Sharing the devotion that I send to a group of men each week. Hope you find it encouraging! In John 14: 1-3, Jesus is with His disciples except for Judas who He had just told, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” in verse 27 of chapter 13. Jesus knows their hearts are troubled because of everything taking place and the circumstances surrounding them. They are fearful of being executed by the Jews. Not to mention, Jesus had told them He would soon be leaving them. So now the fear of living without Him was present as well. I can’t imagine their turmoil. These men had been doing life with JESUS!!! The thought of not having Him with them was probably more fearful than the thought of being executed with Him. Jesus tells them, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” He tells them how to release themselves from the turmoil by trusting in Him. He is in control of everything, why would we not give our troubles to Him? He follows this in verse 2 and 3 with the promise of heaven and His return. These 3 verses are strong reminders for us to live by each day. Saturday, I was coaching my sons baseball team and a player from the opposing team was very scared to bat. His coach and dad asked us to pray for his son as a result. How often does that happen is the sports world? I found out that in their last game, which was against our team (I was not there that day), his son got hit hard in stomach with a wild pitch. He was scared to bat to the point of crying while in the on deck circle. I asked his dad if I could talk to him and I encouraged him. He faced his fear and got in batters box. His bravery and courage set an example for his teammates who know how fearful he was. As I read our passage today, I was reminded that in life, we will get hit with things that hurt a lot. I pray that you too make the decision to “let not your hearts be troubled” and have the courage, faith and trust in Jesus to take care of you in every way and to always be ready and expecting His return. Love you guys and pray you have a good week! Danny Bracey

Posted by Danny Bracey at 2021-06-28 20:40:04 UTC