You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds (and hearts) are steadfast, because they trust in you. – Isaiah 26:3 (NIV, emphasis added)
The word steadfast means ‘to lean, support, lay and rest’. If you want peace, the formula is pretty straight-forward. The verse says, that keeping your mind leaned on, rested on, supported by Him brings peace. When your mind and heart rests on your anxious, worrisome or stressful thoughts, you demonstrate a lack of trust in Him. I lived this way for dozens of years and still struggle, at times, with resting my mind on Him as opposed to resting it on my anxieties.
Can you relate?
David too says we are to meditate and rest our heart and mind on God.
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. – Psalm 19:14 (NIV, emphasis added)
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Part of the process of coming to know God intimately involves spending time with Him leaning on Him in prayer, stillness, silence and meditation. The psalmist reminds us:
“Be still and know that I am God”.- Psalm 46:10
From our time spent with God, we come to know Him, we begin to sense His living presence, we more honestly share our burdens, we begin to hear His loving voice and we find comfort and direction.
My friend Steve recently said he thought most people meditated quite frequently. While I thought that sounded unusual, he explained it this way:
When you have a worry on your heart or mind about the future, when you have a bitter or lustful thought in the present, when you stew over some wrong from the past…when we let those negative ideas stir in our minds and permeate our inner self…when we ponder them for minutes, hours or days…we are meditating. We’re just meditating on the wrong things.
Wow. That’s a powerful thought.
Our hearts and minds are capable to meditating on both righteousness thoughts and thoughts from our flesh and from the enemy Satan. Will we choose to meditate on the godly things or will we choose to meditate on the future, the past or some current stress?
The choice is mine. The choice is yours.
With the Holy Spirit’s help, we can overcome this old way of thinking and begin to meditate on Him and His truth.
Prayer
Holy Spirit, please help me to meditate on You, Your strength, Your power. Help me to cease meditating on the trials and worries of life that I can’t control. Lord these things seem to consume my mind and heart and I want to be free. Help me to meditate on the things above, to meditate on Your truth in scripture, to meditate on Jesus. I confess I can’t do it on my own. In Jesus Name, Amen.
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Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither– whatever they do prospers. Psalm 1:1-3 (NIV)
