Dear all at IPC,

I was recently with an elderly friend who I visit. When I arrived he was unusually agitated, getting up to check the windows were shut, muttering to himself, feeling cold and then feeling warm, moving seats, tidying papers and then retidying, asking the same questions again and again. All the time I could hear him mumbling, repeating something under his breath as he moved around the room. He finally sat down for a moment and I was able to hear what he was saying:

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you.

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you.

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you.”

He regained composure and his breathing steadied. He looked at me and said, “I’m not sure what happened there”. 

The verse he was quoting was from Isaiah 26:3. I knew it and yet I’m not sure I’d really seen it in action so powerfully before. It was as if I saw the power of the word of God before my very eyes doing its work.

The verse comes from the prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 26. The prophet is pointing forward, speaking of ‘that day’ (v1) in the city of salvation. Ultimately he is pointing to Christ and the salvation he brings. It is then, those who are right with God, will enjoy his peace v3, will know eternal security (v4), will participate in God’s victory (v5,6), will have security in the midst of the chaos of this life because of their God and the great longing of their life is to know God (v8). These people who will inhabit that city are characterised by a trust in God: “Trust in the Lord forever for the Lord God is an everlasting rock” (v4). It’s a picture of what God will bring in Christ, that day of salvation and judgement. In the midst of that is this great promise – put your mind on God and he will keep you in perfect peace. The words perfect peace are literally “peace, peace” – there’s an emphasis on how he can keep you in this ‘peace, peace’ when your mind is depending on the Lord.

As I’ve thought how my friend used this verse there are number of lessons.

The battle still rages even in old age. When I became a Christian, I naively thought (and was taught) that the hardest place to be a Christian was school. There is an element of truth to that but the real truth is that the hardest time to be a Christian is now. The battle with self and sin and Satan never lets up. Each stage of life might be different, but there’s always a battle.

My friend is 100 years old, and I could see on that afternoon him fighting to keep his mind on the Lord. The devil attacking him, agitating him. In many ways old age presents enormous challenges to our faith, we’re stripped back to only relying on God, we can’t do what we did, we can’t serve as we have in the past. There are frustrations and our world shrinks. We are thrown back on the Lord. So don’t dream of easier days, don’t think there comes a time when we won’t be under attack.

There is incalculable value in understanding scripture as the living word of God – my friend was holding on to God’s word, he knew it was true, he knew it worked. He realised that if he could get his mind on his God, his God would keep him, would give him peace. In many ways that is how he has lived his life, resting and relying on the word of God. 

The battle for our minds is so important. The apostle Paul tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2), “set your mind on things above, not things on earth” (Colossians 3:2)  we are “to take every thought captive” (2 Cor 10:5). What you think will effect how you live. We see it in sport when we say someone’s lost their head, or their head is not right. We are saying that their mindset has effected how they are performing.

Paul’s imagery in Ephesians is powerful: put on the armour of God, fasten on the belt of truth, use the sword of the Spirit. The battle is vicious, intense, and unrelenting and the weapon we have been given to fight with is scripture.

The Psalmist says, “I have hidden your word within my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11). Bury the truth in your heart and so when you are shaken, the truth will come out. Jesus says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. I look at the shelf by my desk and it groans with a number of bibles. We have more translations, more access to scripture than any generation before us, but alongside that there is greater biblical ignorance than ever before.

The practice of memorising scripture is out of fashion, it can be seen as antiquated, and tragically it can be seen as something that children do but not adults. I think we as a church are probably weak in this area. It seems to me that we need to work hard on getting scripture into ourselves. I’m not arguing for memorisation without understanding, but we need to put scripture to work. We need to learn it to use it.

In times of great anxiety and fear, in times of sadness, in every time, God’s word can keep you. That isn’t trite and isn’t simplistic. 

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you.”

Your Minister and friend,

Paul