Creating Peace of Mind

Many people have a sense that God is a source of peace. Even people who are not terribly familiar with the Bible have usually heard of the psalm about the good shepherd who lets his sheep rest in green pastures, who leads them to still waters to be refreshed, who comforts them and keeps them safe with his staff so that they "fear no evil."  Those who have studied the Bible a little bit have probably learned that one of the names of God, Jehovah-Shalom, means "the Lord is peace." 
But although the average guy on the street might have the idea that God can and should be his source of peace, many folks don't know how to access the peace of God and appropriate in real life. A key to that information can be found in the book of Isaiah the prophet:
  You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3

Let's check some word-for-word translations because this is interesting in a nerdy sort of way:

An imagination supported Thou fortifiest peace — peace! For in Thee it is confident. Young's Literal Translation.

A steadfast disposition thou guardest in constant peace (lit. “peace, peace”), for it is trustful towards thee. Cambridge Bible


Right off we see two different approaches to "the mind." It could be either (a) of that which is formed by the mind (imagination), or (b) of the constitution of the mind itself (disposition),—the inclination or character. Whichever approach is used, the mindset is steady and established, not wavering or fretting with doubt.

Translation	Noun	Adjective
King James	mind	stayed
Young's Literal	imagination	supported
Cambridge	disposition	steadfast

The next comparison, "keep" in the King James and most recent translations, pairs fortifieth with guardest. The original Hebrew word can be used several ways; translating it as fortifieth brings out the idea of 'preserving,' whilst using guardest favors the shade of meaning 'to watch over.'

The word שָׁלוֹם, (shalom) is repeated in the Hebrew to give the idea of completeness. Young's does it that way, whilst the Cambridge Bible uses "constant peace" and adds a foot note. The King James and many contemporary translations say "perfect peace."

No matter which shade of meaning is used in translation, it turns out that the peace is qualified upon conditions being met: (a) because he trusts God, and (b) the quality of that trust is confident and steadfast. The more completely a person trusts God, the fuller the peace. The less a person trusts the Lord, the more vaporous and imperfect the peace. Do you see what this means?

Having PEACE does NOT depend on CIRCUMSTANCES! You can control your level of peace by your choices.  Are you going to trust God? And if so, how much? By choosing to keep your mind steadfast, established in, and stayed on God, you will be given peace. 

This concept is picked up in the letter that Paul wrote to the Philippians. When they made the choice to stand firm and put these principles into practice, the peace of God guarded their hearts and minds.  (cf 4:6-9) The gospel of John also speaks of peace coming as a result of the choice to not let the heart wander into mistrust. (cf 4:27) Adults would do well to remember that The Three Hebrew Children in the Fiery Furnace is much more than a kid's story. In Daniel 3:28, Nebuchadnezzar clearly recognizes that it was their choice to trust God over worldly circumstance that brought the peaceable outcome. Three chapters later, Daniel 6:23, we find the key to Daniel's survival in the lions' den: his choice to trust God.

KarieLyn, the runaway bride, claimed to have peace after she ran back home. No, that was not the peace in the midst of trial that I have been describing in this post. She had already destroyed the relationship God had given her. She was not trusting God for her marriage at that point. She was not trusting God in the middle of a trial. If she trusted Him at all, it was a trust that He would play janitor and clean up the mess she made when she chose not to trust Him.  That is not the same thing.

Let us put the record straight here: KarieLyn lost her peace when she put her trust in her mother instead of in what God had already revealed and was giving to her.  After she ran, she felt relief from fighting with her mom, she felt a release of worry about a marriage that she unilaterally determined would never exist, she felt an absence of frustration because now there were no more decisions left to make. But the absence of discord, worry, and frustration is not the same as the complete peace that comes from abandoning self to fully trust the Lord.  Peace comes from trusting God to have your back, and KarieLyn did not do that.