You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you. Isaiah 26:3
Nineteenth-century Scottish pastor, Thomas Chalmers, once told the story of riding in a horse-drawn carriage in the Highlands region as it hugged a narrow mountain ledge, along a harrowing precipice. One of the horses startled, and the driver, fearing they would plummet to their death, repeatedly flicked his whip. After they made it past the danger, Chalmers asked the driver why he used the whip with such force. “I needed to give the horses something else to think about,” he said. “I needed to get their attention.”
In a world overflowing with threats and dangers all around us, we all need something else to arrest our attention. However, we need more than merely mental distraction—a kind of psychological trick. What we most need is to fasten our minds upon a reality more powerful than all our fears. As Isaiah told God’s people in Judah, what we truly need is to fix our minds on God. “You will keep in perfect peace,” Isaiah promises, “all who trust in you” (Isaiah 26:3 nlt). And we can “trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock” (v. 4 nlt).
Peace—this is the gift for all who fix their gaze on God. And His peace provides far more than only a technique for holding our worst thoughts at bay. For those who will surrender their future, their hopes, and their worries, the Spirit makes an entirely new way of life possible.
Read: ISAIAH 26:3-7 (NIV)
3 You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.
5 He humbles those who dwell on high,
he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
and casts it down to the dust.
6 Feet trample it down—
the feet of the oppressed,
the footsteps of the poor.
7 The path of the righteous is level;
you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.
INSIGHT
- Where do you normally fix your attention?
- How might you renew your gaze on God?
In calling His people to trust Him instead of trusting in other nations, God proclaimed Himself sovereign over all human history (Isaiah 24-27). He’s at work behind the scenes, orchestrating events to the triumphant outcome He planned for the end of time. He’ll judge and punish the wicked and the proud (24:16-23; 25:10-12) but will bless those who humble themselves and trust in Him (25:1-8). Isaiah 26 is a song of praise celebrating the salvation and blessings God will bestow on those who trust, obey, and honor Him (vv. 7-9).
PRAYER
Dear God, my mind can be a scary place, and I fear so much. Please give me Your peace. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen!!
Read: ISAIAH 26:3-7 (NIV) | Bible in a Year: GENESIS 33-35; MATTHEW 10:1-20
