Perfect Peace, Everlasting Strength, and Full Joy

I’d like to share with you some verses I’ve found recently. Oh yes, they were in the Bible all the time. Some of them, I have memorized. So, they’re not new. But, I would like to show you some new things about them.

Let’s look first at Isaiah 26:3-4.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,

whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Trust ye in the LORD for ever:

for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.

The Hebrew word used for perfect peace here is shalom. It means: peace, welfare, completeness.

Looking back at the verse, we notice the first sentence is a prayer to God. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace.

Who gets kept in this complete peace, welfare, and completeness? The person whose mind is stayed (leaning, resting, supported by) on the Lord and trusting in the Lord.

Then, Isaiah switches from prayer to preaching. I think this is so interesting. In the Psalms, many times we see the psalmist switch from talking about God to prayer. Here, we see prayer turning into admonition. When God tells us to pray without ceasing—to constantly be in communication with Him—this is what He’s talking about. We are to communicate so naturally with the Lord that it becomes a part of our breathing, a part of who we are, sharing everything with God.

Isaiah admonishes his hearers (and us, his readers) to trust in the Lord forever.

Why?

Because only in the Lord Jehovah (Lord is the word for Jehovah; Jehovah is the Existing One, the I Am.) is everlasting strength.

We trust in Him because He is the Always Present, Ever Powerful, Strong God.

Does that do something for your spirit? It does for mine.

God will keep us complete, in peace because we trust in Who He is.

Would you like to see another blessing from Scripture? Go with me to John 15:11. Jesus is speaking,

These things have I spoken unto you,

that my joy might remain in you,

and that your joy might be full.

Not only can we have an enduring peace and everlasting strength through our great God who always IS, but we can also have full joy. (I looked up the word full, and the Greek means “filled up.”)

Perfect peace.

Everlasting strength.

Filled up joy.

All of them are fantastic motivations to trust our all-sufficient God more.