We saw last week how flies and other winged parasites buzzing around the head of a sheep can often drive it to distraction and unrestfulness which is similar to when our troubles and life challenges faces us in life. Relief comes only when the shepherd is able to bathe the sheep’s head with soothing oil which he carries with him for this purpose which is why for us humans, only the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds can calm our troubled heart. Let us always allow God’s Holy Spirit to be in our heart and mind, transforming our life to conform to that that of Christ our Lord so that things will and shall be well with us! What a striking picture this presents of the way in which God ministers to us in the midst of life’s irritations. A motto on the desk of a high school principal reads: For every irritation under the Sun There is a remedy, or there is none. If there be one, try to find it. If there be none, never mind it. This is what life on a cursed earth is all about, until our Lord Jesus does something in lifting off the curse on the face of the earth, and give man real peace! The suggestion, regarding an irritation for which there is no remedy, to ‘never mind it’ is good, but not quite good enough. The irritation may be so present and insistent that you cannot help ignoring it but mind it. Take, for example, those irritating, disruptive, unhelpful and persistent thoughts or thought-chains that sometimes buzz around in our heads and minds. It is impossible not to mind them. What is to be done? Several things are possible. First, build a strong picture of Lord Jesus in your mind, that is to say try to always anchor your mind and heart on Lord Jesus, allowing your heart and mind to always be occupied by thought of things concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. In your reading, meditation and personal prayer time, seek to develop a clear picture of your Savior Jesus Christ in your mind and heart. Then, when a wrong thought strikes, focus your mind, not on the thought, but on Lord Jesus. Wrong thoughts can be outwitted by swiftly directing the mind to a more absorbing theme especially in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And what better theme is there in the whole realm of thought than Christ? None!

Now let us read Isaiah 26:1-12; In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: [a]We have a strong city; [the Lord] sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. 2 Open the gates, that the [uncompromisingly] righteous nation which keeps her faith and her troth [with God] may enter in. 3 You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. 4 So trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages]. 5 For He has brought down the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city; He lays it low, lays it low to the ground; He brings it even to the dust. 6 The foot has trampled it down—even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy. 7 The way of the [consistently] righteous (those living in moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relationship of their lives) is level and straight; You, O [Lord], Who are upright, direct aright and make level the path of the [uncompromisingly] just and righteous. 8 Yes, in the path of Your judgments, O Lord, we wait [expectantly] for You; our heartfelt desire is for Your name and for the remembrance of You. 9 My soul yearns for You [O Lord] in the night, yes, my spirit within me seeks You earnestly; for [only] when Your judgments are in the earth will the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God). 10 Though favor is shown to the wicked, yet they do not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness they deal perversely and refuse to see the majesty of the Lord. 11 Though Your hand is lifted high to strike, Lord, they do not see it. Let them see Your zeal for Your people and be ashamed; yes, let the fire reserved for Your enemies consume them. 12 Lord, You will ordain peace (God’s favor and blessings, both temporal and spiritual) for us, for You have also wrought in us and for us all our works.

