Summary: Without a full and complete trust, we cannot live a saving faith.

Isaiah 26:3-4 - 3 You will keep him in perfect

peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because

he trusts in You.4 Trust in the Lord

forever, For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting

strength.

The world that we live in, today, says anything but peace.

A. It is a scene of anxiety and turmoil all around us.

1. More people are on medicine to calm their

fears, than any generation before us.

B. Even in the Body of Christ, it is hard to escape the

fact that many are troubled.

1. It may be the natural thing to fear what the

world is doing.......but we have been born

again.

a. The old, natural man has been put to

death.

1.) We now place our hope and trust

in the God of heaven......not in the

so called, “reality” of this present

world.

Phil. 4:6-7 - 6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by

prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your

requests be made known to God; 7and the peace of God,

which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts

and minds through Christ Jesus.

It’s hard to follow this admonition when the bills seem to

overwhelm us.

A. Utilities....gas, electric, water, phone.

B. Mortgage payment.

C. Car payment(s).

D. Doctor bills.

E. Car repairs.

and on the list could go..........How can we stare these

things in the face and remain calm....and have peace?

1. These things are enough to totally distract

us and capture our every conscious moment.

a. And yet......God’s Word tells us to keep

this monster under control.

II Cor. 10:5 - 5Casting down arguments and every high

thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,

bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of

Christ.

I guess the question that goes begging in many of our minds

is this: “How do we free ourselves from this overwhelming

avalanche of worries, cares, concerns, problems, etc.?”

A. The answer has to be that we must look to God for

our peace......the victory over all... that seems to be

against our peace.

1. If we look for inner peace in any other place,

we will come away empty.

Another thing that we must understand is this.....There will

always be new problems, cares, and worries to take the

place of the ones that we have just overcome.

A. PROBLEMS WILL ALWAYS BE THERE!

Matt. 6:34 - 34“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,

for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for

the day is its own trouble.

1. If we do not properly learn to deal with these

problems......they will kill us spiritually.

Matt. 13:22 - 22“Now he who received seed among the

thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world

and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he

becomes unfruitful.

a. I have often used this passage when

dealing with greed, covetousness, and

an overly competitive spirit.....and this

does address those problems.

1.) It also addresses the cares of this

world......WORRY AND FEAR.

Only God can really take care of the EVER RENEWING

cares of this life.

A. Going back to our text....The one whose mind

and trust is on God....will have perfect peace.

1. We all want this inner peace which passes

all understanding........but do we know how

to obtain it?

I. The blessing mentioned in Isaiah 26 comes from a right

heart.........a proper attitude.....some right thinking.

A. It very much agrees with the passage that I read

in II Corinthians.....we must keep our thoughts

captive.........Isaiah says, “Whose mind is stayed

on you (God).

1. Some are able to go through a whole day and

not really think about or communicate with

God.

a. Are these wicked people......no......they

are people who have focused on the

wrong plane.

1.) The earthly.....the physical....the

tangible....the here-and-now.....

has captured their attention.

** Understand that for the sake of keeping up impressions,

some here would make all the right facial expressions...

would make all the right “tsk, tsks”..........but I am

convinced that some....if not many....Christians go

through day after day of not entertaining a single

thought of God.

1. Some would say......”But this could never be...we

pray every day, don’t we?”

a. That’s the point.......the cares...the tug of the

world has tugged us away from even a

modicum of a prayer life.

2. Many who do pray.......only give God the smallest

bit of their time.........sort of “salving their

consciences”.

a. We all know what II Thess. 5:17 says....

“Pray without ceasing.”

1.) Even though we know what this verse

says.......we still only give God little

clumps of prayer, or.......worse yet......

no prayer at all.

** Why would those who follow this course of ignoring

God, the majority of the time, expect God to be with

them.......at their beck and call?

1. Remember this......God will keep, in perfect peace,

those....”WHOSE MINDS ARE STAYED ON

HIM!!!!!

a. The reason that so many Christians do not

have this peace that passes all understanding

is that they have ignored the solution and

only focus on problems and their meager and

totally limited abilities to fix those problem.

II. The next element of our text is that perfect peace will

come to those who “CONTINUE TO TRUST....”

A. Humans have some infuriating habits......one of

the most frustrating habits is that of inconsistency.

1. We can start off just right, but just let a little

time pass by and all of our best intentions

fizzle like water poured on a campfire.

a. Starting things and not finishing them

is a trade-mark of some.

