We must lean our minds upon God, if we are to have this perfect peace.
We’re trying to reason our way through this world with all of the landmines and pitfalls and all the robbing thoughts that would terrorize our minds. No wonder our minds are often divided with conflicts and issues.
We have a mind for this and a mind for that and a mind for this and a mind for that. We think one thing and the next moment we’re thinking something diametrically opposed to that. That’s what you and I have to do and there’s the problem, isn’t it? Our minds don’t lean one particular direction hardly at all. I’m putting my weight on it, so the weight is on God. Leaning with the mind in particular is to rest upon, to lie upon God. It’s well that we often sing,įinding more power than I'd ever dreamed, You have to take your mind and lean it upon God. The word stayed is the word for leaning upon. We have to keep our minds stayed on the Lord. But there’s a shared responsibility here, Isaiah says. How could you keep your heart and mind in perfect peace? God is standing sentry over your mind watching it. We don’t ask for it, but the news comes nonetheless and it’s not good news. Isn’t that right? Some thoughts come to us involuntarily. Too much to think about that’s often contrary and often very distressing. You cannot keep your mind and heart in perfect peace. It is God who stands at attention before the mind to watch over it to make sure that internally there’s wholeness and unity, not division or clamor or noise that often creates a divided heart. God will guard your mind so that you can have internal wellbeing in spite of the external problem. “You will keep him.” Keep here doesn’t mean to possess, it’s the idea of a sentry, someone watching guard. “You will keep Him in perfect favor, wholeness, whose mind is stayed on You.”īut as we read this text we notice that the promise of peace is conditioned. Peace is a sense of goodness, a sense of blessing, a sense of the favor of God. Someone has said that biblical peace “is the way things ought to be.” So, if you’re experiencing peace, internally things are the way they ought to be.
It is not the absence of problems but an overall wellbeing and goodness even in the midst of problems. We think of peace as the absence of problems but that’s not the biblical definition. It is entering into a state of wholeness and unity. “Shalom” means completion or fulfillment. Isaiah is using a Hebrew word that many of you know, Shalom. Even Jesus made that promise to His apostles, His followers, when He said, “My peace I leave with you.” But what does peace mean? Here, the text says that God will keep a man “in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed” on Him, and so the Bible promises that there is the possibility of peace. In a world of war, hatred, and brutality, we crave peace. World peace, international peace, delegations of peace, these are all terms we hear so often. We live in a world where offenses are committed and sometimes we are the ones committing them. Nobody chooses a life void of peace but it comes with trouble, perplexity, and difficulties. You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.Įveryone wants to have peace.
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