THURSDAY January 9th
. . . continued from previous devotion
If you were at the AGM last November, you will recall that I spoke from these verses in Philippians 4:4-7
‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’
And Paul continues to tell us what it is we need to set our minds upon, those things that we need to be thinking about verses 8-9
‘Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.’
I have said it before, but it is worth saying again, as we consider these things that are true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellence, worthy of praise, it is perfect picture of who Jesus is! So, we think about Jesus, set our minds on Jesus! And the peace of God will be with you!
If we keep our minds stayed on God and our thoughts thinking of Jesus, and we are consistent in our trust in God, and our trust in Jesus, he will keep us in his perfect peace! Jesus himself said to the disciples, ‘Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.’ The NLT puts it this way ‘Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me’ (John 14:1).
The word ‘stayed’ in Isaiah 26:3 in the ESV is translated as
‘Steadfast’ in the NIV
‘Fixed’ in the NLT
‘Dependant’ in the CSB
‘Maintain their faith’ in the NET
The original Amplified says this ‘You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You’.
The later Amplified says this ‘You will keep in perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on you—in both inclination and character].’
I think we could take each of these various translations and when we apply them to our own hearts, we surely can see that it could be so easy for us to lose out on this perfect peace because we allow our minds and the inclination of our hearts to dwell on that which is not wholesome toward our spiritual well-being!
Peace is available, perfect peace is available to us all and through all of our circumstances as we keep our minds fixed on the Peace giver himself.
to be continued . . .