Habits of Hope: Cultivating a Deeper Life with God

43. How to Find Perfect Peace When You Feel Stressed (Isaiah 26:3)

• Ginger Harrington • Season 1 • Episode 43

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How do you return to perfect peace when stress takes over your thoughts? Isaiah 26:3 holds the answer—and today, we’re breaking it down.

In this episode of the Habits of Hope podcast, we’re talking about what to do when you’ve lost your peace and feel overwhelmed by stress. Whether you're managing daily responsibilities, dealing with grief, or facing anxiety that won’t quit—this one’s for you.

We’ll unpack the promise of perfect peace from Isaiah 26:3, explore the connection between trust and mental focus, and walk through practical habits to anchor your mind in God’s truth—even when your emotions are all over the place.

You’ll also learn to identify your peace cues—those physical and emotional signals that let you know when your soul needs a reset. This is Christian stress management that’s both biblical and doable.

✨ Because trusting God when you’re stressed isn’t just a feeling—it’s a habit.


⏱️ CHAPTERS 

00:00 – What Is Perfect Peace? (Isaiah 26:3 Meaning)
01:40 – When Peace Slips Away: Real-Life Stress Examples
04:20 – A Story of Trust and Provision: A Canadian Apartment Miracle
07:00 – Breaking Down Isaiah 26:3 (Perfect Peace Explained)
09:00 – What It Means to Have a Steadfast Mind
10:30 – How Trust Unlocks Peace in Everyday Life
11:50 – Peace Cues: How Your Body Signals Spiritual Stress
13:40 – The 3Rs of Regaining Peace: Recognize, Reflect, Refocus
15:45 – Scripture Journaling with Isaiah 26:3


KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Peace isn’t the absence of stress—it’s the result of trusting God when you’re stressed.
  • Isaiah 26:3 shows that perfect peace flows from a steadfast mind anchored in trust.
  • Recognizing your peace cues helps you take early steps to redirect your focus.
  • Practicing the 3Rs—Recognize, Reflect, Refocus—can transform how you handle stress.
  • Scripture journaling turns biblical truth into personal prayer and peace.


If you’ve been feeling mentally scattered or spiritually exhausted, this episode will help you re-center on God’s faithfulness. Full of biblical wisdom and practical encouragement, this conversation is a gentle invitation to breathe, refocus, and rest in God’s unshakable peace.


Habits of Hope Podcast is for informational and inspirational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional advice—spiritual, medical, legal, or otherwise.

Ginger Harrington (00:05.71)

Have you ever read something in the Bible and thought, could that be real for me? Take Isaiah 26:3 for instance: “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you.” Perfect peace? In today's world of endless notifications, mounting to-do lists, and unexpected challenges, that sounds more like a spa advertisement than a daily reality. 


But what if it's more than just language and a nice thought? What if perfect peace isn't about living a conflict free life, but about experiencing true peace when life is anything but peaceful? Listen to the habits of the podcast where we believe a life rooted in hope comes through daily rhythms that help us trust God's faithfulness even in our difficult seasons. I'm Ginger Harrington, your host.


and I'm so glad that you're here. This summer, we've been journeying through our Habits of Peace series, exploring how to cultivate and maintain the peace that Jesus offers. In episodes one through three, we focused on peace as a divine gift, understanding its nature and practicing it in our daily lives. Today in episode four of the series, we're shifting our focus from receiving peace to recognizing when it slips away and how to recover it. 


Because let's face it, even with the best of intentions, our peace gets disrupted by the challenges of everyday life. But here's the thing, we don't have to feel peaceful to practice trust. Maybe you've found yourself losing your sense of peace over seemingly minor annoyances. Perhaps it's that the dryer is on the fritz or


You open your inbox to a flood of urgent emails or spilling coffee on your shirt right before a meeting. These everyday annoyances can chip away at our sense of calm, but often the disruptions to our peace are far more profound. These everyday annoyances can chip away at our sense of calm, but often the disruptions to our peace are far more profound. Ongoing tension or unresolved arguments with a loved one.


Ginger Harrington (02:28.557)

Lying awake at night consumed with what if scenarios about that thing that you just can't stop worrying about. Maybe you're coping with the death of a loved one or facing challenging health issues.


Sometimes there are just things like juggling multiple responsibilities with no room to breathe or feeling like you're constantly behind no matter how hard you work. Recognizing these peace cues is essential, but sometimes despite our best intentions, peace slips away before we even notice it.


How about those times where you lay awake at night consumed by worry and what if scenarios? Recognizing these peace cues is essential because it opens the door for us to address it and to bring God into it where we can experience his peace. I want to share a time in my life where I experienced this struggle and how God met me in that. Last fall, I was visiting my daughter in Canada.


