You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. – Isaiah 26:3
The most common reasons people seek therapy are anxiety, depression, or stress. These thoughts and emotions are the product of a runaway mind. Your enemy the devil seeks to plant such thoughts in the minds of believers. They stir up a whirlwind of feelings and fears, robbing you of any peace. These strongholds can captivate the believer, and the resulting bondage can push people to self-medicate for relief.
In today’s verse, the prophet Isaiah says that, despite the events of the day— politics, the economy, disease, family issues—peace comes from a mind that is “stayed” on the Lord. What does that mean? The apostle Paul provides some keys in Romans: “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace“ (8:6), “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (12:2). Another important concept is found in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
When you center your mind on Christ, when you lean your thoughts and imagination on Him, when you regularly tell Him and yourself that you trust in Him, the tranquility of a “stayed mind” is the outcome. Magnifying the Lord shrinks those things into perspective that were causing stress, anxiety, and fear. As you pray for America’s governing officials today, ask that those who do not know Jesus Christ would accept Him and the peace that only He can bring, and then guide the nation in the knowledge and wisdom that only His peace brings.
Today’s Verse: Isaiah 26:3
You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Isaiah 26:1-15
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
he sets up salvation
as walls and bulwarks.
2 Open the gates,
that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
3 You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
5 For he has humbled
the inhabitants of the height,
the lofty city.
He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,
casts it to the dust.
6 The foot tramples it,
the feet of the poor,
the steps of the needy.”
7 The path of the righteous is level;
you make level the way of the righteous.
8 In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we wait for you;
your name and remembrance
are the desire of our soul.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night;
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 If favor is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly
and does not see the majesty of the Lord.
11 O Lord, your hand is lifted up,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.
12 O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,
for you have indeed done for us all our works.
13 O Lord our God,
other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but your name alone we bring to remembrance.
14 They are dead, they will not live;
they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
and wiped out all remembrance of them.
15 But you have increased the nation, O Lord,
you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
you have enlarged all the borders of the land.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
