Perfect Peace

UV 999/10,000 Perfect Peace Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26 v 3 The Word makes a distinction between perfect peace and an uneasy peace, a temporary truce won by appeasement or compromise, a false peace that disguises great and hidden strife, a partial and limited peace known in certain areas of life. The Hebrew word for such a holistic and comprehensive peace where nothing is lacking or wanting is Shalom. When we follow the Lord like sheep follow the shepherd, seeing his footsteps, recognizing, hearing and obeying his voice, trusting Him for direction, guidance, wisdom, leadership, protection and provision, we experience such Shalom in our lives. We are building our lives, our families, our careers on a rock foundation made not with human hands but by God Himself. Nothing in the world or in the spiritual realms or in life can take away the peace. Perfect peace has many dimensions: we have peace with God won through faith in the shed blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus, the perfect sacrifice to obtain perfect peace. We have peace with ourselves since the partition wall of distrust and enmity between the spirit, heart and mind is removed. Our guilt about the past, fear about the present and our anxiety about the future are done away with. Our sense of security is rooted in the sufficiency of the grace and power of God both to fend and to defend us against any onslaught. We have peace with others as we no longer have the natural tendency of trying to judge, avenge, hate or compete with others in order to prove ourselves better or wiser or smarter. Perfect peace does not fluctuate with life’s changing circumstances and challenges. We have perfect peace as our minds, implying our intellects, our emotions and our wills are focussed or fixed on the Lord. Our focus should be like that of an archer or a marksman who trains his eye to look through the hindsight and the foresight at the target. His covenant and His promises surround us like fortress walls and we are fully persuaded that God is able and willing to fulfil His promises to us, given His past record of doing so for the faithful among our contemporaries as well as in the biblical past. We are yielded or surrendered to Him and He will never ever betray our trust. This uni-verse brings out the importance of steadfastness of faith. We must not yield our minds even for a moment to doubt or fear or allow it to be drawn away by something seemingly more attractive or persuasive. If we do not have such perfect peace on any day or in any period of our lives, we need to examine our minds and our lives and find where we have strayed away and lost our focus, our first love for God. Prateep V Philip