The Peace of God, Philippians 4:6-7

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present you requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

     I've read this verse and quoted it it several times in my walk with Christ, but this particular time something different stood out to me. Whereas normally I delight in hearing that by giving our requests to God we will be filled with His peace that surpasses all understanding, this time I noticed the other part of the verse: that God's peace will guard our hearts.
     God's peace will guard our hearts from anxiousness when we give our requests, desires, and our lives to Him. Once we've given it over to the Lord, He stands guard at the door of our hearts and stops anything that might make us anxious from entering. It's as if He, like a bouncer, stops that thought or that emotion from entering, and turns His head around toward us and says, "I've got this one. You relax and take joy in Me!"

     Now, James 4:7 comes into play when we realize that the wonderful promise of Philippians 4:6-7 is firstly a command from God to present our requests to God in prayer and petition with thankfulness. It then says, "and the peace of God...will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
     In order to experience the unsurpassed peace of God, we must first submit ourselves to God's command. By submitting to God, by the peace of His Spirit flooding our souls, we can resist the devil, and he will flee.

     Anxiety, stress, and worry all stem from fear, and fear from disbelief and lack of faith. The Bible says that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7). The Bible also says that perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4). If peace comes from knowing God and being perfectly loved by Him, then anxiety and fear come from Satan. And by submitting to God-- by presenting our requests, problems, etc. to God in prayer, petition, and thankfulness-- we are resisting the devil and his temptations to be anxious, and he will flee.

     It is always hard to break a habit, but thankfully we are not alone and don't have to do it in our own efforts. We may have a pattern of automatically responding to certain situations in fear, anxiety, panic, or stressful worry, but God can certainly overcome that pattern. It takes willingness to change though! If we pray and tell the Lord that we want to submit to His word, that we want to overcome the enemy and anxiety and trust in Him, He is faithful to work in our hearts, molding us further into the likeness of Christ.
     I believe that to overcome this bad habit of automatic worry, we need to consciously submit to God's word in Philippians 4:6-7, whether we feel like it or not. Jesus, when being tempted by Satan in the desert for 40 days, each time overcame Satan by not only quoting the word, but submitting to it. It had nothing to do with how He felt.
     When faced with the temptation to worry about something, we need to stop and tell ourselves, "God's word tells me not to be anxious about anything. It says instead I should pray and with thankfulness, present my requests to God. He has told me that when I do this, His peace, which surpasses all understanding, will guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus." And once we have told this to ourselves, we need to decide to believe it and submit to it. When anxious thoughts keep coming back in-- and I'm sure they will; Satan is persistent!-- we need to keep praying! We can't just say, "oh no! It didn't work!" and start to panic. Keep praying! Keep your eyes on Jesus! By submitting to God, we resist the devil, and he will flee! This is a promise of God's word!