Jesus, “you will keep in perfect peace all who set their gaze on you and fill their thoughts with you” (Heb.12:2 + Isa.26:3)
Lord Jesus, you haven’t promised us a storm-less, hassle-free, pain-void life. But you have promised something that transcends our fears, vulnerability, and hurts. You promise to keep us in perfect peace in the midst of anything and everything. As we love to sing, “he will hold me fast”; and your embrace is the most settling and centering power on earth.
We can never lose our relationship with you, but we can most definitely lose its experiential power and sweetness. We never earned the gift of your calming presence, so we don’t have to stress about re-earning it. How then can we re-enter the experience of your perfect peace? You have taught us that it’s a “fix-and-fill” issue. Where we fix out gaze and what we fill our thoughts with has enormous impact on our lives.
It’s not mind over matter; it’s you over all things, Jesus. It’s not denying reality but delighting in you. Indeed, the more we fix our gaze on you—the Author and Perfecter of our faith, and the more we “set our minds on things above” (Col.3:2), the quicker we will return to Gospel-sanity and heart-peace. And perhaps like Paul and Silas, even singing hymns in whatever “prison” we may be in” (Acts 16:25-26). O to know you that well, Jesus. O to be that free… grant it Lord.
Today, tomorrow, and forever—Jesus keep bringing us back this glorious state of heart: “Whom or what do I have in heaven but you, Jesus? You make heaven ‘heavenly.’ And being with you, there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Ps.73:25). So Very Amen.
