Trusting Christ with a Troubled Heart

4/16 Reading Portions: Leviticus 20; Psalm 25; Ecclesiastes 3; 1 Timothy 5

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4/16 Reading Portions: Leviticus 20; Psalm 25; Ecclesiastes 3; 1 Timothy 5

Psalm 25:17

The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses.

DISTRESS

The world is troublesome indeed. And since salvation by the grace of God in Jesus Christ resurrects us from the dead, and according to Ezekiel, God has given you and me “a new heart, and a new spirit,” by removing “the heart of stone from [our] flesh” (Ezek 36:26) Our new heart is sensitive to the heavenly things of God and grieved by the wicked things of the world. Now, the wickedness of the world troubles our hearts for its daily evil and its lust for wickedness. Our distresses over the world are enlarged. The Lord Jesus promised you and me at the end of the sixteenth chapter of John that we would have tribulation in this world. Nevertheless, He told us to “take heart.” Why? Because He said,

“I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

At Calvary’s cross, the Lord Jesus was victorious over the God-hating, Christ-rejecting, Satan-deceived world. By His atoning work upon the cross, He has brought us out of our distresses because of His indwelling Spirit. He is the Prince of Peace who has given us His peace amid trial, trouble, and persecution. Yet the difficulty comes in being brought out of our distresses. We wallow in them like pigs in mire. The corruptions remaining in our mortal flesh opposes the peace and liberty in Christ. Is Jesus not strong enough to pull us free? Of course He is. He is the almighty God-Man. His power to go to the cross, to lay down His life, to win victory for myriads and myriads, is the most powerful strength in all the universe for all eternity. Nevertheless, what good would it do His people if we didn’t grow in grace and were not strengthened in faith? He has already pulled us from the depths, as it were, by reaching down from His blood-stained cross. Now, from the heavenly heights of His ascended throne, He desires us to trust in His strength and the power of His might. When we call out to Christ Jesus during our overwhelming troubles, we are brought out of our distresses by grace through faith in Him. We trust in His atoning death and victorious resurrection; for He is the Truth, and knowing Him, we are free indeed. Hallelujah! What a Savior!