Stayed on God?

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Isaiah 26:3

I have reached that stage in life where sometimes it seems you remember things from fifty years ago better than from six months ago. Here’s a case in point. In Sunday School we sang a chorus which I remember (KJV, of course) as “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee”.

I don’t know when I discovered that this was a verse straight out of Isaiah 26, but even as I write, the tune is still running through my head (isn’t the brain an amazing thing?). The Thee’s and Thou’s have gone in the NIV, of course, as have the capitals for God and the masculine pronouns - which is fine by me, because the more modern translations capture the sense very well: there is a promise of “perfect peace” for the person with a mind “steadfastly trusting” in God.

The chapter as a whole is full of trust in God – indeed, it is one of the rare places in the Old Testament which holds out a hope of bodily resurrection (verse 19). So it’s worth dwelling on as a whole. But the promise of verse 3 is specially beautiful.

Mind you, it raises the question: what does it mean in practice to have “a mind stayed on God”?

That question used to trouble me because, perhaps like most of us, my mind rarely “stays” on anything for much longer than five minutes flat. There are just so many distractions!... how is the cricket going?... that phone call I’ve been meaning to make… that book I’m halfway through… the war in Ukraine… that music blaring from next door… If ever anybody had a butterfly mind, that person is me.

Going back again to my early years, there was a thing called a “quiet time”, a period each day when we were encouraged to switch off from all “worldly” activities and focus on God, and prayer, and the Bible. A great idea – and one I have been happy to try and maintain throughout my life.

But easier said than done, even in those quieter days! What if you didn’t have a physical space which was yours alone? What if you were the only member of your family who was a Christian? What if…? oh, a million other factors!

It’s easier to say what a mind stayed on God isn’t rather than what it is. It isn’t a 100 percent focus on God 24/7 (to use today’s jargon). That just isn’t a practical possibility, with life to be lived and multiple things to be grappled with. And God doesn’t expect it of us. (After all, you don’t stop being a Christian when you’re asleep, do you?)

I read a story from the days when monasticism was regarded as the highest form of Christian spirituality. An eager young man, his eyes aglow, approached the head of a monastery and declared his intention of joining his order and spending every minute of the rest of his life doing nothing but praying and meditating. To which the wise old man replied “Well, that’s wonderful. But then whose feet will you wash?”

Bringing it more down to earth for us… If the day comes when I’m lying on an operating table, I would be very happy to learn that the surgeon rummaging around in my innards is a Spirit-filled Christian; but I’m not sure I want her focussing consciously on God while she’s on the job, thanks very much. Or that the person driving the bus I’m on is a strong member of a local church – but I don’t really want him meditating too deeply on Sunday morning’s sermon when he’s supposed to be thinking about the next set of traffic-lights.

That kind of non-stop focus on God can wait until we are in his immediate presence in heaven – when it will be pure joy and no effort.

For us in the here and now it’s more about a cast of mind, a basic God-centred mentality, what Jesus called a “hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6). It’s a “mind-set” which we begin to grow and develop from the day of our conversion, and which we go on growing right until the day we see him face to face (1 John 3:2).

Which means… We can have a mind stayed on God while we’re hurrying around the supermarket, or changing the baby’s nappy, or making love to our husband/wife, or enjoying a football match, or sitting through a tedious meeting. (Or, of course, “washing somebody’s feet”.)

The whole of life is sacred, soaked in Christ, even though we may not be consciously thinking of him. While of course it’s good to turn and focus specially on him when we can, a mind stayed on Christ is not something we switch on at particular moments or for particular events.

No, it’s a matter of my very personality, the very essence of what and who I am, simply what makes me me. Far from perfect now, of course; but one day to be perfected.

I’m pretty sure that’s what Isaiah meant, aren’t you?

Father, please grant me grace to develop daily a mind which is stayed on you, until that day comes when I shall see Jesus as he is. Amen.