“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” – Isaiah 26:3
The evening that our Haiti team returned from serving in the mountain city of Pignon to the Church of God main compound several hours away near the Caribbean coastal town of Saintard, I was sharing with Phyllis Newby about our journey to Pignon.
The bus driver had to take an alternate route because of a riot that was blocking the road south of our destination. This alternate route was a much rougher road and caused our bus to become stuck. At the time that the bus was unable to be dug out, it was well past 1am and our team was in the middle of nowhere.
I shared with Miss Phyllis that I was proud of our team because not one person panicked in that situation and everyone did what they needed to do to help the driver work to free the bus.
Ghosts know whom to frighten
Phyllis, being a full-time missionary to Haiti for 45 years, replied with a Jamaican proverb, “Ghosts know whom to frighten.” She explained that she has been in situations similar and much worse, but because of God’s ability to keep her in perfect peace, she has no need to fear.
Does life ever take you down a road that you feel like the darkness is enveloping you, making it hard to even breathe? Does the mud of life cause you to get stuck? I wish I could tell you that there is a guarantee in Scripture that if you did a certain combination of good works or repeated scripted prayers that those things would no longer plague your life. However, Scripture gives no such warranty nor prescription.
Yet, I have good news!
Though the Bible does not give us a way to fend off bad things from happening to us, the Bible does give us the guarantee that if we focus our minds, our bodies and our hearts on Christ that God will keep us in perfect peace.
This peace is so powerful that even when you walk through dark valleys and when you feel stuck in a rut, even then you know that you are secure in Jesus’ hand. Jesus’ peace can never be robbed from you and as long as you keep your eyes on Him, He will never allow His peace to fade away.
You see, if you have peace from Christ, even the ghosts in your closets know they cannot frighten you, and that is great news!
God bless you!
Contributor: Dale Gruver, senior pastor of First Church of God, Alliance, OH. You can hear his sermons here.