1.) This may be frustrating to some,

but.....not finishing the bookcase

is not a matter of life and death.

2.) With our trust, reliance, and contact

with God, however, it can be a life

and death problem......it can mean

the difference between a contented

and peaceful life in Christ or a life

of turmoil; a lack of faith; a sinful

attitude towards God and fellow

Christians.

B. Walking in Christ is not an on-again-off-again

thing.

1. God is not a toy or a doll that we can play with

until we’re tired of Him and then we can put

Him away again until we need Him.

2. He is not our wishing-well that we can go to

whenever we want something.

a. Sure God will give us blessings.....but

He wants our lives.....He wants our

fears.....He wants our dreams and desires.

C. So often we pray.....we see the answer to our

prayers......we thank God for His faithfulness to

us and them we promptly forget to even speak to

Him again until we have another need to be ful-

filled........or until we are prodded by others or our

own consciences.

1. This can especially be seen in the “little,

everyday things of life”.....sore backs ....

children with temperatures.....and many other

things that catch our attention.

a. I ask, “In what way are we different from

the rest of the world?”

1.) When I was a little kid and broke

my arm in several places......first

time ever broke anything......really

weird and odd dangling of the

arm.....boy did I pray and promise

and repent....etc..

a.) As soon as I was better and

realized that they weren’t

going to cut off my arm......I

forgot all those prayers and

promises.

b. Christians are no different if they keep

God in a little box and take Him out

whenever they need Him and put Him

back in the box and ignore Him the rest

of the time.

D. God wants to be a part of our lives.....when He

IS allowed to be included in our lives, our lives

are filled with the joy and peace that only God

can provide.

1. We need to trust Him and look to Him as we

face difficult dicisions and tasks, but we also

need to turn to Him with our everyday “little”

problems.

** We must strive to keep God alive in our minds and turn

to Him, in faith (trust?) when we face the turmoil and

problems that face us every day.

III. Finally, we can rely on God for our strength......In our

text we find, “In the Lord is everlasting strength”.

Matt. 19:26 - 26But Jesus looked at them and said to

them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things

are possible.”

A. The reason that we have fear and the world can

cause us to focus so hard on it.....and not on God,

is the fact that we feel overwhelmed.

1. We don’t have the strength to overcome and

therefore, everything is a threat to us.

B. Again we go back to this thing of trust....or faith.

1. So often we insist on battling the dragons of

this world.......even though we know that we

are more often, than not, going to be eaten by

them.

a. Don Quixote was demented, and we can

laugh and cry at the same time as he

charges windmills with his lance.

b. Even though we may see the silliness of

Don and the windmills.........are we not

doing the same things?

1.) We have this overwhelming urge

to do battle with every single thing

that comes our way.......never

with a thought of how God might

fit into the picture.

a.) So we lie at the bases of the

windmills of life and wonder

why we are always defeated

and overwhelmed by all the

problems that come our way.

** Is it because we might be just a little bit too proud?

1. We say that we don’t want to disturb Him with

little trifles.

2. We say that we forget to go to Him in prayer.

3. We say that we are overcome by the magnitude of

the problem.

a. And yet......we try to solve all these problems

ourselves.

** I wonder why God says, “humble yourselves”....so

often when it comes to prayers?

1. Could it be that we just don’t want to admit our

limitations and shortcomings?

CONCLUSION:

God wants to give us the victory.......God wants to give us

the peace which passes all understanding.

A. We continue to defeat His will by not submitting

to it......by not seeking it out.......by continuing in

pride and not admitting our shortcomings and

failing to seek out the strength and peace and

victory that God has for us.

How long will we stubbornly insist on trying to handle all

of life’s problems, by ourselves?

A. Can’t we see how we are hurting ourselves in both

the physical and the spiritual realms?

You can trust God with your life......you can trust God to

handle your problems........you need not worry when you

turn things over to God........your hopes....your dreams,

need to be fully in God and not in your own abilities or

inability’s.

A. If you can trust Him......I mean really trust Him......

in everything......He has more for you than you

could ever possibly imagine.

I Cor. 2:9 - 9But as it is written: “Eye has not

seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the

heart of man The things which God has

prepared for those who love Him.”

Really.......WHO DO YOU REALLY TRUST?

Psalm 56:11 - 11 In God I have put my trust; I will

not be afraid. What can man do to me?