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 Peace is something we all want, yet often we don’t feel like we have. How many of you have craved peace this last 14 months? I know I have. We live in this world that feels the opposite of peaceful. Between the pandemic, political divisiveness, hatred, and arguing- it is hard to feel peaceful. Maybe it isn’t even those things causing the problem. Maybe it is the laundry, the dishes, the kids teething, or dealing with teenage angst. Life is hard and peace can be hard to find.


But God! Isaiah 26:3 says “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you.”


These verses tell us that God will keep us in perfect peace. That sounds nice. We may even know it mentally, but sometimes we do not feel it experientially. When I read the Bible I love to look up the Hebrew and Greek meanings of words. It just gives it a deeper sense of richness to me. When it says “keep” in the Hebrew- some of the synonyms listed are guard, watch over, protect, maintain, and defend. Then “perfect peace” is actually all one word- shalom. It means completeness, wholeness, peace, tranquility, to be made completely whole! So this tells us that God said he will protect and maintain us so that we are made whole, tranquil, and have peace. Sometimes it can feel confusing when we question why we don’t feel like this so much of the time?


Well, the first part of the verse told us what God said he will do- the next part says something we need to do. It says he will keep in perfect peace those who trust him. Trust is to have confidence, feel secure, have hope and be boldpe. It makes me ask myself if I really do this? Trust is hard. I am a timid driver- I won’t pull out if I see anyone coming and if I have others in the car with me I often joke it is because I have trust issues. Do we have trust issues with God? When the world feels like it is falling apart. When our nerves are frayed and our dreams are dashed- trust is even harder! Let’s keep going and see what the rest of the verse says. It says he keeps those whose thoughts are fixed on Him. Thoughts are imagination, framework, device, and form. I thought that was super interesting. Framework? When you put a framework in a house it determines what the house looks like inside and out. It determines the strength of the house. Our thoughts then are the framework that determines how we look- possibly physically, but definitely spiritually. Our thoughts determine how strong we are. Then it says fixed means established, supported by, leaning upon, and resting in him.


You may be thinking, “well, great my thoughts are horrible so I guess I’m destined to a life with no peace.”  2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us that we have to take every thought captive and make it obedient to the word of God. We have to do it. It won’t happen on its own. You have to be intentional about it. How do we do that? Philippians 4:8 says to think on things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy. We have to catch ourselves having negative thoughts and replace them.


The world is never going to be able to give us the peace we so desperately desire. If we want peace we will have to do the work to get it. We have to make sure we are fixing our thoughts on God and allowing him to protect us and make us whole. Start by actively replacing your negative thoughts with on-purpose positive thoughts. One strategy could be to keep a journal where you write down the recurring negative thought you have and then find a verse that speaks to that issue. Every time you have that particular thought, open the journal and read the verse to replace that thought.


I pray this week that you will be able to see God as your guard, maintainer, and defender as you fix your eyes on Him!

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