reality, we cannot avoid negative and unpleasant thoughts hitting our mind in the midst of troublesome situations. But there is a way out. Guess what?

Yes, this is the WAY. Whenever you get a thought of the above nature, you can KILL it with a positive or pleasant thought. These positive thoughts should be forced into the mind before the negative thought that has already hit the mind invites more negative thoughts into the mind. Why? because after negative emotions become stronger through a heap of negative thoughts piled up in the mind, it is not possible for the mind to entertain any positive thought in between.

Let's take an example. You happen to go through a financial crisis. Based on this happening, a negative thought can hit your mind. But soon after it hits the mind, you must start to think another blessing that you are enjoying right now, which is not allowed to be hit by the devil. Then, you can confess with your mouth saying "if God has done this for me, God is faithful to heal my financial situation too". If your spirit would remind you of different promises in the Word of God which can give you more hopes about a recovery from your problematic situation, you can confess them too.

When you entertain positive thoughts in your mind when a negative thought hits your mind, your problem becomes smaller in front of you. Even the negative emotion which would spring up because of the negative thought, would die away. This will protect you from making any destructive or harmful or wrong actions concerning the situation.

Finally, we can find ourselves continually maintaining the happy state in our heart even when we go through storms and waves in life. When we operate in this continuous happy state before God, we can see how deliverance comes on us from God in God's timings. Truly we receive our deliverance out of Zion when when we happily go through our trials without letting our hearts be troubled. Amen!