Purloined Peace

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Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV) You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.

What it is speaking to me:

If you were alive in the 90s, you might remember those 3D illusion drawings. You know, with the really weird patterns, and you had to cross your eyes or squint just right and this 3D image would emerge from the crazy background and form something. I remember as a kid having to do all sorts of optical gymnastics to get the image to show up, and then if I shifted my eyes just slightly I would lose it again.

If you are alive today (I guess you are if you are reading this...) you know that we are constantly bombarded with things to look at that take our attention. It isn't a surprise then that people are more anxious than at any point in the last century. Because not only is their focus drawn away to a million different things, even if the Lord is one of those things, He can get lost in the shuffle.

But what if we didn't lose focus? What if we squinted our eyes just right onto God, and held it there?

Isaiah writes a pretty clear promise: if our focus (mind) is on God, HE will keep us in perfect peace. It isn't up to you or me to create that peace, or hold ourselves in that peace, HE (the LORD) will keep us in it. Hallelujah!

Then that trust produces everlasting strength. There is a connection between what we spend time looking at and our trust. The more we look at social media, the more we "trust" it. The more we watch the news, the more we "trust" it. The more we watch a show, the more we "trust" it. It is subtle, it is slow, and it can be dangerous. Ultimately, when we look away from God, we give away our peace. We rob ourselves.

If we spend time looking at God, keeping our focus on Him, our trust in Him will grow. In THAT trust, is everlasting strength and perfect peace.

What will you look at today?

What is it saying to you?

Remind yourself of a time you were in perfect peace.

How did you get there? What were the circumstances?

What robs you of your focus on God?

What are we going to do about it?

Set several reminders on your phone at set times today to pause, breathe, and refocus your mind on God for two minutes. See how the day goes.