Comfort for the Heart

Comfort for the Heart

(Note: The beginning of this script needs to be adjusted to cultural practices. It could be as simple as:, person 1 saying “You look rather troubled today” and the reply starts “Actually, I am very troubled. We have heard from some of our family members...”)

1st person (Greeting)- Hello, my friend. How are you doing today?

2nd person I am fine, thank you. How are you doing today?

1st Well, I have been thinking about our custom for greeting each other. It is very friendly, but often not very truthful.

2nd What do you mean?

1st Well, are you really doing as well as you said? Or, are you troubled over what is going on back in the homeland, or with some of your current family needs?

2nd As you know, it is our custom to be polite and not bother others with our problems.

1st That is true, and that is why I am thinking about this greeting. How are you really doing?

2nd Actually, I am very troubled. We have heard from some of our family members who are still in the homeland. The conditions there are very difficult for them. And life here for us is sometimes still very difficult.

1st I thought that some of those things might be troubling you. I cannot change the condition of things in the homeland, and there is not much I can do to change things here either. But I can tell you some things that could help with some of the stress, sorrow and confusion you may be feeling, if you have time to listen.

2nd That sounds good, but what can you say that can possibly help with these feelings of sorrow, stress and confusion?

1st This is not something I thought of on my own, but something that I learned from some other people. This comes from someone with much greater understanding and the ability to comfort and help others. This is something (the Prophet) Jesus said when He was alive on earth. It has been helpful to me personally.

2nd Okay, I will listen, but I don’t know how Jesus could have said something a long time ago that could help me with today’s troubles.

1st I understand, but if you will listen for a while I think that it will become clear to you.

2nd Okay, I will listen.

1st Jesus was talking to a group of people many years ago. His words have actually been a comfort to many people over the years, including me. Human life on earth can be fairly long, but our lifetime here is usually at the most 100 years. Jesus helped the people he talked to, to understand that there is life after we die that will go on for much longer than our lifetime here on earth. In fact, the life after we die, never ends.

2nd I think that most people believe without having to be told that there is some kind of life after we die. But most of us do not know very much about that.

1st You are right that most people do have this idea that we will have some kind of life after we die. They think about this, and often develop their own ideas from their own imaginations of the way life after death may be.

But what I am telling you about are words that Jesus said. Some of the people who were listening to Jesus wrote the words down so we also can know this. This is from the Bible.

2nd I have heard of the Christian religion and the Bible, but I do not know very much about them.

1st The Bible is a pretty big book and has lots of information in it. At this time I am just trying to tell you some comforting things that Jesus said about being able to have peace even in difficult times.

2nd Well, I would like to hear that, I am listening.

1st We need to go back to that idea of life after death. In the Bible we read that Jesus said to His followers, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me.” Jesus had been living with these followers and walking around teaching them for three years, but now He was about to leave them. So, He wanted to give them some important information. Soon, some very bad things were going to happen to Him, and Jesus wanted His followers to know that this was not the last they would see of Him. He would come back to them again. Jesus said, “I am going to prepare a place for you. And I will come back and take you to be with Me, so you will be able to be where I am.”

Jesus had already taught many things to these people about God. Now, Jesus said that while He was away He would send the Holy Spirit of God to those who follow Him, to give them advice and to comfort them, and also to help them to remember the things that Jesus had taught them about God. Jesus said that the Spirit of God would come to live inside of them, and Gods’ Spirit would always be with them.
Then Jesus told them, “My peace I leave with you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.”

2nd Okay, I understand that Jesus was saying that He was going away. He was going to visit God and prepare a place for His followers to be with Him and God, and that He was going to return again to take His followers to be with Him. Jesus also told them that God’s Spirit was going to live in them. Hmmm… is this supposed to help ME .. NOW?

1st Yes. This was not just for the people that were following Jesus at that time, but for everyone who would eventually follow Jesus. Our stay with Jesus and God is going to be for ever and ever. That will never end. But all these troubles we are experiencing now are just temporary. One of the main things that causes us to worry and have stress is trying to figure out how to get out of the conditions we are currently living in. But we need to understand that those conditions will change. Since Jesus is alive in Heaven preparing a place for His follower, His followers, can pray to Him and ask Him for His help. He can help us and wants to help us, but even if these problems continue the whole time we are living here on earth, they will all come to an end when Jesus returns to take us to be with Him. Not only can Jesus rescue us, He can rescue our whole family.

2nd Really, my whole family?

1st Yes, that can happen. It does not always happen, but it can happen. We can read an account of that happening in the part of the Bible called the New Testament, in the section called the Acts of the Apostles.

2nd Do you have time to tell me about that?

