"You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you." Isaiah 26:3

Such a familiar verse, and yet so hard to appropriate in our lives. Mine anyway. One small thing can topple me off my place of peace, one spoken word, one hint of danger to one of my loved ones, one task too many on my list. What's my problem? My mind is not "stayed on" Christ; it's stayed on me.

A couple of weeks ago in class, we came up with four areas in which we are called to peace. There may be more, but we came up with these: peace with God in salvation, peace with others in our relationships, lack of anxiety about things in life, and clean slates before God/lack of guilty consciences. Can God handle all of this anxiety/stress in our lives? Isaiah 26 answers thus: "We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks." We are protected. By the almighty God himself. "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden [sounds like a harried mom to me] and I will give you rest [I'll take it]." Jesus spoke those words to those who were worried about so many things, like clothing and food. But to us too. Because we too are worried about many things. He wants us to know peace smack dab in the middle of our crunched lives.

What about peace with each other? Remember our lesson on forgiveness a few weeks ago? Janet's blog in November touched on it as well. Can we have inner peace when we are harboring resentment and unforgiveness? Give it up. Give it to Jesus, who knows how to forgive, and learn from him.

And as for that clean slate before God: When he most kindly wakes you in the middle of the night reminding you of a harsh word or a selfish use of your time, apologize. Right away. Get it out of yourself and accept his gracious forgiveness for it. Don't treat Christ's sacrifice as though it were not enough for your sins.

Isaiah 26 again: "Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock." Amen?