You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

Isaiah 26:3

I can still hear echoes of my Sunday School teacher quoting Isaiah 26:3 in the classic language of the King James Version: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” What an amazing, alluring promise! “Perfect peace” accurately renders the Hebrew original, which reads literally, shalom shalom.

How do we experience perfect peace? First, we recognize that it is a gift from God, not something we produce by our human efforts. Yet we put ourselves in a position to receive God’s peace by trusting in him. Even in hard times, even when it seems as if God is absent, we nevertheless lean back into his strong arms.

Moreover, we open our hearts to God’s peace by fixing our thoughts upon him. We allow the Scripture to reveal God to us in truth. We meditate upon God’s written word, letting it percolate from our minds to our hearts. When we face trial or temptation, we turn our thoughts to the Lord, claiming his goodness and grace. When our lives are filled with peril, we remember God’s promises. The more we allow the truth of God to permeate our souls, the less we’ll be troubled by earthly woes, and the more we’ll be ready to receive the gift of shalom, shalom . . . perfect peace.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: Have there been times in your life when you have experienced something like perfect peace? What put you in a position to receive this gift? What helps you today to have your thoughts fixed upon God?

PRAYER: Dear Lord, first, I thank you for those times when you have given me the gift of perfect peace. I remember moments in my life when I was weighed down by grief and worry, yet as I turned to you, you graciously filled my heart with the calm assurance that comes from knowing the living God. How grateful I am!

Lord, I wish I could live in your perfect peace at all times. The truth is that I’m not always ready to trust you fully. I can fill my mind with worries rather than fixing my thoughts on you. So I ask for your help. May I learn to focus on you, rather than on that which troubles me. May your word so fill my mind and heart that I’m regularly in a position to receive the gift of your perfect peace.

Finally, I ask that you help me be an instrument of your peace to others. May I give away that which you have so generously showered upon me. Amen.