The turn of the year is a special moment for many of us. We look back on what has been and, at the same time, wonder what may come. The past does not repeat itself, and we do not know the future. God knows it. The turn of the year is often a time of mixed feelings—gratitude and joy for what God has done, and sadness for missed opportunities that will not return. At the same time, there is uncertainty, worry, or even fear of what lies ahead.
It is precisely in this situation that we want to remember our Lord’s words to his disciples. These words were spoken in a very special situation, but they remain meaningful and encouraging for us today.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1).
The Lord spoke these words to disciples whose future was shrouded in darkness. Their Master would soon leave them. The familiar community would come to an end in the form they had known until then. They did not understand what lay ahead of them. Their hearts were restless and questioning—just as ours sometimes are when we look at what lies ahead.
Our Lord’s statement is both encouraging and challenging. He does not address our minds, but our hearts—the seat of our feelings, fears, and hopes, but also of our decisions. It is good to know that the Lord knows our hearts. Nothing escapes Him.
What can make our hearts restless?
Many things in our lives can “disturb” our hearts and make us restless. The disciples at that time experienced uncertainty and felt overwhelmed. Similar things may move us. No one knows what the new year will bring. Perhaps concerns about health, work, our relationships in marriage and family, social and political developments, and not least the development in our common life as children of God. Paul once spoke of external struggles and internal fears (2 Cor. 7:5). Personal worries, unanswered questions, and spiritual struggles can indeed stir our hearts and cause us anxiety. Solomon writes, “You do not know what a day may bring” (Proverbs 27:1). On the one hand, it is a blessing that we do not know the future. On the other hand, what remains hidden from us can make us uncertain, and this uncertainty can lead to troubled hearts.
The Lord knows our hearts.
The good news in this situation is that the Lord knows our hearts. He knows them better than anyone else, even better than we know them ourselves. He sees our worries and fears before we express them. He knows the answers to our questions. He knows what moves us and our hearts. No emotion of the heart is unknown to Him. The Lord Jesus understands our feelings because He Himself became human and lived on earth. He knows external and internal pressure. He knows what rejection and loneliness feel like. He Himself was sad, suffered pain, and was bitterly disappointed—not only by His enemies, but by people who were very close to Him. The Lord knows all the challenges of our lives. And He sympathizes with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15).
Why our hearts need not be troubled
There are good reasons why a Christian can remain calm—even in troubled times and in a world that we cannot change. We live by faith. The disciples were motivated to do just that back then. They believed in God, and now, after the Lord had left them, they were to believe in Him too. This faith includes trusting in Him. Faith means trusting even when you cannot see anything, and consciously placing control in His hands. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18). He is above all things. That is why our lives are safely in His hands. He remains the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). When the love of Christ fills our hearts through faith, fear cannot take root there. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).
What calms restless hearts
In John 14, the Lord Jesus gives us a series of “arguments” that calm our hearts. Here are just a few of them. He first speaks of his Father’s house, which has many rooms (Jn 14:2). In doing so, he gives his disciples a whole new perspective and a living hope. This hope motivates us to enter the new year with confidence in him. This goal shapes our lives today. Those who know where the journey is going can remain calm along the way. Indeed, Christ did not promise us a peaceful journey through life, but He did promise us a safe arrival (cf. Psalm 107:30). This gives us the right attitude toward the things of this world. Our home is not here, but with Him. We wait for the One who is coming to take us to where He is.
On the way to our destination, we experience a foretaste of the Father’s house. There are the dwellings where we will one day be. But until then, we are not orphaned (Jn 14:18). The Father and the Son come to us to make their home with us (Jn 14:23). We already enjoy the love that characterizes the Father’s house today. Christ assures us that the Father loves us and that he loves us (John 14:21). Can our hearts be troubled in this atmosphere of love in fellowship with the Father and the Son?
And there is something else. Towards the end of John 14, the Lord Jesus once again speaks to our hearts. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). The peace that Christ enjoyed as a human being on earth is promised to us here by Him Himself. It is a peace that He had in the most difficult circumstances of life. Our hearts do not need to look to the future with worry and fear.
A heart at peace
“Do not let your hearts be troubled” – this is not a command, but a loving invitation from our Lord to each one of us. He wants us to find inner peace – the peace that He Himself had as a human being on earth. We are not at peace because everything is good, but because He is good. We are not calm because we understand everything, but because we trust in the One who knows everything and has everything in His hands. A heart that rests in Christ is not a heart without movement, but a heart that knows where it finds peace, namely in trust in the Lord, in communion with Him, in the certainty of His love, and in the hope of His coming.
This is how we can enter the new year—not fearful and restless, but with inner peace and the hope that lies before us and is a firm anchor for the soul.
(Heb 6:18-19). Not carefree and frivolous, yet not worried about anything (Phil 4:6).
With the sons of Korah, we say: “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Ps 42:12).
“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”
Isaiah 26:3
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