READING:
One-year plan: Isaiah 25-29, Philippians 2:1-18
Two-year plan: 1 Kings 10:1-11:13, John 6:1-15
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As a college student, I went to the local Bible bookstore and bought a packet of scripture memorization cards. Each card had a pre-selected verse written on one side, with the scripture reference written on the other. My friends and I simply memorized each verse, without regard for the context or the meaning of the text. We just assumed the verse was an important one since somebody had decided to include it in the packet.
Two of those verses were Isaiah 26:3-4—“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.” I didn’t give much thought to their meaning back then, but they mean much to me today. In this chapter, Isaiah wrote of a future Jerusalem filled with peace and security—a city with gates open for the righteous to enter. That city would consist of individuals who themselves would experience God’s full, complete, perfect peace when they locked their hearts and minds on Him. And, because God is Himself the “everlasting rock,” they could thus trust in Him forever (Isa 26:4).
Perfect peace—how I long to experience that reality! I am reminded today that this peace comes when I turn to God and lean fully on Him; it comes when I lock my eyes on the Father rather than on the circumstances that rob me of my peace.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you find your peace in the Lord?
DAILY PRAYER: “God, help me to lock my mind and heart on You.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: Isaiah 30-33, Philippians 2:19-3:11
Two-year plan: 1 Kings 11:14-12:19, John 6:16-21
*portions first published in 2017