“You will keep in perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both inclination and character], Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation]. Trust [confidently] in the Lord forever [He is your fortress, your shield, your banner], For the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages]." -Isaiah 26:3-4

I needed this reminder! God not only calls us to perfect peace, He promises to deliver. Take Him up? LifeAbundantlyBlog.com

Sometimes hard times happen. They come when we least expect it, under the fold of joyful times. Times when everything seems just perfect, the enemy jumps at the opportunity to steal and destroy (that's kind of his thing).

He takes joy in taking moments of joy and attempting to turn them to ruin. And so we struggle.

We struggle with keeping it together, and keeping going and taking our thoughts captive. We struggle with seeing the TRUTH in life and the good, and we sink into the laziness of sadness or frustration or foolish thoughts.

God's word says that He will keep those of us in PERFECT PEACE if our mind is STEADFAST on Him. Because we are steadfastly keeping our mind on Him, we are indicating we trust and take refuge in Him. The thief of joy comes to trample around in an idle mind- an idle mind that is not STEADFASTLY committed and focused on truth, joy, purity and goodness {which are all, coincidentally, found in His Word}.

When we truly, deeply, CONFIDENTLY trust in the Lord, then our thoughts are constantly and steadfastly kept upon Him, and THEN we have perfect peace.

And so, if that is true, so is the reverse- When our thoughts are CONSTANTLY and STEADFASTLY kept upon Him, THEN we truly, deeply and confidently trust in the Lord, and THEN we have perfect peace.

So, as with almost all of God's promises- there's an if/then statement. There's a "you do your part and I will always, most assuredly, do MY part". Our part is to TRUST {in Him and only Him}. Confidently. To place our minds and our thoughts on Him constantly. Some versions say a mind that is "kept" on Him.

When we do THAT, He does His part: Perfect peace. Constant peace.

God is nothing, if not faithful. He's much more than that, but above all He is GOOD and He is faithful. Our minds... not so much. Stress, worry, fear, poor diet, lack of exercise, crazy hormones... our minds are not trustworthy. But God is good. My favorite definition of faith is when we take OUR personality- our thoughts, our actions and our beliefs and we replace those with HIS goodness, HIS wisdom and HIS faithfulness.

So that's it- we all love a perfect recipe for "the good life"- for life abundantly- and that's it. We TRUST. We replace all of our junk with His goodness. We replace all of the lies with HIS truth. We KEEP our minds on HIS perfect will and wisdom and joy. We trust HIM {through his words and promises} and trust not in ourselves.

We confidently take refuge with great expectation in His promises, and He is our everlasting, eternal Rock.

So let's try the recipe for Life {Abundantly}. Trust in the Lord and lack no good thing. Keep your mind stayed upon the Lord because you trust in Him.

There are hundreds of verses, but they all boil down to this truth: TRUST. SEEK. KNOCK. ASK. Perfect Peace.

It's a promise that I'm very interested in taking Him up on. How about you?