I was taking my moments to read the Bible this morning when I read the words of Jesus in John 16:33: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
There is no doubt, there is trouble in our world. There are troubles in our own lives.
So many times we try and blame these troubles on others, including the government and even God. There are times where we just want to “run away” from all these troubles. But where would we run to? So in exasperation we say: if only things were different!
In an online Bible devotion I found this: “Have you ever stopped to think how different life would be if we were still living in Eden? No broken relationships. No difficult pregnancies. No squabbles with spouses. No financial woes. No cancer. No feeling far away from God. (And this list doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface!)
Instead we live in a world marred by the effects of sin. We daily face all kinds of pain, trouble, suffering, weeping, loss and despair. The temptation is to blame our woes on God, but let’s be honest: The human race did this to itself. All God ever did was love us, and — when we rebelled — implement a plan to rescue us.”
Bible Gateway.com
It is easy to blame someone else for our troubles. Often this is because we do not want to face up to the fact that we brought many of these troubles upon ourselves. So people will blame God and say things like, “If God really is a God of love, then why does He allow all these troubles?” Or other such statements.
If we would be honest, stop and look at our lives, we would see that a lot of the troubles that occur are because of our personal dissatisfaction, greed, selfishness, rebellion, to name only a few of the negative characteristics that are found in the hearts of humanity.
God gave us the solution to dealing with these negative characteristics when He sent Jesus to this world.
Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
It seems too simple for people that we just need to come to Jesus, to surrender our lives to Him, and we can be rid of our heavy burdens. Yet that is just how simple it is. So simple that anyone can do it. Come to Jesus, give Him your burdens and let Him give you rest for your soul.
No, all your problems will not go away. We still have to deal with our teenagers, still have to work to make a living, still have to pay taxes, and no! you cannot shoot the dog next door who barks incessantly!
Yet in whatever the problems you may face, we have Jesus’ promise that He will be there with us. Jesus will help us through the problems we face. In these problems, Jesus even promises us His peace and His rest. Hey, you can’t lose!
This help starts when we come to Jesus and allow Him into our lives. Will you?