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

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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.