The Formula for Perfect Peace

By: Melanie Moore

I awoke this morning to a blaring alarm clock, jarring me out of a deep sleep. I peeked open one of my eyes and grabbed my phone to help wake myself up. Of course, the first thing I looked at was the news, and as I sleepily scrolled through the headlines, I realized that all of them had a commonality.

All of the headlines were announcing bad news.

I started to feel a bit anxious so I decided that maybe Facebook would be a better way to start my day. After swapping over to peek at my Facebook news feed, it didn't take long to realize that the bad news and debates were unfortunately taking place there too.

Hmm, that's not the type of start to my day I had planned.

I decided to get out of bed and get ready for the day. As I brushed my team, I listened to the radio and hummed along with the songs. When the announcer came on, he gave a couple local news stories, and wouldn't you know it.... the news was also bad.

What in the world is going on? I wondered if maybe this was a bad sign to the start of this whole day.

Finally, I picked up my Bible. My heart was already pounding, and I could feel a slight headache forming behind my eyes. 

"Lord", I prayed, "Please show me how to live in a world full of trouble. Please give me your peace."

As I prayed, I remembered the following promises from God, and immediately I turned to Isaiah to remind myself of them:

"You keep him in perfect peace

    whose mind is stayed on you,

    because he trusts in you."

   ~ Isaiah 26:3

Every day, we are bombarded by bad news and worries of the world. It seems like everywhere we turn, there is some reason to fear or become stressed. However, we have one even more powerful reason NOT to fear -- God! 

I love this verse for several reasons. First, it says "You keep him in perfect peace". That tells us that God is the one who keeps us in perfect peace. Peace is not a product of our own strength. We are fully relying on God for His peace.

Next, the verse says "whose mind is stayed on you". Rather than setting our minds on the news, or social media, or even our friends and family, our minds should be steadfast upon God. Of course, we think about others in our lives, but the one point of truth and peace for us comes from the Lord!

Finally, the verse reminds us of our part in this equation: "because he trusts in you". 

I like to flip the verse around backwards since I'm a bit of a math nerd: 

Because we trust in God ... and keep our minds focused on Him... He keeps us in perfect peace. This gives us the math equation of 

Trust in God + Steadfast Mind = Perfect Peace

Today, if you start to get bogged down by the bad news on the news or around you on social media, I challenge you to try out this formula for the perfect peace only God can offer!