Isaiah 26:3-4

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! 4 Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.

In our hectic, stress filled world today, peace is an uncommon commodity. Rarely do we see people who possessed a deep abiding peace. We see people with temporal peace because of their circumstances, but not a peace in all circumstances. It’s easy to feel like we have peace when things are going our way, but are we at peace when things are seemingly all against us? Isaiah says that regardless of our circumstances we can have peace, even in times of great difficultly there can be peace in the pain. Isaiah reveals to us the secret of the peace, it is the byproduct of trust and a praying trusting soul is not touched by external disturbances. Do you want to have an eternal calm that comes from deep within?  Do you believe that God keeps His word, do you know that His word is trustworthy? Verse three begins to set forth the unmovable foundation of hope for God’s people, “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”  The person who finds peace has cast themselves upon God without any reservations. Doubt is conquered by faith and the result is a replacing of doubt with trust. James 1:6-8 says that a doubting double-mined person is unstable in all their ways. Peace is always tied to our focus, a fixed disposition of trust in God is required to experience the security of God. The mind that is steadfast has its thoughts, purposes, and intentions focused. Focused on what? On the Lord God. A commitment to understanding that God will keep His Word develops peace, and eventually perfect peace. So how do we focus our mind on God? We focus our mind on God through meditating on His word. Are you daily spending time letting God refocus your life on Him through knowing His Word? Isaiah talks about perfect peace, this is not just a onetime moment of peace but a life style of peace. As we walk in trust with God this peace grows through fellowship with our Maker and over time we experience perfect peace. Perfect peace is discovered through a lifestyle of trust because Isaiah says that trust is not a onetime event either. The Hebrew here is a double repetition of the word shalom, literally shalom shalom, Peace is therefore emphatic. People who continue to trust in the Lord enjoy perfect, complete and genuine peace. The result of a mind stayed on God is a disposition of peace and wholeness and fullness of well-being, true repose in the sunshine of God’s favor, belong to those whom God keeps.

The truth of Isaiah 26:3 is that a person who steadfastly looks to God can know an inner peace which makes possible a confident out look even in the darkest hours. In exchange for our mortality, short-sightedness and weakness, faith receives God’s perspective, immortality, strength and presence. That is security far, far beyond anything this world could ever offer. The promises God keeps with us are intended to create confidence in His Word and faithfulness to Him. Those who abide in His Word and cultivate faithfulness, find peace, a deep, restful, constant assurance that God will not forsake His Word nor His promises. For those whose mind is fixed upon the promises of God, the outcome of all events is guaranteed peace. The sad truth is that it is often only a faithful few who know the peace that God alone is able to give. Have you begun your pursuit of peace, have you trusted in the promise of eternal life made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Because of sin we are in conflict with God and the only way to make peace with God is through His Son Jesus. How do we make peace with God? We can’t, it only comes as we place our trust in Jesus Christ as our own personal Lord and Savior. Jesus provided salvation through the cross, Jesus made peace with God for us by the shedding of His blood for the forgiveness of our sin. Have you made your peace with God by choosing Jesus, the Prince of Peace?

When we have made peace with God we can receive the peace of God.  As we develop a deep abiding relationship with God, where we choose to place our mind on Him and make the purpose of our life a walk with Him we experience a growing transforming peace. Through this growing personal relationship we develop a deeper and fuller trust day by day as we walk with Him. Out of this trust blossoms peace, perfect peace regardless of whatever life will bring our way. Colossians 3:15 says “And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace.” We can have peace with God and others if we have the peace of God ruling in our hearts.  The characteristic of a mature Christian is that they trust God by placing themselves under His guidance and leadership, and live in dependence upon Him. Those that trust in God have their minds stayed upon Him, they trust Him at all times, and under all events firmly and faithfully cleave to Him. They not only find satisfaction in God but He keeps them in perpetual peace.

Psalm 9:10

Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

“Faith is a living well-founded confidence in the grace of God, so perfectly certain that it would die a thousand times rather than surrender its conviction. Such confidence and personal knowledge of divine grace makes its possessor joyful, bold, and full of warm affection toward God and all created things — all of which the Holy Spirit works in faith. Hence, such a man becomes without constraint willing and eager to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer all manner of ills, in order to please and glorify God, who has shown toward him such grace.”  Martin Luther

God asks us the question, do you trust me? Every day we place our trust in people and possessions. We trust our cars to get us to our destination, we trust our careers to deliver paychecks, we trust our doctors to heal our illnesses. All of these have one thing in common, at some point they fail our trust. But what happened to those who placed their trust in God? Moses trusted God to deliver the Israelites at the Red Sea. Joseph trusted God while he waited in pharaoh’s prison. David trusted God for a victory when he was facing Goliath. Jonah trusted God to answer his prayer in the belly of the fish. Peter and John trusted God as they stood before the Sanhedrin and gave their defense of the Christian faith.

Trust is a dependence on someone or something, a belief that it will happen. Trust is found in our unswerving belief that the God of Heaven will indeed work on our behalf to bring His perfect will for our lives to pass. What does it mean to trust? It means to depend on Him. We say that we trust God and yet there are times when trusting God does not seem so simple. Trusting God means we believe in that which we cannot see and sometimes may not understand. Trusting God seems to go against our human nature because trusting God means that we have to admit that we are not in control of our lives. We are very independent creatures that crave control and that in itself is one of the greatest obstacles to trust. Far too often we become completely focused on the trials and tribulations of life and we lose our focus on trusting Christ. When Peter walked on the water he was doing well until he took his eyes off of Jesus and looked at the waves. The same is true of us today, God can get us through the most impossible situations but we must keep our focus and trust on Him. Are you focused of the trials or the trust? How can we ever expect to find help and healing when we will only focus on our difficulties and not our deliverer? So God asks the question, do you trust me? Disasters strike and tragedies will happen in our lives. Life can indeed be hard, it can be uncertain, it is beyond our control, and in difficult times it is beyond our understanding. Sometimes we are left with raw emotions, and tough questions and the answers are beyond us as we grapple with the question of why. Yet nothing that we go through in this life is beyond God, the truth is that we can and must rely on Him in every situation. There will be times that just don’t make any sense in human terms and the more senseless life becomes the greater our need to trust in God becomes. God wants you to trust even when you don’t understand, when life just doesn’t make sense and the future seems uncertain. In 1887 John H. Sammis wrote the great hymn Trust and Obey:

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,

What a glory He sheds on our way!

While we do His good will, He abides with us still,

And with all who will trust and obey. Refrain:

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way

To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,

But His smile quickly drives it away;

Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,

Can abide while we trust and obey.

Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,

But our toil He doth richly repay;

Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,

But is blessed if we trust and obey.

But we never can prove the delights of His love

Until all on the altar we lay;

For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,

Are for them who will trust and obey.

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet,

Or we’ll walk by His side in the way;

What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;

Never fear, only trust and obey.

Are you trusting today or trying? God promises that He will never forsake those who seek Him and the treasure we find in trusting Him is love from the God who is love, grace and peace from the God of all comfort, security from the God who never changes, protection, provision and His presence from the God who is all powerful, acceptance from the God who knows everything. Our treasure is eternity with the God who sacrificed His own Son so we could be forgiven. God is asking only one question, do you trust me? What is your answer today?