People with troubled hearts sit beside us everyday! We meet them in the church,malls,schools,parties etc.They dine and smile with us.We can’t see their agitated hearts but their hearts ache inwardly.They feel lonely in the midst of the multitudes.They wished people could know what they were going through!

What makes the heart to be troubled?

  • Receiving bad news
  • Events not going as planned
  • No hope/solution in sight
  • Failure of all human efforts
  • Failure to see God behind the scene

While David was running away from King Saul(his father-in-law) that wanted to kill him,he was really troubled to the point that he wrote this down:

“And David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand”-1Sam 27:1

He had lost all hope for safety.He was just waiting for the day that Saul would kill him.

As it was for David,so it is in the lives of many of us!Many times we ‘overthink’ and forget that God could overturn the table to our favour.We think:

One day,this sickness will kill me!

One day,my enemies will get me!

While David was in one of the caves where he went to hide,he wrote another lines that showed he was troubled:

“How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?”-Psalm 13:1-2

In the same way,we too ‘fight’ God when we are troubled!We feel neglected by God and think God has forgotten us.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?”-Psalm 22:1

David cried out in another Psalm:

“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad…”-Psalm 42:11a

It wasn’t only David that was troubled in the Bible.

Jesus Christ too was troubled!Yes,Jesus Christ had a troubled heart and He also felt that God forsook Him for a while:

“Now my soul is deeply troubled.Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’?But this is the very reason I came!”-John 12:27 …”-John 12:27a

“About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”-Matt 27:46

Though Jesus Christ had a troubled heart,he later charged the disciples and us not to be troubled:

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled”…-John 14:1a

Why did He say that?

  • He was purposely on earth to carry our burden
  • He was troubled so that we will not be troubled!

When His soul was troubled,our trouble,guilt,heaviness,condemnation, depression, agitation,sin etc were upon Him.

Jesus Christ had a troubled heart so that we should not be troubled!

He took all of them to the cross and by the time he arose from the dead,He appeared to the troubled disciples:

“While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”-Luke 24:36

When they became frightened and agitated,

He said to them, “Why are you troubled and why do doubts rise in your minds?Look at my hands and my feet.It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have”-Luke 24:38-38

Why allow bad news to demoralise you?

“He(the just) is not afraid of bad news.His heart remains secure, full of confidence in the LORD-Psalm 112:7

Why are you troubled because events are not going as planned?

“God makes everything happen at the right time…”-Ecc 3:11

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope”-Jer 29:11

Why are you troubled? Is it because you can’t see any hope/solution around you? Put your hope in God!The answer is in the Messiah that came into the world to die for you.

“But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you”-Psalm 39:7

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid”-John 14:27

Are you troubled because all your strategies and human efforts have failed you?

“My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever”-Psalm 73:26

“For when I am weak, then I am strong”-2Cor 12:10b

Are you depressed because you think God has forgotten you?Are you troubled because you can’t see Him working things out for you behind the scene?

“We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him”-Romans 8:28a(CEV)

I pray for the peace of God for every troubled heart in Jesus’ name. Amen

Shalom