We’ve been wrapping our hearts around the holiness that we find in the simple things that create faith and wholeness. We are choosing to rest in the simplicity of faith, right now in this very moment. Last week I posted at 5 Minutes for Faith, and it fits right in.

“Do not let your heart be troubled;

believe in God, believe also in Me

–John 14:1.

Simple Things, Worry, John14, trusting God

How many times have I read this verse? Quite a few, yet because I am prone to worry, I come back to it again and again.

Isn’t it easy to grab hold of a verse and try to stick it onto our souls like a bandaid? As if one quick fix and the bleeding of our hearts will stop.

No more worries and no more struggles.

Yet bandaids will not cure the troubles of our souls, any more than pulling a single verse out of context will fix our brokenness. Do not let…oh, how many times I let worry creep in and then I open the door wide. When trouble gets a foot in the door, it’s time to shut the door.

The biblical word for trouble is tarasso, meaning to agitate, to cause inward commotion, to take away calmness of mind. As if that’s not enough, the meaning extends deeper to strike one’s spirit with fear and dread, to render anxious and distressed. Like a bully, trouble, threatens and darkens our thoughts, and it is oh-so-easy to cave, giving into the temptation to let our thoughts spin with an increasing, frantic energy that can drive you right into full on fear.

Believe in God, believe also in Me.

Jesus simply states the antidote to fear and worry. Verses will never be bandaids, but believing opens our hearts for the power of God to strengthen and calm. Peace of mind and rest for the soul are the blessed by-products of believing Jesus as we learn to cast all our cares on Him.

Overused and diluted, the word believe has become more of an opinion rather than strength for the soul that changes a life. To rely on, trust in, cling to and place confidence in–this is the lifeline for our souls and the conduit to receive the strength and peace of God.

Join me for the remainder of this article.

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Believing opens our hearts for the power of God to strengthen and calm.

What verse have you been tempted to use as a bandaid?

 

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