Peace

Peace

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.

ARTHUR SOMERS ROCKE

The stream of worry is built one drop or one thought at a time. Worry is made up of many, many anxious thoughts. It’s not enough to say to ourselves, Stop worrying! Left on our own, we’ll come back to our fears. However, God gives us something specific to do when we feel anxious or worried. He tells us to present our requests to him about everything, and we are to give them over to him in three ways:

1. Prayer—talking to God about the situation
2. Petition—making a request to an authority
3. Thanksgiving—expressing our gratitude

When we present something—like an award or a gift—to someone, there’s often some ceremony involved. In the same way, we literally need to hand over our worries and get rid of them. We do this by coming to God, calling on his authority as God, thanking him for the things he’s already done, and expressing our confidence in him for the future. As we make that presentation, an exchange takes place. We hand over our worry, and God’s peace comes to guard our hearts. The word guard is used here as a military term, so we might picture a sentinel watching over our hearts and minds.

As always with God, he gives us the better end of the deal. We give him our worries, our requests, and our thanks, and he gives us his peace.

God, my authority,

I confess my worry, and I hand it over to you. Thank you that you are in control and that you hear me. Please give me your peace to stand guard over my heart and mind. Thanks for all you’ve done for me in the past and all that you will do in the future. Amen.