INNER PEACE
(Is.26:3)
Near the time of his capture and death, Jesus gave a message to His disciples that everyone of us still yearns for:
Peace, said Jesus, peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives
do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid. (Jh.14:27)
But our hearts do become troubled; we live in fear of our safety or our health or our financial security; sometimes the slightest aggravation can upset us for the rest of the day. As we watch the hair of our president continue to gray from the stresses and strains of leading a superpower nation, it is a silent reminder to all of us of how the toils and cares of life continue to rob us of this most precious commodity that Jesus offers- PEACE. I call it “inner peace”
because “outer peace” in the world we live in is always short-lived. Jesus said: “…there will always be wars or rumors of war.”(Mt.24:6) You can be assured that because of sin and its pervasive grip on mankind that outward peace will remain a dream until Jesus Christ returns to establish a new heaven and a new earth. Then as Scripture says….He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. (Rev.21:4)
The peace Jesus was giving to His disciples is the same peace He wants to give to you and me.
It is an inner peace that has nothing to do with the world- its outside circumstances and events.
Christians being burned at the stake, suffering from chronic pain because of sickness or disease,
living in hostile or barren conditions have described receiving this inward peace. Charles Spurgeon once described it : “…the more disturbed a Christian man is, the purer is his peace; the heavier the rolling swell of his griefs and sorrows, the more still, and calm, and profound is the peace that reigns within his heart…divinely born, divinely nourished, and one which is quite above the influence of this poor whirling world.” (Spurgeon, Spiritual Peace, p. 4)
To most of our ears such talk sounds like empty fantasy or something for a saint far beyond my reach. Still there have been in our past those moments when we felt an indescribable peace
which fleeting as it was reminded us that the Master is not as absent as we may think. How then can we have this peace? Isaiah 26:3 gives us an answer:
Thou does keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because He trusts in Thee.
Our mind is the governing seat of power for our body. Whatever is in our heart or whatever emotion is vying for control, signals are sent to and from the brain after which we take some action. So rightfully so Isaiah tells us that for divine peace to come, our mind must be focused on the Lord, the giver and creator of this indescribable peace. The point of focusing on the Lord
is important because in any governing seat of power you want to have the right person in control. Most of the time I think I am in control of my own mind, but you have only to get
me angry and then my anger takes control or scare me and then fear takes control, and Isaiah is saying, Peter, you have to keep your mind steadfast on the Lord, you can’t be surrendering
control of your mind to this emotion or that one, this event or that one; it is the Lord-- the government of your mind will be upon His shoulder that is why His name will be called
“wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace…
There you see if you want the inner peace, then let the Prince of Peace be in charge of the
government of your mind- thou will keep him/her in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on the Prince of Peace.
But we are easily distracted by pain and sorrow and hurt, by greed or envy or plain outright physical needs. Staying focused is no simple matter; just your effort to listen to this message
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is loss time and again in other thoughts and desires. We talk about attention deficit disorders in children, but it is rare for any of us to keep our attention focused on anything for longer than a few minutes. Still the jewel of inner peace requires a mind stayed on Thee. The answer Isaiah gives us for inner peace ( a mind fixed solely on the Lord) may be too difficult for us to do
and should be difficult for the reward is very great.
You may have noticed in Isaiah’s words from the Lord that there is more to this perfect peace than a mind stayed on Thee. The verse ends with these words: …because he trust in Thee.
What will help us stay focused on the Lord is that we really do believe ie. trust the Lord. Too many unanswered prayers, too many reversals in our life, too much pain and difficulty when I am trying to go straight can cause more distrust than trust in the Lord. Look at all the feelings and opinions people have of our Heavenly Father, some are angry with Him, some are unsure He is even around; some people want to share power with God instead of giving Him full control; some people want to bargain with God, test God, have God show them some sign or deliver some particular answer. When you consider how many people you do actually trust, there aren’t too many, even in our family; so when it comes to the invisible, unseen Creator, giver of life and
peace, trust does not come easily especially when at the hands of men we have suffered from mistrust.
