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. Isa. 26:3-4
Most grace-full and trustworthy Father, you haven’t promised us a storm-less, hassle-empty, conflict-free life. You offer us no formulas for decreasing the likelihood of hard things happening around us, or painful things happening to us. But you have promised something that transcends the chaos and fears, wars in our world and wars in our hearts.
You’ve promised to give us your peace, no matter what’s going on. Given the crazy-making storylines and vexing circumstances of life, we treasure the promise of being kept in “perfect peace” by you. When we’re out of bootstraps to pull up, and there’s no magic “happy pill” to take, or “fix-it” button to push, you come to us in the middle of it all, to give us peace—to give us yourself.
It’s a “perfect” peace because you’re the perfect Father, who will never ignore or abandon his children. It’s a sufficient and powerful peace, because it’s based on the now-complete peace-making work of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Loving Father, when our thoughts are being claimed by fears, shame, or the lies of the devil, help us set our minds and hearts on things above (Col. 3:1-4; Phil. 4:8-9), where Jesus is seated at your right hand—in complete victory, in full control, in great love. Indeed, Jesus is the Rock that is higher than us, our Rock of Refuge, the Rock of Ages.
Because the gospel is true, we will not give into fear or despair. What a good, good Father you are. There is none like you, no, not one. Your mercies are daily, your sovereignty is constant, and your grace is sufficient. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ tender and triumphant name.
