Isaiah 26:3: “You will keep him in perfect peace, / Whose mind is stayed on You, / Because he trusts in You.”

August 20th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

This text helps us to understand that the disruption of our own inner peace takes place in our minds, not our bodies or even because of our external circumstances. Tranquility begins to depart when we fix our mind on the wrong goals, too many goals, or worse, no goals at all. The New Testament agrees in James 1:8: “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” The place where our minds need to be fixed, or stayed, is on God, and our desires need to be set on fulfilling His will in our lives. Augustine said it this way: “Our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” We all need to regularly sit quietly before God, with Bible and notebook in hand, ready to receive from Him.

I love the story from many years ago of a young man who approached the foreman of a logging crew in Oregon and asked for a job. “That depends,” replied the foreman. “Let’s see you fell this tree.” The young man stepped forward and skillfully felled a great pine. Impressed, the foreman exclaimed, “You can start Monday.” Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday rolled by. Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, “You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today.” Startled, the young man replied, “I thought you paid on Friday.” “Normally we do,” said the foreman. “But we’re letting you go today because you’ve fallen behind. Our daily felling charts show that you’ve dropped from first place on Monday to last place today.” “But I’m a hard worker,” the young man objected. “I arrive first, leave last, and have even worked through my coffee breaks!” The foreman, sensing the young man’s integrity, thought for a minute, and then asked, “Have you been sharpening your ax?” The young man replied, “No sir, I’ve been working too hard to take time for that!” We have all been guilty of this line of thinking. When we find our peace draining away, we need to ask ourselves, “Could it be that I have forgotten to stay sharp?”

“LORD, we look for You in Your Word this day. Please sharpen us.”