Isaiah 26:3-4 "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. (4) Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength"
We are constantly bombarded with things that are meant to rob our peace and
joy. (Joy is next week's subject.) But it seems every way we turn, there is
something that will rob our peace from us if not properly dealt with. A few
months ago, I was sitting in a local coffee house enjoying our weekly Bible
Study with a group of men. Suddenly, the place began to rumble and shake. It
was so sudden and violent that I thought a plane had crashed. It was an
earthquake that was centered about 20 miles away. The reason I bring this up
just now is because that sudden interruption disturbed the peace of the moment
when we were talking about the Lord. It isn't always something so drastic as an
earthquake, but daily we are confronted with things - news events, time
schedule interruptions, a leaky faucet, or sadly there are times when the news
is very much life shattering. How do we deal with these things that intrude
into our peace?
Today's passages give us the perfect plan for perfect peace. It's really self
explanatory, isn't it? There isn't much that I need to add to this other than
try to serve as a reminder to you and to me that the answer is found in our
Heavenly Father. But I must say that in our human frailty, it can be
difficult in the midst of the rumbles of life to keep our hearts and minds set
upon Jesus. We are as Peter when he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the
wind and waves. Remember? He began to sink, but as soon as he turned back to
the Lord and cried out, Jesus lifted him up. The saying is that there is peace
in strength. And that is absolutely true. But whose strength are we relying on?
Do we think we can work our way through these things and come out on top? Or -
is our trust and confidence placed in the only One who is able to see us
through? Our Holy God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - has promised to give us
PERFECT peace when we trust Him and place our confidence in Him. It can be a
struggle, but the effort is very much worthwhile.
Wonderful Peace by W.D. Cornell
1 Far away in the depths of my spirit tonight
Rolls a melody sweeter than psalm;
In celestial-like strains it unceasingly falls
O’er my soul like an infinite calm.
3 I am resting tonight in this wonderful peace,
Resting sweetly in Jesus’ control,
For I’m kept from all danger by night and by day,
And His glory is flooding my soul.
Peace, peace! wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above,
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray,
In fathomless billows of love.