Isaiah prays for the Lord to show the world that He supports His people by consuming His enemies. In the end, the Lord will bring peace to Israel and Judah. After all, God is the source every good things they have ever accomplished. Lord Jesus promised peace unlike that offered by the world. What was the difference between the two peace, and how can we lay hold of God’s peace? Several years ago, I visited the historic site of Appomattox and heard an amazing story said a narrator: As I remember it, our guide told of Wilmer McLean who owned a home near Bull Run. His house was seriously damaged during the opening battle of the Civil War, and so, falsely believing he would be safer from future conflicts, he rebuilt his home - only to have it destroyed again during the 2nd battle of Bull Run. Disgusted, he moved to a part of the country where he felt he could escape the ravages of war– in a small obscure community called Appomattox County in Virginia. Appomattox is most famous for the events of April 1865, when Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S Grant to effectively end the American Civil war. So when Lee surrendered to Grant, it was McLean’s house again that was used by the two Generals to sign the historic terms of surrender. During this occasion their aides de camp were so moved by the signing they desired a memento of the occasion - a souvenir to remember what had taken place in this house. So they all walked off with a piece of furniture from McLean’s house and he suffered another effect of war after having run away from it. APPLY: No matter where that man ran he could not escape conflict. He could never seem to find peace. People have sought peace for generations. They have rallied for it. They have bargained for it. They have compromised for it They have even fought for it. They presume that if they can ever create a world where there is no trouble, no difficulties, no conflicts - then they can have perfect peace. But Lord Jesus tells us (even for us who belong to Him) “33 I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]” John 16:33 Peter wrote: “12 Beloved, do not be amazed and bewildered at the fiery ordeal which is taking place to test your quality, as though something strange (unusual and alien to you and your position) were befalling you.”1 Peter 4:12 You are NEVER going to reach a place in this world where there will be no trouble No difficulties No conflicts (pause…) It’s never going to happen. The circumstances of conflict and troubles will (sooner or later) invade your life. And you will not be able to move away from them. But you can choose how you will deal with those circumstances…this is where your childhood of God is tested! Because you are expected to handle troubling circumstances and conflicts in the same way as our Lord Jesus did handle them, our Lord knew what His aims were, to save mankind by His life offer, and so He chose it, not minding its fearful and heart aching tendencies, so He never resisted His arrest: He made a choice! The same choice is expected of you and I whenever we are faced with life challenges but we have to be well embodied by God’s word before we can make a rightful choice like our Lord Jesus Christ in life. God help us! ILLUS: Victor Frankl was a Jewish Medical Doctor during 1930’s. Frankl was a pioneer of modern day psychotherapy, and he developed much of his theory for Psychotherapy while a prisoner in a WWII concentration camp, arrested along with other Jews and imprisoned. As a Medical Doctor, he was put to work treating other prisoners. While serving in that capacity, he had an opportunity to observe people under the most trying of circumstances. He saw people as they lived… and he saw them as they died. He had expected that people who were weak would die and those who were strong would survive. However, that wasn’t always true and it caused Frankl to wander if there wasn’t something else involved. What he observed became the source of his “Logo Therapy.” He noticed that those who lived had one thing in common: they had chosen to live rather than die. He found that when everything else had been taken, friends, food, dignity, health… the one thing their captors could not take away was – choice, their choice. The choice to live. According to Frankl, the last of man’s inalienable rights was the right of individual to choose how they would respond in any given situation. Victor Frankl said: “You cannot always control your circumstances, but you have the power to control your response to your circumstances.” In other words, you can have peace, because you CHOOSE peace… and you pursue it. As Psalm 34:14b tells us: “seek, inquire for, and crave peace and pursue (go after) it! Do you see that we have a great lesson to learn here, because we are too fast to be discouraged and as such we lack the ability to persist and press on in life especially when there appear signs as if there is no more light in the tunnel.

Lord Jesus said: “Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled.” John 14:27 How can we not let our heart not be troubled when the trouble is just obviously facing us? What kind of peace is this? This peace of Lord Jesus. It’s a peace where my heart isn’t troubled. It’s a peace where I am not afraid in spite of the fact that there are really fearful things around. It’s not like the “world’s peace” Because the world’s peace is based upon what my circumstances are. If my life going badly then I’ll be sad or angry. If things are going well, only then will I be pleased. That’s the peace the world knows. Peace that oscillates based on the situation: good or bad; you joy when good and you saddened when bad! That is the world kind of peace. BUT this peace from Lord Jesus is different. This peace is a promise from God of His peace IN SPITE OF my circumstances or situations. As Paul writes: this peace “transcends all understanding” – it doesn’t even make any sense to the world. That is to say, you can be smiling when something terribly bad and sad happened and in that circumstance people might be looking at you as being insane whereas you are not. Isaiah tells us that this kind of peace (perfect peace) is promised by God to His people. You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You. “You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.” Isaiah 26:3. As Christians, we are required to start training our heart and mind to start learning how to practice this type of peace by trying to stay your heart and mind in Christ when certain ills befalls you, it is not easy but it is said that practice makes perfect! The Lord’s peace makes you stable, composed, sound minded, focused, not carried away, not overwhelmed, not troubled, not shaken in all situations and circumstances because your heart and mind is anchored in Christ. But first of all you must be somebody who is indwelled by Christ, someone who is godly both in character, attitude, behavior and lifestyle. II. What’s this peace like? How will you know when you have it? You won’t stumble through life. As we’re told in Psalms 119:165 “Great peace have they who love your law, nothing shall offend them or make them stumble, [Prov 3:2, Isaiah 32:17].” So you see from these Bible passages, we find out knowledge of God’s Word is important, meaning that we have to be embodiments of God’s word in life so that in all situation and circumstances of life that we find ourselves we can easily know exactly what to do, how to behave, and how to decide and act, all aimed at achieving peace!