“Give them a piece of your mind!” the man shouted as we passed in the hallway of the United States Capital. He knew I was on my way to speak to a group of leaders at a crucial time of acrimonious conflict. As I walked on, it hit me: that was exactly what I wanted to do. But then an inner Voice asked, “How will you spell piece? Piece or peace?” I was reminded that the great need in the people to whom I would speak was for profound peace that would enable peacemaking. I was resolved to share the secret of lasting, liberating peace.
Over fifty-five years of ministry, I have had to receive fresh peace in my own mind over and over again so that I could help people experience a peace of my mind. I really believe that nothing can happen through us unless it first happens to us.
The great need of our troubled time is for spiritual leaders who have authentic peace and can help others to receive it. That’s why this morning I have asked God to give me the gift of preaching in order to give you a peace of my mind.
It is in that spirit that I want to share some very personal questions. Audacious? Maybe. But if you and I could sit down and talk over a cup of coffee, these are questions I would like to ask you—and would like to have you ask me. I will try to answer them as honestly as I can and I encourage you to do the same. Here are four possible responses to the questions: never, seldom, frequently, consistently.
In your inner self, known only to you, are you at peace? Or are you filled with a jumble of distressing memories, unresolved grievances, unfinished plans, and frustrating disappointments? Are you at peace in your thinking? Never? Seldom? Frequently? Consistently?
What about your feelings? Do you feel at peace? Do you have a profound sense of serenity rooted in an unassailable security? Do you feel loved, forgiven, accepted as a unique, never to be repeated miracle of God?
Are you free of smouldering anger, nagging fears, self-incrimination? Never? Seldom? Frequently? Consistently?
What about the future? Are you at peace about knowing and doing God’s will? In your own prayerful conversation with Him have you become clear about your goals? Is your will surrendered in complete trust in the Lord? Never? Seldom? Frequently? Consistently?
Now what about your relationships? Do you ever allow others to rob you of inner peace? Do some present relationships remind you of troubling relationships of the past? Do some people bug the heaven out of you? Are you at peace in your relationships? Never? Seldom? Frequently? Consistently?
And what about circumstances? Do you remain calm in the face of trouble, crises, illness, tough times? Do circumstances interrupt the flow peace? Never, Seldom? Frequently? Consistently?
Finally, is your body at peace? Are you ever strained by stress, agitation, nervousness? Are you free from tension, churning stomach, tight muscles, tension, tiredness? Do you have a sense of calmness in your body? Never? Seldom? Frequently? Constantly?
I’d have to admit that not all my responses were, “constantly” or even “frequently.” But I want them to be! How about you?
Note that this inventory includes our whole being—mind, emotions, will, body, relationships and circumstances. That’s because true peace is a metonymy for wholeness—mental health, emotional stability, volitional integration and physical well being. Also note that it begins with the mind.
We hear a lot about “mindfulness” these days. It is a meditation-based treatment with foundations in Buddhism and yoga. It encourages people to focus on their breathing, their bodies, living in the present moment, how to overcome ruminating on the past, and how to be non-judgmental about their thoughts. There is nothing wrong
with good mental hygiene or meditation techniques, but the peace that will see us through the deep turbulence of our times is not programmed by mind control. True peace cannot be induced by drugs or patched into the fabric of our tissues like an electrode.
This morning I want to talk about what might be called Theo-centric, biblical mindfulness that is distinguished by supernatural peace. It is based on key Old and New Testament verses that reveal the only source of true and lasting peace.
There is only one source of the consistent peace that is the essence of biblical mindfulness. Throughout the Bible, language is stretched to distinquish God’s true peace from temporary, transitory peace. The Bible is clear: we can’t produce inner peace, but we can receive it.
That’s the secret of true peace revealed in Isaiah 26. The passage was written as a song for the people of God to sing in repentance and in return to the Lord. The people of Judah, and especially of Jerusalem, had abandoned the way of faith in God for dependence on foreign powers such as Aram, for collective strength and self-reliance. The result was neither political nor personal peace.
The third and fourth verses of Isaiah’s song command our attention not just because they are familiar, but because they give us the liberating secret to lasting peace. “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.”
At first we are tempted to try to get at the meaning of the quality of peace God offers by defining the word perfect. We might suggest that perfect peace is “complete peace, peace that is found in tranquil surroundings and with agreeable people.” This only touches the outskirts of what Isaiah meant.