1st Yes, I do have time to tell you about that. In the Acts of the Apostles, it tells us that Paul and Silas, two of the followers of Jesus, were arrested and put in jail. Paul and Silas had said and done some things that hurt somebody else’s business and were changing some of their religious customs.

These people got angry and got more people together, and started a riot and attacked Paul and Silas. Because of that, Paul and Silas were put in jail.

2nd I can understand people becoming angry if you cause them to lose their income. And I can also understand that people can be very protective of their religion.

1st That’s true, and that is what happened here. The law officer who arrested them had Paul and Silas beaten, and turned them over to the jailer. The jailer knew that these two men had not done anything wrong, but his job was to lock them in chains and keep them in prison. The amazing thing was that Paul and Silas did not get angry and shout bad names at these people. In fact, it seemed that their hearts were very much at peace. We read in this account that at about midnight they were praying and singing to God, and the other prisoners were listening.

Then, all of a sudden, there was a very severe earthquake. It was so strong that the foundations of the prison were shaken. During that earthquake, the chains fell off of all of the prisoners and the doors to their cells swung open. The jailer had been asleep. When he woke up, he saw that all the prison doors were open! He suspected that all the prisoners had escaped. He knew that if the prisoners had escaped, his superiors would have him beaten and killed for allowing the prisoners to get away. So, he decided to kill himself.

But Paul shouted to the jailer, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all still here.” When the jailer understood all that had happened, he realized that Paul and Silas had been telling the truth. They were servants of the true God, and God was rescuing them. So, the jailer asked them, “What must I do to be saved?”

Then Paul and Silas told him, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved – and not only you, but everyone in your home.” Now as I said before, this does not always happen, but here is an account of someone who started believing, and everyone in his home also came to believe in Jesus.

2nd Does it explain there in the Acts of the Apostles how this happened?

1st Yes, it does. We read that the jailer took Paul and Silas to his own home and washed their wounds from the beatings they had received and bandaged them up. Paul and Silas explained to all of the people in the jailer’s home what Jesus had done for them. So, the jailer and his whole family believed what Jesus had done, and they all turned to Jesus and they were all saved.
2nd Wait a minute. You say, the two men explained what Jesus had done, and the family believed it. So what was it that they were told, and believed?

1st Well, this part of the Acts of the Apostles does not explain that very clearly here, because it has been explained in many other places in the New Testament before this. But basically, it is that all of us have done things that God does not want us to do, such as, lying, stealing, cheating people, looking at another person with lust in our hearts, fighting, desiring things that other people have rather than desiring God, and many other kinds of bad thoughts and actions. We call these things, sins. Because we have displeased God by sinning, we deserve to be punished. But God loved us so much that He allowed Jesus to take the punishment that we deserved and Jesus loved us so much He was willing to take that punishment for us. So, Jesus took the punishment that we deserve because of our sins when He died on the cross. So, when we are sorry for our sins and want to turn away from these bad thoughts and actions and trust in the death of Jesus as payment for our sins, we are accepted by God and we become at peace with God. This is not because of anything good that we have done, but because of what Jesus has done for us by taking our punishment. The main thing that I wanted to talk to you about, though, was the peace we can have now even if we are in difficult times. We can know that our bad thoughts and actions can be forgiven, and that we can spend for ever and ever in a wonderful place that God has prepared for us, and this gives us peace and comfort.

The same Paul who had so much peace that he was singing at midnight in jail, later wrote to the followers of Jesus in the city of Corinth. He wrote, “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. We are persecuted, but not abandoned by God. We are struck down, but we are not destroyed.” And Paul goes on to list other problems they have, but then says, “We know that the One Who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us to be with Jesus.” Paul finishes by making this comparison: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far out weighs all these troubles. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

This same Paul writes to the believers in the town of Colossi to encourage them to focus their hearts and their minds on the things of God instead of the things of the earth. And he reminds them that Jesus will come back and take them to be with Him. But now, we are the ones who need to refocus our hearts and minds. We can ask God to help us to do that because, as Jesus said, the Holy Spirit of God is with us. He wants to comfort us and help us to put into practice the things that Jesus taught us about God.

You can hear more about this in other stories from the Bible that are available for you to listen to on this website.

2nd Well, I will think about this, and I will listen to more of the stories you have from the Bible on your website. Thank you for telling me about this.

1st You are very welcome. I hope that you and your whole family will want to turn away from your sins and come to believe in the work that Jesus did for all of us, to make it possible for anyone to live with Him forever. Then you will know more of His peace and comfort in your hearts. Remember how we started out this story: Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; Trust also in Me. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you: I do not give to you as the world gives to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
(Jn 14: 1-3, 25-27) (Acts 16: 16-34) (Col 3:1-4) (2 Cor 4:7-18) (Rom 3:23-26) (John 3:16)