Live Free with Josh Howerton - Shalom Shalom | Ep. 355 | Friday, June 14, 2024

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

Do you want peace? Focusing on God is the way! When we put our thoughts on Him we can experience rest and peace even in the midst of the storm. Keep today’s verse in mind and experience perfect peace. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Well, it is Friday and hope has been a great week for y'all. My name is Bro, and on the Daily Drive, we have been talking about distractions all week long and how what we focus on has our attention and what has our attention has our devotion. And what has our devotion has us. And man, it's so easy to

get distracted by so many things these days, right? Technology, which is supposed to make our lives easier has given us so many options to chase that distract us from the main thing. I mean, we are drowning in information, right? They say the human knowledge is doubling every 13 months, but the deluge of information is actually providing less clarity and more confusion. And I believe this is what the Bible calls a scheme from the evil one. He loves to amplify a distraction because it's subtle and it causes us to drift from purpose, from joy, from love, and from God. And as we drift, we get filled up with so much fear and anxiety. Worry begins to suck the joy out of our lives and hope and peace are just merely wishful thinking.

And so God speaks into this. In Isaiah chapter 26, he speaks through Isaiah and says this, you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you all whose thoughts are fixed on you let me read that again you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you

all whose thoughts are fixed on you there's that focus thing again now did you notice the kind of peace it's the kind of peace that Jesus was talking about when he said it's a peace that the world cannot give it's the peace that Paul says transcends human understanding It's a perfect peace.

You've probably had someone used as a greeting the word shalom. It's the Jewish word for peace. The original Old Testament Hebrew term for perfect peace is shalom shalom. Repetition in that language communicates intensity. So this isn't it. This isn't just shalom. This is the shalom of all shalom. And if you've experienced it, then you know that it really is unexplainable.

It's peace right in the middle of a storm. It just comes and wraps you up like a warm blanket on a cold night. It takes your pounding heart rate from like head-banging heavy metal to smooth jazz. It really is a piece that no one else but God can get. It is shalom, shalom. But have you also experienced how fleeting that peace can be? And why would perfect peace be fleeting? Well, in a word, distractions.

It says, you will keep in perfect peace those who trust in you. When you and I defer our trust, we deplete our peace. You want to stay in that perfect peace? Keep trusting your father. And did you notice how being kept in this perfect peace is a matter of your mind? You will keep in perfect peace those who trust in you and all whose thoughts are fixed. on you. You know, the role our mind plays is crucial. Matthew 22 tells us that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our mind. Romans 12 says we are transformed by the renewing of our mind. Filippians

2 says we are to have the mind of Christ, the one we saw yesterday from Colossus chapter 3. We are to set our mind on things above. And the word Paul uses there to set your mind we talked about yesterday. It's the equivalent of the word used here in Isaiah, you will keep in perfect peace, all those whose thoughts are fixed on you. Or more accurately, those who are continually fixing their thoughts on you, daily, moment by moment, fixing their minds on you. As you and I walk in the awareness of God's presence with us, in us, throughout the day,

when we fix our mind, when we set our mind, when we set our focus on him, guess what? We will walk in that perfect peace. Chasing distractions tend to drive away the piece, because in chasing distractions, we're drifting from the one who gives that perfect peace. So why don't we just stick this verse in our minds today? You will keep in perfect peace,

all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you. So let's fix our thoughts on walking with God today and experience Shalom, Shalom. Have a great weekend. See you back here on Monday. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship,

join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.com. dot church slash daily drive.