Perfect Peace - inward hope, satisfaction, completeness, and wholeness of the total person no matter what is going on externally.

Keep - guard from dangers, keep close, blockade

Trust - confident, secure, sure

Thoughts are fixed - steadfast, lean on, propped up by

START TALKING

What is an example of something that you could control, but only if it had power, and when it didn't have power the tool was useless or even frustrating?

Think about that tool or that thing - what is the routine that you had to be in to keep it powered so that it would work? What did you have to keep your eyes on to make sure you didn't run out of the power source?

START THINKING

Read Isaiah 26:3. What is the opposite of perfect peace? What would be examples of this kind of peace, where it may really be peace but not consistently or not internal?

Isaiah 26:3 is what's called a conditional promise. It is a promise that will come true, but it depends on something happening first. What are the two conditions you see in this promise?

These same two conditions would be true of a parent-child relationship. A child will only have peace as they grow up if those two conditions are met. How have you seen that in your relationship with your children or with your parents? How does that help you understand what God wants from you in your relationship with Him as the heavenly father?

START SHARING

Read Philippians 4:7. This perfect peace is beyond what we can wrap our minds around, and it is an internal peace of the "heart and mind." When have you experienced this kind of peace personally or seen someone who had that kind of peace internally even when the external circumstances and situations were anything but peaceful?

Read John 14:27 and Ephesians 2:14. Perfect peace can only be received through Jesus and in Jesus. How have you experienced this? How would you share your story based on how you did not have perfect peace before Jesus but experience his peace since following him?

START DOING

Isaiah 26:3 would be better understood and worded this way, "Those whose mind are fixed on You will have perfect peace because they trust in you."

What can you do to develop a routine that gets to know the Father so that your confidence in Him grows and so that you see the world through a filter of who your Father is?

How can you allow your heart and mind to be guarded in perfect peace? What would it look like to allow drama both internally and externally to drive your prayer life and to drive what you study in God's Word?

START PRAYING

Each person share a drama that you need to experience internal, perfect peace in the midst of, regardless of what the external circumstances and situation are. Then pray for each person to get to know Jesus more and more so that He becomes the filter for everything, increasing your confidence and trust in him to experience and rest in that internal, perfect peace.