Trusting God When Life Changes

When we go through changes in life, we often find ourselves grasping for assurance that everything will be okay. Our natural instinct is to look for safety and stability no matter what we are facing. It could be a medical diagnosis we never saw coming, and suddenly we are consumed with researching it, trying to understand everything we can. It could be the loss of a job or the loss of a loved one, where we desperately try to piece together what is left in an effort to hold on to it. In each of these moments, our instinct is to strive for stability, safety, and understanding on our own terms.

The disciples faced that kind of change on the night before Jesus went to the cross. In the upper room, Jesus told them plainly that He was leaving. In response, Peter asked Him, “Lord, where are you going?” and Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward” (John 13:36). Peter could not accept that. He insisted that he would follow Jesus anywhere and even lay down his life for Him (John 13:37). Then Jesus told Peter something hard to hear. Before the rooster crows, Peter would deny Jesus three times (John 13:38).

It’s important to notice what comes next. The chapter break in the Bible between chapters thirteen and fourteen makes it easy to miss, but Jesus’ very next words are “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). He has just told His disciples that He is leaving, that one of them will betray Him, and that Peter will deny Him. Yet He does not leave them in fear. He turns toward them with comfort. The word “your” is plural in the original language, so Jesus is speaking to all of them, Peter included. The same Lord who knew Peter would fail Him still spoke peace over him.

I want you to see something further. John uses that same word, troubled, to describe Jesus Himself. At the tomb of Lazarus He was “greatly troubled” (John 11:33). As the cross drew near He said, “Now is my soul troubled” (John 12:27). Earlier that evening He was “troubled in his spirit” as He spoke of His betrayal (John 13:21). Jesus was about to walk into the deepest suffering anyone has ever known, and He spent those final hours calming the hearts of His friends. He knows what a troubled heart feels like, and He doesn’t ask us to carry something He does not understand.

Jesus then gives them the remedy. “Believe in God; believe also in me.” The trust the disciples had always placed in the God of Israel was now to rest on Jesus in the very same way. That is a claim only God in the flesh could make (John 1:14). Faith in Christ is not a vague hope that things will somehow work out. It is confidence in a Person who is fully able to keep His word.

Jesus told them that in His Father’s house are many rooms and that He was going to prepare a place for them. He even added, “If it were not so, would I have told you?” (John 14:2). Then He made this promise, “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). Notice the heart of that promise. The greatest gift is not the room. It is being with Jesus. The disciples were troubled because they were about to lose His presence, and Jesus assured them that His presence was exactly where they were headed. His leaving was not abandonment. It was preparation.

How often in our day to day do we fix our eyes on the worries of the moment instead of on the promises of God? The directive Jesus gave His disciples is meant for us as well. The diagnosis, the job loss, and the empty chair at the table are real, and Jesus never pretends they are not. But those circumstances do not get the final word. The One who went to the cross, rose from the grave, and promised to come again holds the final word, and He has never failed to keep a promise. What would today look like, and the week ahead be like, if you truly embraced His words? Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, and believe also in Him.

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