Habits of Hope: Cultivating a Deeper Life with God

47.Why Do I Keep Losing My Peace--Even When I'm Trying to Trust God?

• Ginger Harrington • Season 1 • Episode 47

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Could your mindset be the reason peace keeps slipping away—even when you’re trying to trust God?

In this episode, we uncover how a subtle shift in mindset—from being Spirit-led to self-managed—quietly replaces peace with pressure.
🎯 Read the full blog version with scripture, affirmations, and soul-check questions.

Rooted in Romans 8:6, this conversation will help you recognize the quiet shift that causes peace to fade—not because your faith is weak, but because your mindset slowly shifted from Spirit-led to self-managed.
With practical habits, spiritual insight, and a scripture-grounded soul habit, you’ll learn how to come back to peace—even when life feels uncertain or overwhelming.

What You’ll Learn:

  • The overlooked reason peace fades—even for believers
  • What it means to be Spirit-led vs. self-managed
  • How Romans 8:6 reveals the key to peace of mind
  • Simple mindset shifts that help you stay rooted
  • A soul habit to help you return to peace in daily life


Chapters
00:00 – Why Am I So Stressed Again?
02:35 – Two Mindsets That Shape Your Life
04:45 – What Romans 8:6 Really Teaches About Peace
06:30 – Signs You’ve Slipped into Self-Reliance
08:10 – How to Return to Peace—Right in the Moment
10:55 – Prayer: Surrender Your Mindset to the Spirit

Discover the full story, biblical insights, and practical peace practices in the complete blog version of this episode. If you’ve been wondering why peace keeps slipping away—even when you're trying to trust God… this is for you.

📝 Read the full article here.
You’ll get extra takeaways, a list of bonus scripture affirmations, and a guided prayer to help you reset your mindset—one peaceful habit at a time.

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 (00:05.057)

about the last time you caught yourself thinking, why am I so stressed again? Even when you've already been trying to trust God. Yes, me too. Let me be honest. This one hits close to home. Recently, I caught myself slipping back into a pattern I hoped I had grown past. was doing it all on my own again, thinking I had to figure it out. I have to fix it. I have to make it happen. Even the good things.


Serving, creating, planning, preparing can become stress factories when we're operating out of self effort rather than dependence on the Holy Spirit. And that's where our verse today meets us. Romans 8, 6. You're listening to the Habits of Hope podcast where we believe that a life rooted in hope grows through daily rhythms that help us trust in God's faithfulness even in life's hardest seasons. I'm Ginger Harrington.


author, speaker, and blogger, and I'm so glad that you've joined us today. Summer shifts our pace, routines change, and schedules blur. Even the good things can leave us feeling a little soul weary. And that's why this summer we're pressing pause for a special series, Habits of Peace, because stress doesn't get the final word. These short episodes are your toolkit of biblical peace practices, simple yet powerful habits to steady your heart,


and renew your mind wherever you are. Less pressure, more peace, one habit at a time. Welcome to your summer soul reset because a deeper life starts now. So back to our verse for today, Romans 8, 6, this is what it says, the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace. Life and peace, don't you just love that? And isn't that what we all want?


Other versions of this verse say the mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace. Let's take a moment and pause. It's so easy to hear the word flesh and immediately think of obvious sins and all the stuff we know we shouldn't do. But what if it's more subtle than that? In scripture, the flesh can also mean self-reliance, trying to handle life in our own strength.


Ginger Harrington (02:33.377)

independent from God, even spiritual things. I know, tricky, right? It's like this, trying harder instead of trusting deeper, overthinking instead of praying, proving yourself rather than resting in your identity in Christ, managing instead of surrendering. We're not intentionally choosing anxiety and stress. We're just defaulting to what feels familiar, effort, control, urgency, pressure.


But scripture draws a sharp contrast here. One mindset goes one direction and another mindset leads a different direction. One mindset leads to stress, burnout and spiritual death, including all the miseries that are consequences of sin. The other mindset to be spirit governed, spirit led leads to life and peace. These two mindsets bring two outcomes.


and one word that changes everything. At first glance, it feels like a simple contrast. One path leads one direction and the other one another way. But look again, Paul doesn't just say life. He adds an extra word here, life and peace. And that addition, it's not an accident. So let's break it down. The verse is part of a larger section in Romans eight.


where Paul explains what it means to live as someone who belongs to Christ. Here he's talking about two ways of living. One is self-directed, rooted in the flesh, and the other is spirit-directed, rooted in trust and surrender. The word governed comes from the Greek word that means to set your mind on or to be directed by a certain way of thinking. So Paul's not talking about occasional thoughts.


He's describing a way of thinking that shapes how we respond to life. It's like our operating system or a default, something that just pops up naturally that we have walked in for a long time. When Paul speaks of the flesh, he's not just referring to sinful behaviors. He's pointing to our human tendency to rely on ourselves rather than God. It's the internal narrative that says, I've got this. If I just try harder, I can fix this.