She and her husband were expecting their first baby and they were searching for a larger apartment. Currently they were in a one bedroom apartment and they both worked from home. It was not going to work. I got a chance to tour several places with her and I was, I just was like, Lord, how in the world is this going to work? I could feel myself getting so anxious and stressed about it.


As we looked at two apartments, they were so cramped. Neither one of them had space for a dining table and there was no place for a desk at all, let alone two. I just started like, what if being and getting very anxious about it. As we left the apartment that we were looking at in the neighborhood she really wanted to live in, she pointed to another building across the way and said, that's the apartment that I really want to live in.


Ginger Harrington (04:33.218)

but there's no vacancies right now and it's at the top of our budget. We really don't want to spend that much. So I suggested that we take a prayer walk around the building and around the neighborhood and just ask God to meet their needs and ask him for the building that she wanted. So we did. And it was interesting how as we put our attention on God's ability to provide and chose to trust him with it,


We both started to calm down and to settle. really did start to feel a sense of peace. And later I felt, you know, I think about that in the night and start to get stressed. And I would think, no, the Lord's got this. He's taken care of her so many times in the past. He's answered so many prayers in the past. He's going to provide. I don't know what it's going to look like, but I know he's going to.


And that really helped my heart settle soon after. In fact, on the very day that they found out that they needed to vacate their current apartment, she got a call from the landlord of the building that she was interested in. And the landlord told her, we have an opening in our sister building, which was also in the same neighborhood. And it was in their price range. So.


It's a tight fit as most places are in Canada, but it met their needs. After the baby was born, bringing him home to that apartment was just such a beautiful reminder of God's perfect provision and timing and his faithfulness. And that really did give me such a deep sense of peace. So maybe you have


had a situation where you've lost your peace and you found yourself getting stressed. And when we are in those situations, that's where this verse in Isaiah 26 three is so powerful. 


Ginger Harrington (06:59.62)

That moment reminded me of how easily peace can slip through our fingers. But thankfully scripture offers us guidance on how to anchor ourselves when the waves of life threaten our calm. Let's take a closer look at our verse for today. Isaiah 26 three, you will keep in perfect peace. Those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you. I love breaking this verse down. There's God's role.


and His promise, and then our role and the outcome. So God's role is to keep us in perfect peace. But that just doesn't happen in a vacuum. There is a little going on beyond behind the surface on that. God maintains our peace. This perfect peace in Hebrew is the word shalom, shalom. And it's a deep and complete enduring


kind of peace that's not dependent on circumstances. And the repeat of it is actually really important as well. Our role, those whose minds are steadfast. Last year, that was my verse of the year, and God and I had so many conversations about having a steadfast, a steady, a focused mind. And He showed me so many different areas of life, and those are conversations.


for a different day, but just focusing on what a steadfast mind is in general, it's this practice of mental discipline, of intentionally directing our thoughts, steadying our mind is a spiritual habit, not a personality trait, and it's something that we can practice and develop. So we've got God's role and our role and the hinge that makes this


come together in perfect peace is "because they trust in you". Trust is the bridge between our thoughts and God's peace. It's not because God withholds peace when we fail to trust him. You know, it's not a slap on the hand or, okay, you lost out on your opportunity for peace because your mind wasn't steady and that type of thing. I think it's just a natural


Ginger Harrington (09:24.76)

result of focusing on God and focusing on trusting Him. Because when we do that opens the door and enables us to receive what God is freely giving us. He's not taking that peace away, but sometimes we have trouble receiving it and experiencing it because our thoughts are all over the place, our stress levels out the wazoo, and we are really struggling to trust Him.


Trust in God is what enables us or empowers us to maintain that steadfast mind, which in turn allows us to experience his perfect peace, that calm and that God-given, God-present peace. When we focus our minds on God's faithfulness, peace follows. The peace of God is promised, but it flows through the path of trust and a steadfast mind. 


Our bodies and our emotions are finely tuned instruments, often signaling internal unrest before our minds are aware. I like to think of these as peace cues, early physical or emotional signs that serve as alerts that our inner calm is being compromised. There's physical cues, things like muscle tension. You might notice a tightness in your jaw around your mouth or your neck. Your shoulders are tight or frequent tension headaches. 


