Perfect Peace

I've been super busy lately (I know I keep saying that) so I haven't been able to blog much - but as I was reading Isaiah 26 this morning I just had to comment on this one verse. In fact, read Isaiah 26-30 - there are so many incredible gems there it isn't funny.

So here is one of my favorite verses:

Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. 4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock."

Isn't that a wonderful verse? How many times in our daily lives do we find ourselves uptight, anxious, and at anything but perfect peace? So the first lesson is, "stay" your mind on the Lord. What does that mean? I think it means for us what Paul said in Colossians 3:2-4:

"2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."

Instead of focusing on all the things that are causing you stress, concentrate on all the ways God is bringing about life in you through the presence of Jesus Christ in your heart. You are dead to the anxiety because you are alive to the Lord.

"Perfect peace" in the Hebrew is literally "shalom shalom". Not just peace, but real peace. Peace, as Paul says "surpasses all understanding" (Phil 4:7), peace that "guards" your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

When it says to "stay" your mind on the Lord it means to "lean" on him. Don't lean on your own ability to comprehend or control that which causes a lack of peace, lean on the Lord through Jesus Christ who will not only bring you through the storm but is with you to calm your hearts in the storm by showing you his glory (his character) being worked in you.

Pastor Tom