Ginger Harrington (04:55.555)

I'll figure it out on my own. It's the mindset of self effort, self protection and self importance, even in spiritual things. I'm not saying I got this down friends. This is a challenge that we all live with, including the apostle Paul. In contrast, the mind governed by the spirit is shaped by the presence and the wisdom and the leadership of the Holy Spirit. It's the difference between being driven by stress and led by the spirit.


And here's the thing, it's a daily decision, sometimes a moment by moment decision. So ask yourself right now, what's driving my thoughts? My need to manage everything or the spirits leading? It can be a convicting but helpful question to ask. Thinking about this a little deeper, we can think all the right things in the world, but if we don't do anything with those thoughts, we stay stuck. Paul moves from.


Mindset outcome the mind governed by the flesh is death. He's not talking about physical death The concept here includes spiritual disconnection dryness frustration It's what happens when we're running on empty and exhausted by striving you're doing all the right things, but you feel Distant from God you're busy serving but your soul is dry. You're managing everything But your joy has gone missing


That's the danger of the flesh lead mindset. It may look productive on the outside, but it can drain us on the inside. And I love the contrast that Paul sets up here. The next thing is a, but it's the contrast and that contrast is where the important things are happening. The mind governed by the spirit is life and peace. The word for life here is one of my favorite biblical words, Zoe.


It's the full vibrant God sourced quality of life that Jesus promised in John 10 10 when he said, I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. This kind of life is more than survival. is soul vitality. It's what happens when we're aligned with God's presence and we're trusting instead of proving listening, instead of pushing, abiding instead of striving.


Ginger Harrington (07:21.869)

And then comes my favorite part, peace. Now here's the beautiful twist. Paul doesn't just contrast death versus life. He says life and peace. Why does this matter? Because peace is the immediate experiential evidence that your mind is being led by the spirit. Peace isn't just a bonus feeling you get when you did things right or things are going well. It's a spiritual reality, a relational result.


of the presence of the Holy Spirit active within us. It shows up in our thoughts, emotions, and decisions when they're aligned with the Spirit's leadership. Peace tells us something important. You're not just doing spiritual things, you're being led by the Spirit. You're not just striving, you're living in union with the Prince of Peace. Think of it like this. The flesh loves to demand control. The Spirit offers communion.


The flesh produces striving. The spirit produces peace. So when Paul adds peace to this contrast, he's not padding the verse. He's not saying something fluffy here. He's showing us something deeper. Peace is how you know your mind is in the right place. It's not the reward for effort. It's the fruit of trusting in God. If you've been wondering, why have I lost my peace or why am I so wound up? Maybe ask this instead.


What has my mind been set on lately? Or the one that's a game changer for me, who am I relying on right now? Where does peace fit into all of this? Peace in this verse isn't just an emotion, it's a spiritual reality and a relational result. It's what naturally flows when we let the spirit shape our thoughts, responses, and actions. So when Paul says a mind governed by the spirit is life and peace,


He's showing us the fruit of a surrendered mind. Peace is not just the reward for figuring things out. It's the gift of entrusting your life to God.


Ginger Harrington (09:32.141)

In a typical Hebrew contrast, Paul could have just said death versus life, and that would have made perfect sense. But he goes further to say death versus life and peace, and that tells us something important. Life in Christ isn't just about spiritual survival. It's meant to be marked by peace. Peace is often more than a feeling. It's a signpost, and it tells you which mindset is a run in the show. So when you notice your peace is slipping away,


It's not just a signal that you're overwhelmed. It can also be a sign that you've shifted into self-effort mode again. And this is why the habit of hope for today matters so much. Let go of self-reliance and pray this instead. Holy Spirit, I surrender my mindset to you. Lead me with your peace. This contrast in Romans 8-6 doesn't just happen during major life decisions. It creeps in subtly, oftentimes when we're not thinking about it.


when we overthink instead of pray, when we rush instead of wait, when we say yes out of guilt, not calling. Before we know it, we've shifted from being spirit led into self-managed and peace quietly slips away. So what do you do when you realize peace has left you? Right? Here's a couple of practices. First of all, check your mindset, turn your attention and your trust to God, ask yourself,


Am I operating in self effort or spirit dependence right now? This moment of awareness is so powerful and it doesn't require a long prayer. It doesn't require a major confession of guilt, just a willing heart to turn your attention and your trust back on God. Peace isn't something that we stir up or manufacture. It's something that we receive when our thoughts are aligned with God.


So pause and pray, Holy Spirit, I surrender my mindset, lead me into peace. This kind of return is like a reset button for your soul. And it can happen in the moment. And you could do it however many times a day you need to. There's no limit. Peace is something that we receive when we walk with the one who is peace himself. So let's pray together. Lord, you know how often I manage everything on my own.


Ginger Harrington (11:57.953)

I confess my self-effort and surrender my mindset to you. Holy Spirit, lead me into peace. Remind me that I'm not alone. Help me walk with you today, aware of your presence and willing to trust your pace. Let peace be the fruit of my surrender, not the reward for striving. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you have found yourself in overthinking mode,


Trying to earn peace by doing more? Would you just pause right now? Let go of the pressure to hold it all together. Return to the spirit and let him carry the weight you were never meant to bear. Because peace isn't found in one more effort. It's found in letting go and trusting the one who's got you.