ON GUARD

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7b NLT

Lifeguards are in place for good reason – to watch, protect and if necessary, rescue.

I’m a beach rat. Growing up, I could be found at any one of the Southern California beaches weekly, almost daily. At Newport Beach one late summer afternoon, I was body surfing, enjoying it to the utmost. Yes, it was windier than normal and there was a stronger current, but I was confident in my swimming abilities. One thing to note about Newport – there are rock jetties at regular intervals and the goal is to avoid them at all costs.

On my last run, as I was coming into the shore, I saw legs in front of me. And those legs were attached to a lifeguard. Yes, he was rescuing me. When I stood up, I was in calf-deep water with a very sheepish grin on my face. I had gotten dangerously close to the jetty. Praise God someone was watching out for me.

In our crazy, upside-down world, much talk and emphasis has been given to our mental health. And for good reason. With so much isolation, upheaval, pandemic, war and fall out from all this, many are struggling to rise above. The battle is real and our enemy will not back down without a serious fight.

In reading through Scripture this past week, God has shown me significant verses about our minds. More specifically what He does for our minds. As Paul points out in Philippians 4, God’s peace will guard our minds. But if you notice, we are told –

Don’t worry about anything, instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done. Verse 6

God is more concerned about our minds than we are and He knows that in order to have the peace He promises, we have to: 1). Not worry. 2). Pray. 3). Tell God our needs. 4). Thank Him for all He has done. Simple as that. And yet we complicate matters. We expect the peace but are not willing to lay our anxious hearts and minds at the Cross.

We want everything and are not willing to trust God with all. Yes, this is the truth. It’s about trust. About faith. About believing that God will do as He promised. It’s about trusting, committing, thanking, telling, believing, praying.

Then, His peace will come, it will guard, it will be the lifeguard of our hearts and minds. His peace will protect our vulnerable parts – the place where we feel and think. He commands us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:29-30). And He gives us the ability to do just that by His peace – which turns out to be Jesus. He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) and He is our Peace.

Father God, I thank You for all things. I am sorry for being remiss in not thanking You enough for all things. Yes, You know I have needs and I have brought them to You before. Right now I want to thank You for Your peace, being my Peace, for protecting my mind and heart so I can trust, love and abide in You more. Thank You for guarding my mind. Thank You for guarding my heart. AMEN