The word PERFECT is not in the Hebrew text! Rather the word for “peace,” shalom, is repeated twice: “shalom, shalom.” Alec Motyer calls this a “super-superlative. ” My friend, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein suggests that the second use of the word shalom is not so much for emphasis as it is for definition and interpretation. That is why there is a line between the two words in the Hebrew text. This idiom of duplication distinguishes pseudo-peace from God’s peace, which is total peace, encompassing all dimensions our nature beginning with our minds and reaching our emotions, wills, and bodies, relationships, sense of righteousness, and practice of justice. We can understand why English translators have used the word, “perfect,” even though it is not in the text.
The distinguishing quality of this peace is to be found in the words, “mind” “stayed” and “trust.’ The first step to receiving this super-superlative peace is to stay our minds on God. “You will keep him in shalom, shalom whose mind is stayed on You.”
The Hebrew word for “mind” used here is yeser. It means “the constitution or tendency of the mind, what we might call a “frame of mind” or a “mind-set”—a total way of looking at things. Another way of putting it would be, “the focus of our attention” or “what we have on our minds most of the time.”
J.N. Oswalt points out in his commentary on Isaiah, “as a noun, yeser frequeuently refers to that which is formed, often thoughts, purposes, or intentions. In this verse from Isaiah, Oswalt suggests that the Hebrew places “the steadfast mind” in an emphatic position in an independent clause at the beginning of the sentence. Then does this mean that God’s superlative peace is given to those whose minds are intentionally riveted on Him? Ye, but who does the riveting?
Look again. The Hebrew word for “stayed” is samuk. The wonderful thing is that samuk is a passive participle. It’s something God does! He stays our minds on Him. As we start the day, we need only say, “Lord, I belong to You. I’ve been called to glorify You, to experience Your love and forgiveness, and I know Your peace in spite of what will go on around me today. Now, Lord, I accept what You have are more ready to give than I may be willing to receive. Stay me, Lord. Stay me on Yourself. Interrrupt me. Stop me. Permeate my thoughts. Keep me stayed on You!”
And He’ll do it. What a great assurance! God is not going to let you get Him off your mind. He’s not going to let you because you belong to Him. You and I have been chosen and cherished.
If your mind wanders off, then it wanders off to a place that God will help you confront. Don’t worry about a wandering mind. Just follow the wandering, and you’ll end up someplace where God wants to help you deal with an issue, a relationship a concern. a problem. So often I hear people complain, “I begin to pray, and my mind wanders off.” I say, “Wonderful! Let it wander and then bring God with you, and allow Him to guide your thinking to His solution or resolution.
The one confidence nothing and no one can take from us is our God motivated, preveniently inspired desire to pray without ceasing. As Paternus said to his son, “Bear God on your mind constantly. See Him everywhere for there is no place where He is not.” And God is the prime mover. This is the propitious good news He spoke through Isaiah further on in his prophecy: “It shall come to pass that before they call I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 56:24). Prayer begins with God, sweeps into our minds and formulates the thoughts and petitions He is ready to answer.
Peace comes from a disciplined life of prayer that results in an intimate fellowship with God. Keep the word intimacy. It means when the true I meets the true you. Authentic prayer is when His mind-staying power has brought us to Him as He has revealed Himself to be and we can be ourselves in His comforting, affirming presence.
Prolonged, daily times prayer and momentary flash prayers are our response to God staying our minds on Him. We can pray in the midst of uncertainties, conflict, turmoil, and adversity. We can pray before, during and after challenging conversations with people. God gives us the gift of His peace in the most alarming, disquieting situations. Peace and praise go together. When we praise the Lord for the ups and downs of life, it is the ultimate relinquishment.
God also stays our minds on Him as we enjoy the sheer wonder of being alive. We are filled with gratitude for God’s signature in the beauty of the natural world, for the way He works out solutions to our needs, for the wondrous gift of people He uses to help us, and the open doors of opportunity He sets before us. What a wonderful way to live!
This leads us to Isaiah’s second secret for receiving the shalom, shalom, superlative peace of God. First a mind which God stays on Himself. And second, a heart filled with trust: “because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for Yah, the Lord is everlasting strength.”
The parallelism, “because he trusts in You” literally translates, “because in You, trust is reposed.” The Hebrew meaning of trust here is “to lean on Him.” and “everlasting strength” really means “the rock of ages.” In the Old Testament, “rock” is a symbol for divine strength.
It is from this reference that Augustus Toplady in 1776 wrote what has become one of the most cherished hymns, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.”
The third secret Isaiah gives us is a clear focus on the source of our strength. Biblical mindfulness is rooted in the sovereignty of God. He is Yah, Yahweh, whose very name is the first person singular of the verb to be. Out of our own personal burning bush in prayer He speaks, “I will be who I will be!” He is the unmoved mover, the uncreated creator, the verb and verve of all. The peace of God comes as a result of accepting His unrivaled authoriuty. He is creator, sustainer, and gracious redeemer of all. He is omniscient, knowing all from the beginning to the end; He is omnipotent, all-powerful, dependent on nothing and no one else; He is omnipresent, everywhere and yet present to our minds.