Some people experience digestive issues, upset stomach, nausea, changes in appetite can be a signal that we need more peace in our life. Then there's emotional cues. Irritability, becoming easily frustrated or agitated when the situation doesn't seem to warrant it.


feeling anxious, restless or overwhelmed, rapid changes in mood without clear triggers. These are all things that signal that we are running on empty in terms of our peace. Sometimes we can experience difficulty concentrating on making decisions. When we can identify or recognize that we're experiencing some things that are signaling that we're not experiencing peace,


Ginger Harrington (11:51.054)

we can make some different decisions. We can address what's happening and turn to the Lord with it. So identifying these peace cues early allows us to use our habit of peace. When tension builds, set your mind on God's faithfulness and choose trust over turmoil. Sometimes this is easier said than done. But when we pay attention to these early signs,


intentionally redirecting our thoughts to God's faithfulness that we really can trust Him. We create space for His perfect peace to settle our hearts. You know, I think about this sometimes and it's almost like you've got to encourage yourself. I think of there's in the Psalms, there's a spot where it says David strengthened himself in the Lord. Sometimes we just got to say this over to ourselves and go through that process. Lord, I'm putting my mind on you.


You are faithful, you're trustworthy, I can trust you and I choose to trust you right now no matter how I feel. At the end of the day, despite all of our turmoil and emotions, believing in God is a decision, not an emotion. And so oftentimes we kind of get those things mixed up. We're like, well, it doesn't feel like it's true. So we struggle to believe versus


believing and then asking God to help us deal with our feelings. Recognizing our peace cues is just the beginning. The next step is establishing a rhythm, a sustainable practice to restore and maintain our peace. Now friends, this means we got to do it more than once, right? It takes practice and sometimes we're going to get it and sometimes we're not, but we grow through the process, both our successes and our failures.


So let's explore how we can start to get this concept of setting our mind on God, choosing to trust Him and then trusting Him for peace. I like to think of this as kind of a 3R stress buster process. Recognize, reflect and refocus. That's a lot of re-words, right? First, recognize, acknowledge, like catch it, become aware.


Ginger Harrington (14:16.108)

when specific thoughts and situations are stressing you out. Pay attention like when you get to start feeling that tension in your mouth or that tightness between your shoulders. And then the second one reflect what's going on here. Think about it. Pause and consider God's faithfulness and turn your attention to his trustworthiness.


Think about things that he's done in the past in ways that he's shown you as faithful. Think about truths that you know about him and his character or specific scriptures that remind you to trust him. So you can think about what's going on and think about who God is. And then that really important step, refocus.


Those of you who are watching the video, you can see I I turned my I physically turned my gaze to and refocusing is like that. It's taking your focus and your thoughts off of one thing and intentionally putting it on something else so that you can think about it differently. And that enables us to refocus, directing our thoughts to God's promises, allowing his truth to anchor us.


really can change our perspective of how we see a problem before us. So those three Rs are real helpful. Another thing we can do is scripture journaling, engaging with God's Word. And you might feel like in almost every episode, we say something about meditating on God's Word or journaling. And that's partly because it's such a foundational practice that helps us deepen our connection with God.


that it's not like something we can say, well, you do it in this situation, but not in these. But in this particular thing, being able to use Isaiah 26 three almost as a template or a prompt for you to pray and to journal. This verse is really powerful and very helpful to use as a way to guide your thinking as you are in the process.


Ginger Harrington (16:36.162)

of trying to apply this verse begin by writing out is a 26 3 and then personalize it reflect on what the verse means to you personally how does it speak to your current situation describe what's currently disturbing your peace and be honest and specific you have to go on and on i mean you can even write bullet points are make it into almost like a little drawing or a chart and then note what you're thinking and


what you're feeling as you're experiencing this situation. And then finally, affirm your trust. Write a statement affirming your trust in God's character and his promises. It's just a process to take you through the verse and actually start to put it into practice as you're working through a specific stressful situation where you lost your peace and you need that perfect peace.


By incorporating some of these practices into your life, you can develop resilience and a deeper trust in God's provision. Remember, peace isn't a one-time achievement. It's a continuing practice. So let's walk this path out together, embracing the peace that God so graciously offers us. Friend, remember the goal isn't to eliminate all stress, but to manage it in a way


that keeps us anchored in God's peace. know, peace isn't a destination. It's a daily decision. I want to close in prayer. Lord, thank you for the promise of perfect peace to those whose minds are stayed on you, focused on you, steadfast, because they trust in you. Lord, we want to be that person. In the midst of our daily challenges,


help us to recognize the moments when peace slips away and turn our thoughts back to you, empower us to trust you with the situations that are stressful to us and Lord help us to receive and experience your perfect peace, your complete peace. We have that because we have you. In Jesus name, amen. So friends, when peace slips away,


Ginger Harrington (19:00.026)

Don't panic. Return to trust, refocus your thoughts, and let God steady your mind with His perfect peace.