'Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid'

Look back, see the pattern of His care, even as such care was misunderstood

By Steve Hall

“Behold, I send an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared.” (Exodus 23:20)

“He will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways.” (Psalms 91:11)

Where is that great power in our lives with the capacity and the willingness to destroy the peace Jesus gives us? What deficiency in others can make our hearts troubled and afraid?

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Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Acts 14:19-28
John 14:27-31a

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”

So, with Jesus’ words in our ears, how are we doing? Why do those fears well up in us? Will someone attack us? Will cars run us down as we cross a street? Are there people who make us troubled and afraid?

“A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save.” (Psalms 33:16-17)

If a king is wasting his time with bombast and anger, where is the offense that any of us should be crazed with fear, and may be driven “mad as hell and unwilling to take it anymore?”

“Behold, I send an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared.” (Exodus 23:20)

“He will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways.” (Psalms 91:11)

Where is that great power in our lives with the capacity and the willingness to destroy the peace Jesus gives us? What deficiency in others can make our hearts troubled and afraid?

“Do you think that I [we] cannot appeal to my [our] Father, and he will at once send me [us] more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53)

Throughout the centuries, many Christians have suffered like Paul and our Lord.

“They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered around him, he got up and entered the city.” (Acts 14:19-20)

People like Paul have risen, remarkably protected by God’s hand, and returned to their mission to witness the Good News of salvation. But, like Paul, they didn’t always ask for angels to protect them bodily. They probably only prayed for the encouragement that angels may provide. How could so many have remained untroubled and not let their peace be destroyed by imagined or real persecutions? That is the peace we have been given. It is peace that the world cannot and will not provide, but we are not supposed to live by the world’s promptings and direction.

What counts more than God and his angels? Nothing that I’m willing to surrender to. What anger there has been in my life has already been spent; and, I hope, completely spent. Learning to trust in God has been a principal ambition for most of my life. What trust I have learned has been slow in coming and sporadic in ascendance over the normal turmoils of life. Nevertheless, I can look back and see the pattern of his care even as such care was misunderstood or questioned in that moment. What comes from that is peace.

Fear, anger, pride, and laziness are always ready to welcome me back. But, in this moment, and prayerfully the next, I opt for the promised and delivered peace offered by God and exemplified in the life of Jesus and his holy followers.

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