Psalms 16:2, 18:1-3 (Adapted); add Psalm 31:1-4

My Shepherd met me in His green pastures, grazing here and there while my thoughts were repeatedly taken to “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee” (Isaiah 26:3).

After reading about Zecharias and the birth of the last prophet of the Law, John the Baptist, and Gabriel’s interaction with his father in the Temple, and continuing through the story of Mary, in Luke 1, I decided the Lord wanted to talk to me about His promise:

Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

When I read the verse in Isaiah, the words stayed, and because caught the attention of the spirit of my mind.

“Perfect peace”! In Hebrew, the idea expressed in the phrase “perfect peace” is created by repeating the word “peace”: Shalom Shalom.*

Along the still waters, I reflected on the wonderful promise that God will keep us in perfect peace. The word keep indicates taking something or someone apart and placing a guard to watch over it or them with the intention of protecting and preserving a treasure.

Like all promises, this one comes with conditions. In this case, the condition is conveyed by the words “stayed” and “because.”

Our minds must be “stayed” on Him. The word comes from a root that means to lean upon. When we lean a pole on a wall, the weight of the pole is carried and borne by the wall. Our thoughts are the pole, and the wall is GOD. We transfer whatever weight bears heavily on our thoughts to GOD. We do what the Spirit, by Peter, exhorted us to do: 

1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

When we humble ourselves, we transfer self-confidence to trust in GOD.

We are identified as “trees” to God, and every tree will fall in the direction of its leaning. When our thoughts, our minds, are leaning toward any of the “works of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19-20), if opportunity or trouble comes, our spirit will fall in the direction of our thoughts’ leaning, or inclination.

Setting our thoughts on Him is something we must do intentionally. Staying our thoughts on Him requires that we repeatedly set and reset our focus to GOD. Staying is an ongoing activity. Like anything else, repetition creates a habit. When a believer is found with his thoughts habitually inclined toward our Lord Jesus Christ, he or she will enjoy this promise: such will be kept in peace, peace.

The reason is this: those who stay their thoughts on Him only do so if they trust in Him. Trust is the door through which God’s sufficient grace moves into our hearts to support the thoughts, to keep them from being disturbed by any assault of care. We trust GOD, that’s why He keeps us in the “peace of God.” It’s how we obey the Spirit’s exhortation to “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful” (Colossians 3:15).

In the valley, I knelt in the shadow of His Cross and contemplated the great truth that it was there that the weight of sin and shame was rolled off of us and onto Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:4). And today, every day, He calls on us to cast “all your care upon him” (1 Peter 5:7). What an honour is ours to follow Him, to reciprocate in this meaningful way, to present our bodies a living sacrifice, to heed His call: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

At His table, He anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup with His grace. Goodness and mercy followed as we went together into the harvest.

Praying for revival! 🙏

Going live asap:

https://rumble.com/v788q1s-shepherds-pasture.html

[*When a term is doubled, it indicates emphasis that communicates completeness. We see it in Jesus’ use of “Verily, verily” (John the Apostle is the only inspired writer to use this, and we find it 25 times in his gospel: e.g., John 1:51; 3:3; etc. It translates “Amen, amen”). It’s used twice in the Old Testament (Numbers 5:22 and Nehemiah 8:6).]