DON’T
BE TROUBLED
BREAD
17 The
righteous cry out, and the Lord
hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. 18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are
crushed in spirit. 19 A
righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord
delivers him from them all. Psalms
34:17-19 (NIV)
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also
in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I
would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if
I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me
that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place
where I am going.” John 14:1-4
(NIV)
27 “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 (NIV)
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have
peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the
world.” John 16:33 (NIV)
3 Praise
be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and
the God of all comfort, 4 who
comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble
with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of
Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort
overflows. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (NIV)
16 Therefore
we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are
being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for
us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what
is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians
4:16-18 (NIV)
4 Rejoice
in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident
to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7 (NIV)
14 For he
himself is our peace. Ephesians 2:14
(NIV)
BUTTER
“‘Dost
thou want nothing, O poor soul? Hast
thou nothing to ask? Oh yes! You say, a great deal. Well then, draw near to thy gracious King and
Bridegroom without fear. Lo! He holds out His golden scepter to thee, saying,
‘Only ask: not the half, but the whole
of My kingdom shall be granted; nay, I will give myself unto thee!’ O dear soul, pray, and tell Him everything
that is wanting, be it ever so great or ever so small. His loving-kindness will hear even the least
petition; nay, He will seem to be ignorant of what thou dost not tell Him. But whatever is poured out before Him is
actually addressed and lodged in its proper place, and does not lie upon thy
heart any longer, but upon His heart, which cannot rest till you are
relieved. And if you have experienced
His help aforetime in great or small things, you may depend on His readiness to
help you out of troubles hereafter; only be earnest in prayer for His
help. We often imagine we were willing
and drawing near to Him, but He was unwilling, and refused our request; but it
is not so: He rather draws us, and
desires our relief more than we do; for it is He that works even this willing
mind.” K.H. Von Bogatzky
“In believing prayer, we learn to connect
our present troubles to the good and perfect will of God. We refuse to believe that chance rules our
lives. We withstand the temptation to
imagine that God is capricious or malicious.
We know he has a higher purpose and that he is not dealing with us as
our sins deserve. As we bring our
troubles to Jesus in prayer—asking his will to be done—we approve the will of
our Father in heaven. We see our sufferings in the greater reality of his good,
acceptable, and perfect will. In prayer
we ‘turn crisis to Christ.’ Our heart
becomes tuned to his heart and we sing the song of grace.” Ancient
Prayer, John F. Smed
“A fixed, constant attention
to the promises, and a firm belief in them, would prevent solicitude and anxiety
about the concerns of this life. It would keep the mind quiet and composed in
every change, and support and keep up our sinking spirits under the several
troubles of life….Christians deprive themselves of their most solid comforts by
their unbelief and forgetfulness of God’s promises. For there is no extremity so great but there
are promises suitable to it, and abundantly sufficient for our relief in it.” Samuel
Clarke
“God will never permit any troubles
to come upon us unless He has a specific plan by which great blessing can come
out of the difficulty.” Peter Marshall
“Seriously,
who wants to be known as ‘Shallow Hal’?
Yet sadly, many who claim faith in Christ fall into the mile wide and an
inch-deep category. This is not of God’s
choosing. He desires for us to grow up
in Christ – to be conformed to the image of his Son – and He often uses our
tribulations to bring this about. That
is His chosen instrument. Sometimes this
is excruciatingly painful – more often than not. Remember as well, in this fallen and broken
world, pain comes to all. There are no
exceptions. But as believers our pain
has purpose. Pain is also relative as
you most likely know. A coffee stain on
a white skirt can be as devastating to some as a bad diagnosis – go figure…If
tribulation, then, is inevitable should we not prayerfully seek the purpose for
it and grow up, look up, or grow nearer, if you will, in Christ? As believers, we are never more like our
Savior as when we walk the path of suffering and sacrifice. And whether we are discerners of this or not
the more like Christ we are the more satisfied we will be. Remember, too, God’s grace is always
sufficient to meet every need. Every.
Need.” BHY
“He’s making good out of even
the bad days. And God’s good plans are bigger than any of your
messes, your regrets, your bad mistakes. Lord, Thank You: I am not the mistakes I have made. I am not the plans I have failed. I am not the wrongs I have done. I am not forgotten. I am not abandoned. I am not alone. Because
You say to the lost: Come. You say to the Unlikely: Beloved. You say to the Battle Weary: Rest. In a hard and beautiful world, Your grace
is the only pillowed relief for my tired soul to rest in You this week — making
all things new. And all the brave heaved
relief & smiled their Amen.”
Anonymous
HEART SAVOR
·
Jesus has
told us not to let our heats be troubled rather lean into Him Who desires to
make the hard holy.
·
The peace
He bestows is so other worldly – it passes human understanding – even in the
greatest trials.
·
I am not
to be anxious about anything rather pray about everything. In all my ways acknowledge Him and He will
make my path straight.