Thus far I have not sounded very encouraging about gaining inner peace since the cost or discipline required is so high. Is it any wonder then we have sought a less demanding way,
mainly drugs and pills, drink and sleep. There is a statement the Psalmist makes about this
inner peace. He says in verse 165 of Psalm 119:
“Great peace have those who love thy law.”
Here again we are taken right back to that idea about the government of your mind and who is at the head seat of such government. The Psalmist is saying you and I can’t make up the laws for our own lives; we can’t do as we please. Instead the laws of the Prince of Peace must be our love
so much so that over and above our emotions and personal desires, the law of the Lord rules supreme in us. You can see the truth and importance of the Psalmist’s words by looking at a child who has no parental laws set over him but is allowed to do as he wishes. Before you know it people are calling the child “a spoil brat” because the boundaries and limits necessary for good behavior are not clear and defined and required. We have only to
look at the immoral decay of our society through films and media to see how we want to
governor our own lives by our own set of laws and not God’s and as a result, you see more violence, more immorality, more abuse, more undisciplined behavior in our youth as well as adults. The Psalmist is saying to us you want inner peace then learn to live in and trust in the Laws of your Lord and Savior.
To give you one example of how all this inner peace business works out in a very practical everyday example.
Take the man that I met at the nursing home in Fairlawn a few months ago. I had gone to the nursing home to visit my dear friend and second mother, Twalla, whose health was rapidly deteriorating. As I sat down beside Twalla who was eating her breakfast and wasn’t her normal talkive self, there was this man sitting at the table next to us feeding breakfast to his wife. He seemed to know Twalla and the routine of the nursing home very well as we talked about who had come to visit Twalla and how things work at the nursing home. He said I come every day to
visit my wife, sometimes she knows me and sometimes she doesn’t. But the point that struck me as I talked to this man and watched him was his care and affection for someone who was not the same person he had married years before. Now the rules of men say when your mate suffers
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from alzeheimer’s and needs regular nursing care, find a suitable health facility for her- that much the man had done. But obvious to me was that this man had gone beyond those rules
to a higher, divine set of laws- he would visit his wife and not abandon her; he would feed her and speak to her although she may not say a word to him. And what I am trying to say is that
when we can more and more operate within the rules and laws of God instead of my own
personal wishes and wants, there comes a far greater opportunity for inner peace to come into my heart from the Prince of Peace who is now in charge of the government of my mind and thereby controls my deeds and thoughts in spite of the circumstances of a confined alzeheimer’s
unit in a nursing home and a wife who no longer remembers me. Yes, great peace have those who love Thy law.
One more example of “loving thy law” should suffice to make my point. The other night I was attending a worship service and the speaker asked the audience to discuss this question when the audience broke up into small groups: "is it easier for you to forgive yourself or to forgive others?" In the discussion group I joined an older lady talked about her difficulty in being able to forgive her sister-in-law who had written her husband a letter and said some very mean and unkind things about him. Her husband had since died two years before with no animosity toward his sister for the letter, but his wife still could not forgive the woman for what you had said. Now the rules of man allow you to think whatever you want about a person and to hold a grudge as long as you like; but the rules of Christ especially if He is to be the Ruler of your life are quite different. The woman realized that and made the point: “I have no peace” because on this issue for whatever reason she still ruled. And as all of us know, forgiving someone who has hurt you is no easy task, just as great peace is no cheap commodity but very costly. And if we ever gain it, this inner peace from the Lord, we can lose it just as quickly as we decide to take control instead of the Master being in control.
To think of myself trying to achieve or gain this inner peace by my own efforts is as unrealistic when I was young as it is now that I am older. This inner peace is a divine gift that only Jesus Christ can give accordingly to His will and pleasure. And we do know that He wants to give every good gift to His children. And who are His children- those who belong to Him and claim Him as Lord and Savior, those who’s minds are stayed on Thee because they love His
law and know Him as Prince of Peace, the Head of the seat of government in their mind and heart not for a day or when it’s convenient to me and to my liking but for all eternity according to His will and purposes.
