-


 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!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Right or Righteous?

-
Image
As we read through the New Testament it is so easy to look at the Pharisees and judge how manipulative and self-righteous they were. It seems like all they did was follow Jesus around trying to trap and discredit him. I read about them and think of how angry they must have always felt and how sad their lives must have been. As quick and easy as it is to judge them I can look around at our world today and realize that there are so many similarities- especially in the Church. God's goal was for the Jews then, and the Christians now, to focus on Him and have a right relationship with Him. As Christians, our focus should never be so set on being right that we forget to be righteous. The Pharisees were so focused on proving that they were right and Jesus was wrong that their focus was completely off of the God they claimed to serve and completely on themselves. They no longer cared what the truth was, they only cared about their interpretation of the truth, and they would do, believe, a...
Read more
-
Image
Lately, I've been really diving into the Old Testament and something that's been standing out to me is when God reveals himself as Yahweh in Exodus. In Exodus 3, God tells Moses "I am that I am" and in verses 14-15, He says "I Am Who I Am" in Hebrew, 'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh. This wordplay is like God is saying that the one who promises to be with Moses is also the one who sends him. Later, God shortens this to simply "I Am," which is translated as Yahweh in some versions. God tells Moses that this is the name he wants to be known by forever. Yahweh represents God's character and reminds us that He is a personal God. In chapter 6, Yahweh speaks to Moses again and gives him 7 "I will" statements. These statements were specific to the Israelites at that time, but since Yahweh's name is forever, we can also learn about His character and apply it to our own lives. The 7 "I am" statements are: I will bring you out of ...
Read more
-
Image
  We read about the parable of a hidden treasure and a pearl of great value. Where the people sold everything they had to buy the treasure. In my study on these parables, I read two different interpretations that I found interesting. The most common interpretation discussed is that these parables do not mean that we can buy our way into heaven. It is that the treasure is the Kingdom of Heaven and the value is so great that it is worth more than any earthly thing. Everything else that we could have fades in comparison to that treasure and we should be willing to give up everything for the Kingdom of Heaven. The second interpretation was that we are the treasure. Jesus sees us and our value and He gave up everything He had to save us and purchase us with His blood. He gave up everything even to the point of His own life because he found us valuable and worthy. Both are very thought-provoking! To think of ourselves as a treasure worth Jesus giving His life for. It causes me to pause ...
Read more