Perfect Peace

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

Isaiah 26:3

Perfect peace! What a concept!

What visual is provided when you think of perfect peace?

For me, I see a mountain meadow, clear blue sky, a still pond fed by a small creek. The fish are breaking the surface begging for me to bring my fly rod. I am sitting in the sunshine, eyes heavy, enjoying God and His creation. Perfect peace.

God has such moments set aside for us. Perfect peace is the carrot at the end of the stick. The ONLY thing required of us is our thoughts fixed on God. Seems simple enough.

As you sit in front of your computer the world tugs a different direction. Joy awaits but the phone rings. The calendar does not allow the search for that meadow. Family obligations require your presence. You will have to save the thought for another day - a day that is not so busy. Yet you know that perfect peace is around an unseen corner and you long for it. Every person does. Few pursue it.

Be a pursuer. The gifts that come are not just perfect peace. Once you start down the path of thoughts fixed on God, you find blessings raining down. Perfect peace is just a start. Joy, love, self-control, gentleness, kindness, faith, long suffering. These things are found too. The other thing that we come to understand once we dive in with this sort of faith is that all the bills are paid and a life of abundance is ours - just as the Word of God promises. This happens even when our logic says "no way." It happens.

Once thoughts are fixed on God, life is not necessarily perfect, but your peace is. In spite of the millions of other obligations that you can list, God's list has one item on it. How much time today can you set aside for this one thing? one minute, Maybe five.

My path to fixing my thoughts on God was to get two hour glasses. One was a five minute hour glass. The other, fifteen minutes. A buddy suggested that I spend five minutes on God and fifteen minutes on getting my financial house in order - every day. The hour glasses provided a daily routine of turning them over, doing as instructed and spending a few minutes on some new priorities. My buddy's wisdom was to show me that one day I would switch and spend fifteen minutes on God and five minutes on financial house matters. He was right. That was a good day.

The story does not end there. One day the hour glass broke. God spoke. He told me that my time focused on Him was not to be limited to the sand in an hour glass. He wants my attention all day. The freedom I found in that is what opened the door to perfect peace. In spite of the pain of life.

I have sat in that meadow many times and will see it again when I put all the priorities aside and take a 17 year old (he has no earthly dad in his life) deer hunting, watching the sunrise and talking about God's joy that comes in the morning - every morning.