Throughout Scripture faith is a gift of the Spirit. It is not produced by us; it is received as an endowment of the Holy Spirit. God is so desirous of imparting His peace to us that He brings forth from us what will enable us to experience His peace. He is reliable. He’ll hold us, and pick us up when we stumble. When we are weak, He’ll make us strong. He stays our minds on Him so that we can surrender those very things that would rob us of peace and say, “Lord, please help me!” And He will as we lean on Him.
The Father’s longing that we know His superlative peace is why He sent His “ shalom, shalom” in His Son, the Prince of Peace. Christ came in human flesh to reveal how this perfect peace can be lived in complete trust in the Father. In Christ, we see the absolute surrender of the will, the unswerving obedience that is the essence of true peace. He went to the cross to atone for our sins and reconcile us to God. Faith in His atoning death brings forgiveness and a new birth. Life begins all over again. We become new creatures capable of receiving the gift of peace. All that was promised in Isaiah’s repetitious promise of perfect peace can be ours through Christ. Not only prevenient and passive, but through Christ, peace is palpable. It can be known, experienced and felt.
The message of the New Testament is that Christ, through the Holy Spirit, is Himself our peace. Listen to His whisper in your souls, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14: 27). Then remember who He is: “In Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross (Colossians 1:1920). It is at the foot of the cross that perfect peace is received and grows in our minds. Peace is the result of a forgiven and forgiving heart. Confession, in the very nature of the word, homologio, means to say after. Christ-centered mindfulness for me is to ask Him to guide our confession and claim the forgiveness He has already given.
And we can be sure that there will be not lasting experience of palpable peace if there is someone in our lives who needs our forgiveness and we have refused to forgive. Who is it for you? For me?
The stunning message of the Apostle Paul is that we can have the mind of Christ. I have always thought of the close relationship the Hebrew “yeser” and the Greek “phroneite”, (from) “phronema.” Philippians 2:5 “ Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” “Phronema “ denotes what one has in mind, the thought or process of thought. “Keep on thinking this in you which was in Christ Jesus.” Here is Christ centered mindfulness. Think like Christ. What is that? Humility.
There is no lasting peace without humility. Micah was right: the commitment to do justice requires “hessed” mercy, and walking with “hasnah” , humbly. Amos’s question is salient, “Can two walk together unless they are agreed?” There must be be agreement of the point where we meet to walk, the decision to walk together, the pace at which two will walk, and the destination to which they will walk. Interesting—the Hebrew words for walk and ethics are closely related. And Jesus asked us to follow Him. Peace takes place when we follow with obedience. Always? Well…
Sometimes—for a moment, day, or even a week, I feel an absence of peace. I feel a kind of “jangledness” inside. Whenver I take my eyes off Jesus Christ, and my prayer life becomes less intentional and more perfunctory, I have to be still and ask, “Lord what is it that has taken priority over You. What is unconfessed in me, or unforgiven in others?”
Repeatedly through my life I have been reminded that peace is a companion of knowing and doing the Lord’s will. A part of biblical mindfulness is consistently to ask, “Lord, what do You want me to do? What do You want me to say? What are your life goals for me—ten, five, three, one year goals? Faithful obedience is the environment that develops peace.
Paul used an athletic term to help the Colossian Christians understand how the peace factor enables us to know what is maximum for us. “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts” (Colossians 3:15). The Greek word for “rule” is “brabeuo” act as umbire, “brabeus.” (in the church as one body- somatic ) Christ calls the plays of life—safe or out.
Paul also spoke of peace as a protector. The word, guard, in Philippians 4: 6-7 reminds us that peace will be a constant garrison: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanks giving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Christ walks the ramparts of our minds protecting us from what will rob us of peace.
Now in this concluding moment, get in touch with your thoughts. Think peace. Reflect on the startling truth that Christ has taken up His post resurrection home in you.
He wants to make you like Himself. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
You and I have an awe—inspiring calling to preach, teach, inspire, and lead the church. Give them a peace of your mind!
With eager heart and will on fire,
I sought to win my great desire.
“Peace shall be mine,” said, but life
Grew bitter in the endless strife.
My soul was weary, and my pride
Was wounded deep. To heaven I cried,
“God give me peace, or I must die.”
The dumb stars glittered no reply.
Broken at last I bowed my head
Forgetting all myself I said:
“Whatever comes, His will be done.”
And in that moment peace was won.
--Henry Van Dyke
