Herbert Lockyer recounts, "When Sir Walter Scott, the eminent novelist, lay dying, he said to Lockhart (his son-in-law and biographer), 'Read to me from the Book.' Lockhart replied, 'What book?' Scott responded, 'There is only one Book—the Bible.' Taking the sacred volume, Lockhart read from the fourteenth chapter of the gospel of John. When he had finished reading, Sir Walter Scott said, 'Well, that is a great comfort; I feel as if I were going to be myself again.'" In a day when tranquilizers, therapists, and techniques are often employed to ease the pain of a troubled heart, we must remember Jesus proclaims some helpful truths for troubled hearts in John 14:1-6.

First, note the problem. John 14:1 reads, "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me." Here we have the problem stated and the problem solved.

Second, note the provision. John 14:2a reads, "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. . ." G. Campbell Morgan refers to the word translated "mansions" as "abiding places."

Third, note the promise. John 14:2b-3 reads, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." "Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people." Charles H. Spurgeon referred to this as "one of those Christian proverbs."

Fourth, note the process. John 14:4-6a reads, "And where I go you know, and the way you know.' Thomas said to Him, 'Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?' Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.'" Notice "the way" is found three times in this passage. The way is specifically mentioned in John 14:4, "And where I go you know, and the way you know." The way is skeptically questioned in John 14:5, "Thomas said to Him, 'Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?'" The way is strategically positioned in John 14:6a, "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life."

Fifth, note the prohibition. John 14:6b reads, "No one comes to the Father except through Me." Ray Stedman comments, "Every now and then I run into somebody who will say, 'You Christians are so bigoted, so narrow. Why do you insist that Jesus is the only way by which you can come to God? Other religions have their ways; other religions are striving to know the same God, and other religions are more tolerant; but you Christians are so narrow!' And I have to say, 'That is true; we are narrow. At that point Jesus himself was narrow, and we dare not go beyond what he said, because truth itself is narrow.'"

Don't forget these helpful truths for troubled hearts.

Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey, of Robertsdale, is the author of "Don't Miss the Revival! Messages for Revival and Spiritual Awakening from Isaiah.