And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:7

Peace that surpasses every thought.

Peace that guards my heart.

Peace that guards my mind.

This word, “guard”…it’s no joke. Here’s what it means in this verse: to protect by a military guard to prevent hostile invasion; protect with troops stationed in a fortress or town to defend it; to hem in, protect.

God’s peace is incomprehensible, and His peace is likened to a military guard that protects our hearts and minds from hostile invasion. His peace hems in and protects our hearts and minds that are so vulnerable. These are the places that the enemy wants to strike. His fiery arrows are aimed at our hearts and minds…that’s where he knows he can take us down.

We need this protection on our hearts and minds!!  We have a real, skilled, dangerous enemy that wants to invade, destroy and kill us.

So how do we ensure that we are guarded with this “militant peace”? This peace that is tough enough to guard us from the hostile attack on our most vulnerable places…the mind that gets pelted with bullets of lies, the heart that gets shot with arrows of despair?

Let’s back it up a few verses…

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness (gentleness/patience/mildness…Christ-likeness…) be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; (the Lord is near) 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Here’s our part in the deal…

• Rejoice in the Lord. If you weren’t sure you heard it right, Paul says it again for good measure…yes, you heard me right. Rejoice in the Lord.
• Let everyone around you see your gentle spirit…your patience…your mild manner. Your reasonableness. (Not an anxious, worried, impatient, unreasonable, argumentative manner. A gentle, patient spirit is one that reflects the image of Christ. I need to be reminded of this!!!)  We must live in such a way that the world sees Christ in us.
• Know that the return of Christ is real and it is soon. And, He is near to us right now, His Spirit lives within us now. He is near. This we can and must be sure (convinced) of.
• DO NOT BE ANXIOUS ABOUT ANYTHING. It literally means…”be anxious about absolutely no one…no thing…not one thing“.  I think we tend to see this as a suggestion to not worry, but it’s spoken here as a command.  God’s Word says, do not be anxious about one single thing…and even about one single person.  I have teens…I understand this last part. 🙂  Trade anxiety over _____________ (insert teenager’s name…) for thankful prayer.  Prayer is WAY more effective than anxiety (I have true stories to back that up!!!)
• Pray about EVERYTHING. (Everything means everything.) Big things. Small things. In-between mundane things. ALL THINGS. It’s a relationship, and God is inviting us into an ongoing dialog with Him about ALL things in our life. He wants us to present everything to Him, and to do so with thanksgiving. This keeps us from whiny, selfish prayers. When we “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name,” (Psalm 100:4), all things are put into right perspective. We remember Who it is that we are approaching, and we remember all that He has done for us. We remember redemption, we remember the blood that has been shed on our behalf, even while we were sinners. We remember the grace and mercy that we don’t deserve, given freely to us through Jesus. We remember that God is God.

And then, the militant and powerful peace of our heavenly Father guards those places that He also fills.  His dwelling place, our heart, and our mind that is designed to meditate on Him, is safe against all the powers of hell. The powerful peace of Jesus rebukes all of the powers that darkness can throw at us. With military force…furiously guarding His beloved ones.  We have a dangerous enemy, but in Christ, victory is ours.  Guaranteed.  And instead of hearts and minds full of anxiety and fear, we are filled with the  incomprehensible peace of God.

“The result of believing prayer is that the peace of God will stand like a sentinel on guard upon our hearts.”  ~William Barclay

Rejoice in Him. Let everyone see how you rest in Him. How you TRUST in Him. Live in such a way that others see Christ in you. Know that He is near. He is near now, and His return is near. Trade anxiety for trust. Pray about ALL things. Pray with thanksgiving, reminding yourself of Who God is and of all that He has done and has promised to do. Live in relationship with your Creator.

His peace, it surpasses our understanding. We can’t manufacture the peace that God gives. It’s not in a medication, it’s not in our escapism methods or in all of the ways that we think we can find peace. It can’t be explained. That’s how we know it’s God’s peace. It washes over us in the middle of a life-storm when we least expect it. It quiets us when we would seemingly have every right to blow up or complain or gossip and we don’t. It comes when the world is watching us, so we can testify and proclaim the name of Christ, the Light in the Dark. The Anchor in our storm.  Our Peace.

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

What a Friend We Have in Jesus | Joseph M. Scriven

Blessings,

~Nicole

Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His presence continually!

Psalm 105:4