Thoughts | "perfect peace"

Isaiah 26:3 (NLT) 

"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you." 

(MSG) 

"People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, steady on their feet, because they keep at it and do not quit." 

As I prepare to leave for Australia, this verse has popped into my head a number of times. I'm a worrier, so obviously while I'm gone everything will go wrong... Or at least that's what my brain tells me. Whenever I start to worry about something else, that my credit card won't get here in time, or that I'll be sick the whole time that I'm away, or that carsickness will be a huge problem, or that something will happen to my family while I'm gone... See? Already getting a little carried away. What I need to do is to put God first, absolutely first. When I'm upset, my mind needs to first go to Him, because as this verse says, that's how I'll get "perfect peace". Trusting someone other then myself is not my first reaction, it probably wouldn't even be my second or third reaction as a matter of fact. 

But serious question here. What is perfect peace? I know what peace is, I think everyone does to some extent. Is there a difference between peace and perfect peace? 

www.preacherscorner.org (because I'm that person that googles things I don't know) had a really good post on the topic. The author writes about how nowhere in the Bible does it say that we will be free from the negative things in life. Instead, God promises us peace during the storm of life. In the midst of the fiercest of life storms, provided we are trusting in God all the while, we can still experience God's perfect peace. 

Peace can look like it's perfect peace, while under the surface lies deception and lies. People can be deluded into thinking they're at peace, when really they're being tricked and lied to. However the peace you get with and through God, is more then anything you can imagine. It's worth the jump, it's worth putting yourself out there. 

So next Friday, I leave my comfortable life here in Canada for 6 months. One side of my family celebrated my birthday already because I'll be on outreach when it actually happens. I leave my family, my dog, my comfortable bed in my own room, the food I know, certain medications that I need, the lovely flat prairie roads, and my church family. Even just thinking about it makes me nervous, but seeing just how perfectly things have fallen together over the past few months makes everything worth it. I know that God has my back, now I just have to believe it. 

Some prayer requests- 

-being able to believe that God is taking care of us

-no carsickness! Winding mountain roads means nasty carsickness, and we don't have to accept that as it's not from the Lord. 

-no general sickness 

-that we would get enough water 

-discernment for our leaders as they began training this past week 

-discernment for the people that are determining our outreach locations 

-PEACE! As we prepare to leave our families and our lives behind, that each person in our dts would experience perfect peace. 

Blessings in this new year, and keep us all in your prayers as we prepare for the journey of a lifetime. 

Thanks again, 

-Cailey 

"And you will keep in perfect peace, him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."