“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusts in thee.”
Isaiah prophesied during a crucial time in the history of the Jews. He prophesied at the time of the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel, and when the Assyrians were threatening the southern kingdom. As it is in many prophesies in the Bible, this chapter makes a promise to Israel, but there is also a promise that transcends time. Verse 3 of Isaiah 26 is a good example of this. It is a promise for a time and place, but it is also a promise that we can take for ourselves for it is true for all time. What is the promise? The promise is that “perfect peace” is possible. Peace is one of the most elusive things in this world. Thousands of books have been written that have endeavored to help people find peace. I have read some of these books over the years in order to be able to minister to troubled people – and for myself. The problem with a lot of these books was that they tried to show people how to have peace without reference to God and without making any moral and spiritual changes in their lives. The changes would be cosmetic changes that did not get to the real matter of why people feel guilty in the first place. People feel guilty because of a little three letter word that the world has tried to do away with but cannot. The word is s-i-n. Some of you might stop reading here, because you do not want to deal with the fact of your own sin. We cannot eradicate sin by denying its existence. We can deal with it by admitting it, and going to the real source of perfect peace. In the historical context of this verse, Isaiah was writing to people who were not dealing with their sins. He gives them, and us, the solution to the problem. The path to perfect peace does not have a human solution. The promise of the perfect peace that Isaiah was writing about has to do with our relationship to God, and in our case, to Jesus. We find perfect peace when our minds are “stayed on God.” The NIV translates “stayed” as “steadfast.” We can find peace when we steadfastly fasten our minds and hearts to a relationship with the God of the universe. We can find perfect peace when we take our minds off of our personal troubles and the troubles of the world, and trust in Almighty God to be with us during all of these troubles. The peace that we seek is perfect because it is peace from a perfect God, not because of our own perfections. That peace is available to us through our Lord. It is almost as if Paul had this verse in mind when he wrote Philippians 4:6-7: “Be careful for nothing (Do not be anxious about anything…) but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God. 7. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Doesn’t that look something like perfect peace? Perfect peace is found when we put our faith and trust in God – in Jesus: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusts in thee.” Jesus taught that the path to a real relationship with God is faith in Him. We can have that perfect peace, the peace that “passes all understanding,” when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Having this peace does not mean that we will never encounter trouble. This peace enables us to go through all of the struggles of this life without panic and without fear. We can have peace in the midst of turmoil because our minds are not fastened on the turmoil, but on the Lord, the One Who we can trust to get us through it. I’m not writing this as a self-righteous person who is talking down to you. I am writing this as an imperfect human being who has found this perfect peace in my relationship with Jesus Christ. It does not mean that I have perfectly learned to have peace, but that by trusting in Jesus, I have found that I can have His perfect peace. The good news is that you can have it too. This peace is only a prayer away. Bro. Joe
1 Comment
Margaret M Jones
10/27/2015 10:05:05 am
So important
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