Learning to Lean with a Stayed Mind (Isaiah 26:3)

08/30/23 • 37 min

Isaiah 26 is a song of salvation, part of a song of praise that spills over from the previous chapter. The prophet Isaiah celebrates God’s trustworthiness to provide all that the people need, including their ultimate need: salvation.

↠The benefits of possessing the mind of Christ- one is His peace/His shalom

↠“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” (v. 3)

↠This beautiful promise was given in one of the darkest periods of Israel’s history, and today is no less of a dark time in our history- anxiety abounds (top issue)

↠Minds are occupied, overridden, anxiety-ridden, and Father comes in with the freedom of the offer of peace, not just peace but perfect peace (Phil. 4-6-7)

↠What is perfect peace (Hebrew: “shalom, shalom”)?

↠Words repeated for emphasis: “peace, fulfillment, completion, the way things ought to be” This perfect peace is offered to us.

↠The Father will “KEEP” us in this perfect peace

↠It’s the idea of a sentry, someone watching guard, He guards the peace that He gives, as we cannot maintain it ourselves

↠God as a sentry, guarding/promoting our peace, releasing His shalom, but there is a condition:

↠You will keep him in perfect peace...WHOSE MIND IS STAYED ON YOU

↠It is fixed (Isa. 50:7), not looking to the right or the left (Exodus 2:12)

↠That word stayed is “leaning upon”– a mind leaned upon God

↠As we grow in the mind of Christ, we are learning to lean. Do you remember the song? “I'm learning to lean, learning to lean on Jesus...”

↠Prov. 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and LEAN not on your own understanding...” Putting my weight on/resting upon/fully supported by Him

↠What is “the mind” referenced here?

↠”imagination, imagination of the mind, creative imagination, or form.” The Hebrew word has the idea of that place where thoughts/ideas are formed, and then those inform our life and actions (Romans 1:18-21)

↠God gave us the power of imagination so that we could imagine according to sanctified reasoning- it must be based on His truth with our constant leaning into Him

↠We have to take our thinking and our mind/our imagination seriously (2 Cor. 10:5)

↠“Casting down IMAGINATIONS, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God...” So, we could read Isaiah 26:3 this way: “He will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind (his imagination, the form of his thinking) is stayed (leaning, fixed) on Him.”

↠We begin each day leaning/steeping in His Word & Presence, imagining with Him

↠“Because he trusts in You.” It all begins in trust: I trust You, therefore I lean on You, therefore I receive Your perfect peace (Isa. 12:2) He sees you, lean in with everything, trust, and receive His perfect peace, the shalom of God.

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↠The benefits of possessing the mind of Christ- one is His peace/His shalom

↠“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” (v. 3)

↠This beautiful promise was given in one of the darkest periods of Israel’s history, and today is no less of a dark time in our history- anxiety abounds (top issue)

↠Minds are occupied, overridden, anxiety-ridden, and Father comes in with the freedom of the offer of peace, not just peace but perfect peace (Phil. 4-6-7)

↠What is perfect peace (Hebrew: “shalom, shalom”)?

↠Words repeated for emphasis: “peace, fulfillment, completion, the way things ought to be” This perfect peace is offered to us.

↠The Father will “KEEP” us in this perfect peace

↠It’s the idea of a sentry, someone watching guard, He guards the peace that He gives, as we cannot maintain it ourselves

↠God as a sentry, guarding/promoting our peace, releasing His shalom, but there is a condition:

↠You will keep him in perfect peace...WHOSE MIND IS STAYED ON YOU

↠It is fixed (Isa. 50:7), not looking to the right or the left (Exodus 2:12)

↠That word stayed is “leaning upon”– a mind leaned upon God

↠As we grow in the mind of Christ, we are learning to lean. Do you remember the song? “I'm learning to lean, learning to lean on Jesus...”

↠Prov. 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and LEAN not on your own understanding...” Putting my weight on/resting upon/fully supported by Him

↠What is “the mind” referenced here?

↠God gave us the power of imagination so that we could imagine according to sanctified reasoning- it must be based on His truth with our constant leaning into Him

↠We have to take our thinking and our mind/our imagination seriously (2 Cor. 10:5)

↠We begin each day leaning/steeping in His Word & Presence, imagining with Him

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Rain>Growth>Fruit- An Invitation into the garden of a soft heart

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Isaiah 55 is an invitation to "come..." In verses 10-11, we have a picture of the earth being watered. The guarantee is rain to growth to fruit, not just for the farmer, but for all. He then draws a comparison into how His Word flows and does not return void but goes forth producing fruit (Ps. 1:3). What has He said? What promises have been released? Where have you doubted? A soft garden of your heart is the desire of the Father...
Isaiah 55:10-11, Hosea 10:12, Deut. 32:2, 2 Cor. 9:10, Matthew 13:15

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A Love Towards Intimate Commands (John 14:15-24)

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We love Him. We keep His commandments which are really just simple invitations to know Him, be with Him, abide in Him, and He will come and take up residence, you won’t be a lost orphan, and the comforter will come rush in, in a way the world can’t explain, Heaven on earth...

↠The word love is used a lot in these verses, but is reserved for those in relationship

↠This isn’t the same as the blanket statement in John 3:16 for “the world, it’s something special offered to those who come in repentance

↠The “world can’t receive it...”

↠So, what does that mean “those that love me?”

↠Loving Jesus is NOT the same as keeping commandments, love for Him is not a to-do list, but is simply pure delight in Him, love can’t be reduced to a verb

↠Loving Him enables us to keep His Word, His instruction. Keeping His Word is a result of loving Him.

↠Love is our cherishing, our treasuring Christ. It is loving Him with all we are. Love for Jesus is totally deserved. He is good. He is worthy. Loving Jesus isn’t a matter of doing excellent things. It’s a matter of delighting in an incredibly excellent Savior.

↠If we love, we will “keep His commands.” What, though, are His commands?

↠We are not talking about simply the 10 commandments, let’s go deeper...

↠What commands of Jesus do you find in the Gospels, especially John? John 13:34-35 (love one another), John 21:16 (Tend/feed my sheep), John 1:43 (follow Me), John 14:1 (believe in Me), John 15:4 (Abide in Me), John 15:7 (Ask), John 20:22 (Receive the Holy Spirit). And there are more...

↠When we reflect on Old Testament commands, we feel ok. We haven’t murdered anyone, but are you abiding? Have you received Him? Are you following Him? These commands are much more personal

↠So if the commandments in the John are receive, believe, ask, abide, then it makes sense that Jesus would say, “If you love me — if you desire me and delight in me and treasure me — then you will receive me, and believe me and abide in me.”

↠The promise of Holy Spirit (v. 18)

↠Another promise just for those that love/come in relationship- the comforter will come and dwell within

↠In verse 23, He says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our HOME with him.”

↠That word “home” is used only one other time in John’s Gospel and it's in that same chapter, John 14:2. “In My Father’s house are many rooms;” That word translated rooms is the same as the one for home in verse 23.

Preparing a place for us in Heaven,and then They come early and dwell in you and bring some of that Heaven into you- “on earth as it is in Heaven.” That’s how you can encounter a situation that seems hopeless...Colossians 1:27- “Christ in YOU the hope of glory.”