Verse of the Day

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee:
because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever:
for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.
Isaiah 26:3-4

Play “It Is Well With My Soul” by Audrey Assad

Have you ever noticed how a cow seems so content just standing in a pasture, completely unbothered by the chaos around it? John Wesley once observed this very thing while walking with a troubled friend who was consumed with worry. Wesley pointed to a cow looking peacefully over a stone wall and asked, “Do you know why that cow can look so peaceful? She cannot see beyond today. God has given her just enough sight to see where she is going, but not enough to worry about tomorrow.”

What a profound picture of the peace Isaiah describes in chapter 26! In a world that bombards us with reasons to be anxious—from breaking news notifications to financial pressures, from family struggles to global uncertainties—God offers us something our culture desperately needs: perfect peace. But notice, this isn’t a peace that comes from our circumstances improving or our problems disappearing. It’s a peace that exists in the midst of our storms.

The Promise of Perfect Peace

The Hebrew phrase shalom shalom (perfect peace) that Isaiah uses here isn’t just about the absence of conflict—it’s about complete wholeness. “Shalom shalom” (שלום שלום) in Hebrew is a repetition of the word shalom, which means “peace, well-being, or wholeness.” The repetition emphasizes the meaning, signifying a profound or perfect peace, an ultimate well-being. It is a way to express a more complete and abundant sense of peace than a single word.  

When God promises to keep us in “perfect peace,” He’s offering us something far more profound than temporary relief. He’s offering us spiritual completeness, emotional equilibrium, and mental rest that doesn’t depend on our external circumstances.

Think about the last time you experienced true peace. Chances are, it wasn’t when everything in your life was going perfectly. More likely, it was a moment when you felt deeply connected to God’s presence, when His love seemed tangible, when you knew—really knew—that He was in control. That’s shalom shalom. It’s peace multiplied, peace intensified, peace that makes no earthly sense.

This perfect peace comes with a condition, though: “whose mind is stayed on thee.” The word “stayed” here carries the idea of being supported, upheld, or leaning upon something. It’s not a passive experience but an active choice to rest our mental weight on God’s character and promises rather than on our circumstances.

The Practice of Staying Our Minds

In our hyperconnected world, maintaining a focus on God requires intentional effort. Our brains naturally default to worry—psychologists tell us we’re wired for survival, constantly scanning for threats and problems to solve. But God calls us to something counterintuitive: to actively redirect our thoughts toward Him.

This isn’t about positive thinking or mental tricks. It’s about consciously choosing to focus on who God is rather than what we’re facing. When anxiety starts its familiar spiral in our minds, we can learn to interrupt that pattern by turning our attention to God’s faithfulness, His sovereignty, His love for us. We can meditate on His past provisions, His unchanging character, and His promises for our future.

The apostle Paul understood this principle when he wrote in Colossians 3:2 to “set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” It’s a deliberate mental discipline, like learning to play an instrument or mastering a sport. The more we practice redirecting our thoughts to God, the more natural it becomes.

Sometimes this means turning off the news and opening our Bibles instead. Sometimes it means choosing worship music over worry-inducing podcasts. Sometimes it means taking a walk and consciously thanking God for what we can see of His creation around us. The specific methods matter less than the consistent practice of turning our mental focus back to Him.

The Growth of Abiding Trust

As we develop this habit of staying our minds on God, something beautiful happens: our trust in Him deepens. Faith, as the writer of Hebrews tells us, is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). But faith isn’t a one-time decision—it’s a muscle that grows stronger with exercise.

Each time we choose to trust God in a difficult situation, each time we see Him provide or work things out in ways we couldn’t have imagined, our confidence in His goodness and power increases. We begin to develop what you might call “spiritual muscle memory”—an automatic response of turning to God when trouble comes rather than immediately jumping to worst-case scenarios.

This doesn’t mean we ignore real problems or live in denial. Biblical trust acknowledges the difficulty while maintaining focus on the One who is greater than any difficulty. It’s what allowed David to write Psalm 23 even while facing enemies, what enabled Paul to sing hymns in prison, and what empowered countless believers throughout history to maintain hope in hopeless circumstances.

Trust grows as we remember God’s faithfulness. This is why the Bible is filled with commands to remember—to remember what God has done, to remember His promises, to remember His character. We tend to forget, but God’s call is to remember, and in remembering, to trust Him more deeply.

The Supply of Everlasting Strength

The beautiful culmination of stayed minds and abiding trust is the experience of God’s everlasting strength. The Hebrew word for “strength” here, tsur, literally means “rock,” “cliff,” or “boulder,” and is often used metaphorically to describe God as a source of strength, refuge, and stability. The word is pronounced like the English word “tsur” (tsoor). In biblical contexts, “Yahweh Tsuri” means “The Lord is my rock,” symbolizing God’s enduring faithfulness and unshakeable foundation.

This isn’t about mustering up our own inner resolve or finding strength in positive thinking. It’s about plugging into a power source that never runs dry. God’s strength is everlasting—it doesn’t diminish with use, doesn’t wear out over time, doesn’t depend on our performance or worthiness.

Every day brings its own challenges, its own demands on our emotional and spiritual reserves. But when our minds are stayed on God and our trust is firmly placed in Him, we find that His strength is sufficient for whatever comes. Not necessarily the strength to change our circumstances, but the strength to walk through them with grace, the strength to maintain hope when others despair, the strength to love when it would be easier to withdraw.

This is the strength that sustained Job through his losses, that carried Moses through forty years in the wilderness, that enabled the early church to thrive under persecution. It’s the same strength available to us today when we learn to keep our minds on the Lord and trust in His unfailing character.

As Max Lucado wisely observed, “Worry is the warning light that God has been shoved to the sideline. The word worry itself comes from an Old English term meaning ‘to strangle.’ The word couldn’t be more accurate. Worry strangles our joy, our energy, our freedom.”

But God offers us a different way. In a world obsessed with control and consumed by anxiety, He invites us into the counter-cultural practice of staying our minds on Him. It’s not always easy, and it’s definitely not automatic. But for those willing to develop this discipline, the promise is sure: perfect peace, growing trust, and everlasting strength.

Today, whatever anxieties are crowding your mind, whatever worries are stealing your peace, remember Isaiah’s ancient promise. God will keep you in perfect peace when your mind is stayed on Him. Not because your problems disappear, but because you learn to see them through the lens of His sovereign love and unchanging faithfulness. That’s a peace worth pursuing, a trust worth developing, and a strength that will never fail you.