Is my troubled heart stealing my joy?

Here's the Precious Prodigal post for September 3, 2014: Is my troubled heart stealing my joy? #troubledheart #stolenjoy Please "Share" using this "ShortLink" = http://bit.ly/1qyDFXb

John 14:27 "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

Harry and I lived in Virginia and had custody of two of our grandchildren in 2002. That was the year of the “Beltway sniper attacks” that took ten lives and critically wounded three other victims. I remember the constant fear and then the outright terror on October 14th when FBI agent Linda Franklin was killed less than two miles from our home.

I remember walking the kids to school each day, keeping them close to me until they were safe inside the building. In retrospect, it’s hard to believe that Muhammad and Malvo’s reign of terror lasted just a little over three weeks. It was a year before I could gas up the car without fear. That was a troubling time.

You may not have been terrorized by sniper attacks, but you know about troubling times, don’t you? Those of us who love a prodigal know what it’s like to be frightened by what’s happening in our prodigal’s life. We also know about that sense of impending danger even after the crisis is over. We know the terrible things that have happened, and we know there’s a high likelihood that bad things will happen again. How could we not worry when our prodigals are wreaking havoc in their lives and our own?

My husband Harry often tells me I must think my worry is very powerful since I do so much of it. And he’s right…not that I think it’s powerful, but that I do a lot of it. Take another look at my walking the kids to school and holding them close to me. There was certainly cause for concern, but were they really safer because I was walking with them, could see them and knew they were ok?

Of course they weren’t. Being able to see them only gave me the illusion of control. And what was true in Virginia in 2002 is still true in 2014 in Alabama…both for you and for me. Worrying about the economy, the biopsy, the job or even our prodigals as though our worry gives us some control is only an illusion.

Jesus tells us in John 14:1 that we have a choice about whether our hearts are troubled. In John 14:7 He adds that we are not to let our hearts be afraid. Fear and worry and a troubled heart are poison to the joyful spirit, and the antidote for that is to believe in Him. (John 14:1) It comes back to God is either everything or He is nothing. If we can trust Him with our souls, can we not trust Him with our fears?

We’re not giving up control…we didn’t have that anyway. Our worry is never going to change the outcome of something that was determined long ago by the God who cannot fail. Choosing to trust Him will only change our troubled heart and keep that troubled heart from stealing our joy.

Challenge for Today: What might happen if we, just for today, gave our troubled heart to the God who cannot fail?