Quick Note – Isaiah 26:3-4 – Perfect Peace

Isaiah 26:3-4 – You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.  Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

Recently, I have been having a hard time at work.  As a scientist and graduate student in biology, my graduation is dependent on having successful experiments.  Unfortunately, I haven’t had much luck over the past seven years.  Most students finish in five, some in six, but I am about to enter my eighth year, so that should give you an idea how bad things are going.  I figured that maybe things would eventually turn my way; however, they still haven’t.  So I am still struggling to get a working experiment.  To add to my already disappointing pile of depression, today, I found out that the cells I need for my next experiment have a problem, which make them almost unusable for the next two weeks.  So there goes more time.  Things have not been going my way.  With all this trouble and lack of success, I must admit that in the past few weeks and months, I haven’t felt excited about my work or even my life.  It has all just felt for naught.  And today didn’t help. 

However, I cannot deny that we have a good God in our lives.  With all this trouble, all this hardship, all these difficulties, when I was in turmoil and my head was spinning, God gave me these two verses to bring me comfort and strength – “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.  Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.”  When I felt down and low, when I felt like I was incapable of doing anything right, when I felt like I was useless and had no strength to go on, God reminded me that if I wanted to find peace, I needed to stop worrying and place my trust in Him – to point my eyes and to push my mind to focus on our loving Heavenly Father.  Rather than focusing on the trouble and worrying, rather than trying to solve the problems in my own strength, what I needed to do was to turn my heart to God, to pray, and to trust in Him.  For He is the only One that can bring us perfect, complete peace.  Even with our best work, we can only achieve temporary comfort, but He can bring us lasting peace.  He can and will handle all the work we need to do (Isaiah 26:12).  And most importantly, He has provided us true peace away from the fear of sin and death by giving us His Son Jesus Christ to set us free, when we trust in Him as Lord and Savior.

Our God is and will always be a Rock, a Stronghold, and a place of safety to which we can run to.  He will provide all the things we need if we seek Him first (Matthew 6:33).  We can trust Him both now and forevermore.  All we need to do is earnestly seek Him.  If I wanted peace and comfort, what I needed to do was to trust in Him – to believe that He is a loving God that works all things for good to them that love Him (Romans 8:28). 

I won’t say that it is easy, because our minds can quickly get distracted.  I won’t say that all of a sudden the worry and sadness has gone away, because it doesn’t just disappear.  But I will say that I am beginning to find peace as I look towards my God.  Trust Him for He is an everlasting Rock on which we can stay.