Day 4
Memory Verse – Philippians 4:6 -7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Read Isaiah 26
This chapter is called “A Psalm of Praise!” Isaiah is writing to the Jewish people that their salvation is coming and they have reason to rejoice! Verse 3 is quite powerful:
3 You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.
“Perfect peace” in the Hebrew is actually shalom, shalom. Think about that for a second; it’s like wholeness, completeness, harmony, restoration, and peace squared! And how do we get this complete completeness, this whole wholeness? By keeping our mind on Christ. Remember when we discovered that peace is not the absence of war or conflict, but the presence of harmony and soundness? Well, along those lines, consider the practice of meditation. Eastern meditation is the practice of emptying your mind; clearing it of everything in an effort to reach a transcendent state. Christian meditation, however, is not emptying your mind of everything, but rather focusing your mind on something, namely the Word and character of God! We fill our minds with who God is and what God says, and we are meditating on Him – keeping our minds steadfast on Him!
When I was really sick, falling asleep was a challenge. I lay awake night after night with my mind racing, considering all the possibilities, fearing what may happen. It was at this time that a friend gave me an incredible gift. She recorded herself repeating scriptures pertaining to God’s promises, health, wholeness, and comfort. At those moments I could not sleep, I would play her recording, and let me tell you, I never heard the end of it. Every single time I played it, I was asleep before the recording finished. My mind stayed on the Lord, and He delivered peace to me. Jesus admonished us this way:
Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Seek first His kingdom, and you don’t have to worry about what tomorrow’s troubles might be. He will deliver to us what we need.
Jesus, our Prince of Peace, declared that He came to restore people to the Father, to one another, and to wholeness.
What kinds of things keep you from falling asleep at times?
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Have you experienced incomprehensible perfect peace?
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