All Beholding Beauty devotionals are written as short, worshipful reflections to help you meditate on God’s Word.
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.” – Isaiah 26:3-4
Our glorious Lord is the God of Peace (Romans 15:33) who sent his Son to be the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) to give us the Gospel of Peace (Ephesians 6:15) which leads you and I to perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3) through His promised, everlasting covenant of peace (Ezekiel 27:26)!
There was a day in which mankind experienced peace (Hebrew Shalom) with God, each other, and all of creation. Unfortunately, the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 led to the disturbance of that peace in every possible way, resulting in conflict and fear. But thanks be to God, He sent Christ Jesus to re-establish that peace!
Through faith in Christ, we are no longer alienated from the Lord and under His wrath, but “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1)! There is no better news than this!
Now to be sure, there will be troubles in this lifetime that may attempt to steal that peace way. Jesus knew that, and that’s why He said this:
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Jesus is completely up front with us: we will experience tribulation in this life. But how amazing it is that He reminds us (actually, He commands us) to “take heart” in the fact that He has already overcome the world! This means that He is the “LORD GOD” who “is an everlasting rock” which Isaiah 26:3-4 refers to. He is perfectly able to sustain us through tribulation and to give us a peace that “surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7)!
Jesus tells us that in Him we can experience peace. In order for us to know what that shalom was like in the Garden of Eden prior to the fall, we must go to Christ, because it is only in Him that we will experience it!
So what should we do when tribulation comes? Well, dear Christian, we set our “minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2), and we lean on Him, trusting in the Lord forever, the Everlasting Rock who is able to keep us in perfect peace while we keep our mind stayed on Him!
Praise be to our all-glorious God of peace!
Original post: May 24, 2019 | Updated November 4, 2020
Matt became a joyful follower of Jesus at the age of 21. He is very grateful to be a husband to Lindsey, and a father to four boys. He is an ordained minister (teaching elder) in the PCA. He previously served as a pastor of biblical counseling and is currently a corporate chaplain in southern Delaware. Matt received his Master of Divinity degree in Biblical Counseling from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and holds an advanced certification in biblical counseling from the Association of Biblical Counselors. In his free time, he loves playing with his boys, traveling with his wife, and reading (and buying!) books.
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