Peace, By Trust and God Mindfulness

“He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord!”

— Isaiah 26:3 (Living Bible)

Two steps to peace here on earth,

Are set forth in this way,

These will guard you in your dearth,

Each will provide for you every day.

First is to trust the Lord,

Second is to be constantly aware,

That God’s to be truly adored;

Rely fully on God, who’s promised to care.

***

There is a peace that so relatively few, it seems, partake of, yet it’s promised over and over in the Bible. Why is it that not more people take God at his Word? The answer, of course, is there’s not enough surrender, too much compromise on worldly things, and not enough focus on God.

But there are two delineable ways to gain this peace that transcends the simple understanding we embody in our minds: trust, which is surrender in its own right, and mindfulness – the hinging of our entire worlds on the things of the Lord, per the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4-9. By mindfulness, we are to keep to the Words of God, recite them to our children, and bind them visually on our bodies and in our homes, almost as tattoos or works of living room art.

The promise of God is that, by surrendering to trust, and by constant mindfulness on God and the things of God, we will experience such an abiding peace – a peace that clings to our beings and is difficult not to experience.

But, will we commit? Will we commit ourselves to the ‘program of God’?

Two simple things, both done with the simplest yet fullest commitments, have the power to transform us, impelling us toward peace.

It is not strange that when we turn our attentions toward God we tend to worry less about the things of life that God provides for in any event. We envy less. We boast less. We lie less. We get selfish less. And we are more content, because our foci has been subsumed in what is safe for us dwell in. We cannot lose when we focus with all our energy on God our Saviour.

It seems no huge leap, then, having focused all our thought on God, that we would also trust him. Trusting God is amplest of surrenders.

***

Peace with life is but two steps away: to trust God and to be ever mindful on God.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.