Perfect Peace

I’m getting a late start in writing the blog this morning. I was up early, had my quiet prayer and Bible reading time and yet, my spirit seemed unsettled. Only one remedy for that…sing praise and worship to the Lord! I started out on the deck in the dark. Prayer and softly sung love songs from me to Him the path to perfect peace. Because I trust in Him, give Him all the glory and worship. It is amazing how this moves you to another level of spiritual peace!

I came back in feeling calm and peaceful but not ready or willing to leave that place. I put one of my favorite worship CDs in the computer and got down to some serious love songs of worship. Neither a CD nor music is required for songs of worship; they come from the heart, soul and spirit.

There is a worship song with simple words that say it all…….

Thou shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.

Thou shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.

Because he trusted in Thee, oh Lord, his mind is stayed on Thee.

Because he trusted in Thee, oh Lord, his mind is stayed on Thee.

That’s the entire song, as written above. It is simple yet complex with harmony. But, really, when we trust in Him He does keep us in peace. It is when we let the chaos of life jump in and take over that we lose that perfect peace.

One of the Bibles I read and reference is The Complete Jewish Bible. It is written with the original Jewish ‘flavor’. Let’s not forget, Scripture was written by Jews for Jews originally and when the Jewish-ness is taken out and handed down to be rewritten again in modern languages, a lot of the original Jewish context is lost. In other Bibles where the word ‘faith’ is used, this Bible uses the word ‘trust’. It seems to me that faith comes as the result of trusting. Scripture more often uses the faith as a noun….’by faith…” “have faith..” Yet trust is more of a verb…an action taken. In the King James Bible the word ‘trust’ is used 188 times. In the NIV, 164 times. Most of the time it is used as a verb….an action word.

Hebrews 11 is an excellent chapter to read about those that stepped out in faith and followed the direction from God. Could they have had faith without first trusting? Hebrews 11 starts out saying in verse 1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. This leads me to believe that we cannot have faith without trusting or trust without faith in the results God provides. We must make a concerted action of first trusting and the faith will follow.

I pray that little song above become our love song of trust, faith and peace: “Because I trusted in Thee, oh Lord, Thou keep me in perfect peace, my mind is stayed on Thee.”