Isaiah 26:1–4; Proverbs 3:5–8; John 14:26–27
Why is trusting God so hard, and why does the world feel so starved of peace? Pastor Juliet Lyons shows that trust is the currency everything runs on, and that the fruit the world is hungry for comes only from the presence of the Holy Spirit. From Isaiah 26, she hands out a song to sing when everything else fails: God keeps in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast on Him.
Key takeaways
- Trust is the currency the whole world runs on, and every yes, action, and decision either builds or breaks trust with the people around you.
- Trusting God means believing He is who He says He is (His character) and that He does what He says He will do (His competence).
- The fruit of the Spirit is not the absence of evil but the presence of the Holy Spirit, so love, joy, and peace are possible in the middle of chaos.
- Perfect peace belongs to those who take their thoughts captive and keep their minds steadfast on God rather than on what is going wrong.
- The world does not need more people chasing the gifts of the Spirit; it needs a church brimming with fruitful people, and we cannot give what we have not received.
Message notes
A world hungry for fruit
Pastor Juliet Lyons opens by admitting that trust is hard for all of us. The world is groaning louder, yet God is still on the throne. Everyone has an opinion about what the world needs: more love, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, self-control. Every one of those is a fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5. The world is desperate for fruit, and the fruit of the Spirit is not a nice extra; it is the lifesaving set of attributes the world is missing.
The Scream
She shows Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream, a version of which sold for 120 million dollars in 2012. Munch came from an unstable family marked by illness, and people connect with the painting because it gives a face to the anxiety inside them. Society reflects the same image: a peaceless environment where fruit is lacking at every level. People look for peace in crystals, spirit guides, and retreats, which she calls placebo at best, while God has been saying the same thing from the beginning: trust Me.
Trust is the currency
Trust means believing God is who He says He is, His character, and that He does what He says He will do, His competence. Trust, not money, is the currency of every relationship, business, and government. Every yes we give builds or breaks it. The breakdown in society comes from severed trust interpersonally, corporately, and most worryingly, spiritually, as people lose faith in God’s word and build their own truth. The good news is that a young generation is rising, desperate for truth. Pastor Juliet is honest about the tension: we know we should trust God, but when someone hurts us our fallen nature wants to retaliate, and she laughs about her own sixteen-year-old retaliating self.
A song for when all else fails: Isaiah 26
About 730 years before Jesus, Isaiah prophesied about a coming day when Christ will reign. Isaiah 26:1–4 is a song for that day. Pastor Juliet believes we are sitting heavy on the last days and need to be equipped, not just encouraged. She calls verse 3 our mantle: “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” Stayed means steadfast. Perfect peace repeats the Hebrew word for peace to intensify it. And Yah, the Lord, is the promise-keeping God who is everlasting strength. Verse 2 adds that peace flows from righteous living: when sin ravages a life, peace leaves quickly. The righteous nation God seeks does the right thing at the right time in the right way, in God’s truth rather than our own.
The fruit of the Spirit is not the absence of evil
We think we would have love if there were less hatred and self-control if temptation would disappear. It makes sense, Pastor Juliet says, but it is not kingdom. The fruit of the Spirit is the presence of the Holy Spirit, so in the middle of chaos it is still possible to live in love, joy, peace, and self-control. The world will not be perfect until Christ returns, so our job in the now and not yet is to take our thoughts captive and bring them under the obedience of Christ. If you struggle to trust people, learn to trust God first, and if you struggle to trust God, trust Him anyway. Only the Holy Spirit can heal past trauma from the inside out, and like rehab after surgery, healing is painful, so stay in the process until He is finished.
Trust God through the struggle
The gifts of the Spirit are for the church, but what the world needs is a church full of fruit. We cannot give what we do not have. From Proverbs 3:5–8, Pastor Juliet shows that trusting the Lord brings healing to your flesh, a Hebrew word that can mean the umbilical cord. Expecting a baby herself, she describes how a cord carries life in and toxins out, and hears God saying that if we tether ourselves to Him, He will fill us with life and remove what poisons us. God calls us to trust Him with everything, even when peace is still something we are learning to experience in the middle of our struggles. Reading John 14:26–27, she closes with an invitation: as 2026 approaches, God is calling people to new levels of trust in relationships, careers, and businesses. Keep choosing to trust God in the middle of your struggle, allowing Him to lead you through the healing process. Anywhere with God is better than everywhere without Him.
