Isaiah 26:3 – 4 “You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You and hopes confidently in You. So trust in the Lord, for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock.” (NKJV Amplified)
In 24 hours last December, my Facebook prayer groups exploded with pain! A thirteen year – old dying with septic shock. Two young mothers dying with heart failure. Law enforcement officers who wanted nothing more than to serve and protect and to celebrate Christmas with their families – all gone! U. S. military dying thousands of miles from families and friends. Facing such horrible losses, it seems ridiculous to speak about peace. How can we have peace in the face of these tragedies? And yet, the Bible tells us that God wants us to have peace and that Jesus came as the Prince of Peace.
Social media is great for connecting people, but it also allows us to hear about suffering in places we have never heard of before. Is there more suffering now than there was in the past? Probably not. But the difference is that now we hear about all of this misery in a concentrated form.
There have always been wars. There have always been refugees. There has always been starvation somewhere in the world. Climate change is not actually new; floods, droughts, earthquakes, tsunamis – all have shaken the earth since time began. Even Jesus once told his disciples that they would face tribulation in this world. So, if having peaceful spirits depended on earthly events, peace would be an impossibility. And yet, God promises us peace in His word. How can we achieve this peace?
1. We must “stay our minds” on the Lord; we must constantly focus on the Lord and not on our problems. Worrying about problems only eats up your stomach lining and constricts the blood vessels in your heart.
2. How are we to “stay our minds” on the Lord? We must commit ourselves to the Lord, praying, and listening for His Voice and studying His Word, the Bible.
3. We must lean on the Lord and hope confidently in Him. Here “leaning” means to put all the weight of the cares that upset us and torment us on the Lord.
4. We must trust the Lord, who is our Rock. Here the idea is of a huge monolith such as the Rock of Gibraltar, something solid, dependable, unmovable, and unshakable, a place of refuge and safety. David the Psalmist wrote “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge..”(Psalm 18:2)
PRAYER: Father God, your children need you! We need your protection! We need your comfort! We need Someone we can lean on and trust completely! But most of all, Lord, we need your peace! Please help us to keep our minds fixed on you and give us that peace that passes all understanding, so that we can face the threatening things in our lives without fear. In the matchless Name of Jesus. Amen.
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