I get a lot of questions asking for the practical…
How do I get peace?
How do I stay peaceful?
How to I overcome anxiety, fear, worry, doubt, etc.?
In today’s episode we’re getting practical!
Transcript
Today, we are going to take a “Posture of Peace” by getting practical.
Posture is a short, audible fist bump to remind you, God is with you in everything. Together, we’re going to be emboldened to take a daily Posture of perfect peace.
In Psalm 10:4, it says, “In their pride, the wicked do not seek the Lord. In all their thoughts, there is no room for God.” I get a lot of questions about peace. I mean, no surprise. Right? Of course, the whole topic of “Posture” podcast is of course embracing the promise of perfect peace. So I get a lot of questions about peace. I get a lot of questions asking for the practical. How do I get peace? How do I stay peaceful? How do I overcome the opposite of peace, anxiety, worry, fear, doubt, et cetera?
So to answer that, let’s go back to the promise for perfect peace that we find in Isaiah 26:3. It says this about the Lord. It says, “You, Lord, keep in perfect peace, those whose mind is stayed on You, because they trust in You.” When it comes to perfect peace, it really doesn’t get more practical than this. You have to keep your mind stayed on God. How do you do that? You keep your mind stayed on God, remaining fixed on God, leaning into His nature, resting in His promises, set on His truth. This is the Posture of peace. You don’t always get to choose the thoughts that pop in your head. Not every thought you think is your own, right? You might see something, you may hear something, and that can spark immediate thought. You don’t always get to choose what thoughts come in your mind, but you do get to choose which thoughts stay in your mind and which thoughts your mind will stay on.
If you choose to keep your mind stayed on anything other than the Lord, you will not be kept in perfect peace. You may have moments of relief. You may have temporary release, but that is not the peace you’ve been promised. That’s not the peace that calms storms. That’s not the peace that drives out evil. It’s merely a sedative that will quickly wear off at the next sign of trouble. This is why people struggle so much with believing that perfect peace is possible, because they don’t understand what peace is. Do not be deceived into believing that you have no control over your mind and do not buy the lie that thinking only of the Lord is somehow short-sighted, that His ways, His majesty, His nature, His promises, His truth, should not be at the forefront of every thought we think, every word we speak, every action we take. Satan tries to camouflage pride as enlightenment and faith as foolishness.
This past weekend, this past week, have you been seeking the Lord more than you’ve been scrolling through your posts or news reports? Is there room in your thoughts for Him, or have you bought the lie, that to make much of His majesty, even in the midst of painfully hard circumstance, is somehow backwards, or unloving of others, or irresponsible, or spiritually bypassing an issue, or a form of toxic positivity? If you’ve bought the lie, I have such good news. You can change your mind. You can change your mind right now. It’s called repentance.
Changing your mind, moving forward in the truth. Only you can change your mind. I can’t change your mind, and the Lord won’t change your mind, because you’re not His puppet. You’re His beloved child, and He has given you your own will so that when you worship Him, it’s in spirit and in truth, not out of obligation or because of manipulation. How do you practically get peace, have peace, keep peace? You practice this. You may have to change your mind a thousand times today, but you know what? Tomorrow, it may just be a couple hundred times, and the next day, even less than that. Practice will make permanent. Practice today, keeping your mind stayed on God, and you will be kept in His perfect peace.
The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26:3. In Hebrew, it is “shalom, shalom”, meaning complete wholeness. Nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus. Because of Jesus, you are a living testimony of Jesus’s ultimate win. With every step you take today you’re putting Jesus’s victory on display and satan’s defeat on replay.